The EU is acting like an “absentee landlord” over Northern Ireland, says an ex-adviser to the government’s former Brexit department.
“If the UK fails to manage the relationship well, it may find it ends up with more conflicts with the EU than if it had spent more time thinking in advance about the issue,” warns Katy Hayward.
The professor of sociology at Queen’s University in Belfast also told The Guardian: “There has been this sense of an absentee landlord with all these rules coming into play and no one there to manage it.”
Her comments came after Attorney General Suella Braverman warned that Boris Johnson won’t be pushed around by the EU.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, she said: “We will do whatever it takes to ensure that we get a good settlement for Northern Ireland and a good settlement for the Union.
“I am really confident we are not going to let the EU push Northern Ireland around."
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- Joseph Gamp
ARRESTS CONTINUED…
Officers subsequently arrested two men in the Church Road area of Larne on suspicion of offences, including criminal damage and possessing of an article with intent to damage property.
They both remained in custody on Sunday evening.
Police are also investigating further reports of graffiti in the town on Point Street, Bank Road and Redlands Road.
Inspections at Belfast and Larne ports were suspended last Monday amid concerns over the safety of staff.
- Joseph Gamp
MEN ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF PAINTING IRISH SEA BORDER GRAFFITI IN LARNE
Two men have been arrested in Larne on suspicion of painting graffiti condemning Irish Sea border checks.
At around 9.40pm on Saturday, police received a report in relation to two males reportedly spray painting graffiti on property on Main Street in the port town.
Slogans were painted at various locations in the town on Saturday, one stating "Larne says no to Irish Sea Border".
Officers responded to the report and located two males in the area of Main Street.
Police searched a vehicle in the area and a number of items were seized and taken away for examination.
- Joseph Gamp
NEW TASKFORCE FORMED TO HELP SCOTTISH FISHING SECTOR'S BREXIT EXPORT 'ISSUES'
A new group set up by the UK Government in a bid to resolve the export "issues" Scotland's fishing and seafood sectors have faced in the wake of Brexit will meet for the first time this week.
Scotland Office minister David Duguid said the taskforce would aim to "work collaboratively across UK and Scottish governments".
It is due to meet fortnightly, with the first talks coming after industry leaders accused the UK Government of being "in denial" about the scale of the problem fishermen face exporting their catch to the European Union.
James Withers, chief executive at Scottish Food and Drink, told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee it had been a "dreadful first few weeks" due to problems with paperwork and IT systems crashing.
The introduction of new checks and paperwork since the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31 has caused disruption to exports of fresh fish and seafood to the EU.
- Joseph Gamp
BARCLAYS BOSS SAYS LONDON SHOULD 'COMPETE WITH NYC AND SINGAPORE'
Leaving the European Union is more of a positive for London than a negative, says Barclays boss Jes Staley.
But, reports The Times, the city should compete with New York and Singapore instead of Paris and Frankfurt.
And Boris Johnson’s bid to cut red tape, to turn London into a “Singapore-on-Thames” was not the path to follow, Staley added.
He told the BBC: “I think Brexit is more than likely on the positive side than on the negative side.
“Yes, there are some jobs that are going to Europe that otherwise would have been in the UK. Some amount of capital has moved, but London is still obviously the main centre for Barclays.”
- Joseph Gamp
NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL IS SLAMMED AS ‘DIVISIVE & UNFAIR’
The Northern Ireland protocol has been slammed as “divisive, disproportionate and unfair”.
Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said the UK Government needed to invoke Article 16 of the protocol to suspend its operation until issues causing disruption were addressed.
“Quite frankly, it’s bad law,” he told RTE.
- Joseph Gamp
SINN FEIN PRESIDENT: BREXITEERS MUST ACCEPT NEW TRADING BORDERS BETWEEN UK AND IRELAND
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said Brexiteers had to accept that new trading borders between Great Britain and the island of Ireland were a permanent consequence of the UK's exit from the EU.
Mrs McDonald said the focus now needed to be on resolving initial problems with new Irish Sea trading arrangements, not ditching the Northern Ireland Protocol that now governs the movement of goods.
"Brexit is for keeps, I mean this is a big game changer for all of us and it has to be managed in a way that is sensible, in a way that is fair," she told Sky News.
"None of us wanted trading barriers between our island and the island to Britain, or across the continent, but Brexit has happened and in some respects those that advocated it so strongly now need to very much accept the fact that these are the consequences of their decisions.
"For us on the island of Ireland, there is the immediate need to have the protocol work to protect Irish jobs and livelihoods, to secure the infrastructure of our peace process."
- Joseph Gamp
FREIGHT LEAVING UK FOR EU SLASHED BY 68 PERCENT – REPORTS
Brexit and coronavirus have slashed the volume of surface freight leaving Britain for the European Union by 68 percent from last January, according to figures published in The Observer on Sunday.
The stark drop in goods carried on ferries and through the Channel tunnel was registered by lobby group the Road Haulage Association (RHA) after a survey of its international members, said the weekly.
RHA chief executive Richard Burnett has sent a letter to minister Michael Gove warning that the new checks required since Britain fully left the EU's single market on January 1 were deterring exporters from shipping to the continent.
He said the government had only hired around 20 percent of the extra border staff needed to process the extra paperwork.
"Michael Gove is the master of extracting information from you and giving nothing back," Burnett told the newspaper.
- Joseph Gamp
NO RENEGOTIATION OF NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL TERMS, SAYS IRISH FOREIGN MINISTER
Simon Coveney has said the Irish Government is open to "modest extensions" of grace periods associated with the Northern Ireland Protocol.
However, Mr Coveney insisted there could be no renegotiation of the terms of the protocol, which governs trade between GB and NI post-Brexit.
"We need to try to find accommodation for each other here that can reduce tensions in Northern Ireland, can respond to legitimate concerns, regardless of who's raising them, so that we can show that the protocol can be flexible when needed," he told RTE Radio One.
"But at the same time that is not a renegotiation of the protocol, it's about using the protocol as it is now and flexibilities within it. And certainly I would be open to advocating for modest extensions of grace periods when appropriate to try to, first of all, reassure people that we're listening to them in Northern Ireland, because we are, and then, secondly, so that we can ensure that businesses can operate as best they can under the protocol.
"But that's not the same thing as scrapping the protocol and it's important to make a strong distinction between the two."
- Joseph Gamp
EXPORTS TO EU DOWN 68% SINCE BREXIT, SAY HAULIERS
A survey of international hauliers has found the volume of exports travelling from British ports to the EU fell 68% last month compared with the same period last year.
The research by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) prompted it to write to Cabinet minister Michael Gove to call for assistance, particularly with increasing the number of customs agents from 10,000 to 50,000 to help firms with extra post-Brexit paperwork.
Chief executive Richard Burnett told The Observer the RHA had also found 65%-75% of vehicles arriving from the EU were returning to the bloc empty due to a lack of goods, hold-ups in the UK and because British companies had halted exports to the Continent.
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said they "do not recognise the figure provided on exports".
"Thanks to the hard work of hauliers and traders to prepare for change, disruption at the border has so far been minimal and freight movements are now close to normal levels, despite the Covid-19 pandemic," she added.
- Joseph Gamp
NI COALITION COULD BE UNDER THREATBY UNIONISTS PUSHING FOR SCRAPPING IRISH SEA TRADING ARRANGEMENTS
Powersharing in Northern Ireland could be threatened if unionists continue to agitate for the "unrealistic" scrapping of new Irish Sea trading arrangements, the SDLP has warned.
Colum Eastwood's warning came as the Irish Government said it would be open to "modest extensions" of current grace periods that limit the bureaucracy associated with the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.
Mr Eastwood urged the DUP to end talk of political boycotts and dial down the rhetoric, and instead join with other Stormont parties to find workable solutions to issues linked to the new regulatory and customs processes on Irish Sea shipments.
Calls from the DUP and other unionist parties in the region to ditch or suspend the protocol have intensified in recent weeks amid evidence of some disruption to trade arriving in the region from Great Britain.
Unionists and loyalists believe Northern Ireland's position within the UK has been undermined by the protocol, which was incorporated into the Withdrawal Agreement to ensure a free-flowing Irish land border post-Brexit.
- Joseph Gamp
CADBURY WILL MOVE PRODUCTION BACK TO UK IN POST-BREXIT BOOST
Cadbury is moving almost all production of Dairy Milk bars BACK to the UK after a £15million investment in a huge boost to post-Brexit Britain.
It already makes 35,000 tons of the iconic chocolate at its famous Bournville plant, where it was first produced 115 years ago.
But the cash injection to improve the site will allow a further 12,000 tons — 125 million bars — currently made each year in Germany and other European plants to be produced in Birmingham from 2022.
The move by parent firm Mondelez International, which bought Cadbury for £11.5billion in 2010, will also secure 40 full-time, seasonal jobs.
The company, which also makes Oreo and Maynards Bassetts sweets, said £11million of the funding will go towards creating a new production “line of the future”.
- Debbie White
MORE TALKS OVER NORTHERN IRELAND
The UK Government and European Commission are due to hold further talks aimed at finding solutions for Northern Ireland this week.
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove has suggested extending a series of grace periods that are currently in operation that limit the level of red tape associated with the NI protocol.
The UK Government wants to extend these exemption periods, some of which are due to expire at the end of March, to January 2023, allowing time to find permanent solutions.
Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said he would be open to limited extensions – but he made clear there could be no renegotiation of the protocol's terms.
"Certainly I would be open to advocating for modest extensions of grace periods when appropriate to try to, first of all, reassure people that we're listening to them in Northern Ireland, because we are, and then, secondly, so that we can ensure that businesses can operate as best they can under the protocol," he told RTE.
- Debbie White
NI PROTOCOL 'DOESN'T RESPECT UK/EU LEGAL ORDER'
The Centre for Brexit Policy, a think tank backed by cross-party politicians and veterans of the national Brexit debate, has also hit out at the Northern Ireland protocol.
It said in a just-released report: "The Protocol does not respect either the UK or the EU’s legal order.
"For the UK it involves conceding large areas of sovereignty over – at least – Northern Ireland and in all likelihood over important aspects of the rest of the UK.
"The Protocol will not work and needs to be replaced by a new agreement between the UK and EU, governing the trading relationship in NI.
"That relationship needs to solve the original problem afresh – how to ensure no ‘hard border’ on the island of Ireland."
- Debbie White
NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL 'DIVISIVE & UNFAIR'
The Northern Ireland protocol has been slammed as "divisive, disproportionate and unfair".
Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said the UK Government needed to invoke Article 16 of the protocol to suspend its operation until issues causing disruption were addressed.
"Quite frankly, it's bad law," he told RTE.
- Debbie White
EU ACCUSED OF ACTING 'LIKE ABSENTEE LANDLORD'
The EU is acting like an “absentee landlord” over Northern Ireland, says a former adviser to the government’s former Brexit department.
“If the UK fails to manage the relationship well, it may find it ends up with more conflicts with the EU than if it had spent more time thinking in advance about the issue," warns Katy Hayward.
The professor of sociology at Queen’s University in Belfast also told The Guardian: "The protocol is not an easy thing to start up with a click of the fingers.
"But there has been this sense of an absentee landlord with all these rules coming into play and no one there to manage it."
Unfortunately, the European commission has been stuck on trying to "prove to other member states that the single market is being protected,” she adds.
- Debbie White
LONDON SHOULD 'COMPETE WITH NEW YORK & SINGAPORE'
Leaving the European Union is more of a positive for London than a negative, says Barclays boss Jes Staley.
But, reports The Times, the city should compete with New York and Singapore instead of Paris and Frankfurt.
And Boris Johnson's bid to cut red tape, to turn London into a "Singapore-on-Thames" was not the path to follow, Staley added.
He told the BBC: "I think Brexit is more than likely on the positive side than on the negative side.
"Yes, there are some jobs that are going to Europe that otherwise would have been in the UK. Some amount of capital has moved, but London is still obviously the main centre for Barclays."
- Debbie White
EU 'WON'T PUSH US AROUND' – AG
Boris Johnson is not going to let the European Union "push us around" warns Attorney General Suella Braverman.
She also told The Sunday Telegraph that the PM was right to threaten to override parts of the Brexit deal.
"The Prime Minister has made it really clear that we're going to do everything that we can, whether that's legislatively, or indeed if it comes to it, invoking Article 16… to ensure that there's no barrier in the Irish Sea", she added.
The Government's chief law officer said she was backing Mr Johnson's threat to rip up the bloc's rules.
PM Boris Johnson on his morning exercise routine in London last weekCredit: Evening Standard - Katie Davis
CADBURY TO MOVE PRODUCTION BACK TO UK
Cadbury is moving almost all production of Dairy Milk bars BACK to the UK after a £15million investment in a huge boost to post-Brexit Britain.
It already makes 35,000 tons of the iconic chocolate at its famous Bournville plant, where it was first produced 115 years ago.
But the cash injection to improve the site will allow a further 12,000 tons — 125 million bars — currently made each year in Germany and other European plants to be produced in Birmingham from 2022.
The move by parent firm Mondelez International, which bought Cadbury for £11.5billion in 2010, will also secure 40 full-time, seasonal jobs.
The company, which also makes Oreo and Maynards Bassetts sweets, said £11million of the funding will go towards creating a new production “line of the future”.
- Katie Davis
GERMAN MINISTER ANGRY MORE JABS WEREN'T ORDERED LAST YEAR
Olaf Scholz has said he was angry that more vaccines were not ordered last year, as EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen renewed her defence of the European Commission’s record on rolling them out.
EU countries have so far given first doses to just under 4 per cent of their populations, compared with 14 per cent for the United States and almost 17 per cent for Britain, according to Our World in Data.
Ms Scholz told BBC radio’s Today programme: “I’m angry about some of the decisions that were taken last year.
“I think there had been the opportunity to order more of the vaccines.”
- Katie Davis
BREXIT BRITAIN IS A NIMBLE 'SPEEDBOAT' WITH COVID JABS
Britain is a nimble speedboat racing ahead on vaccines compared to the cumbersome EU oil tanker, Brussels' boss has admitted.
Even chief eurocrat Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged how Brexit has helped the UK way outpace the rest of Europe with its jabs rollout.
In contrast she accepted the bloc has made big mistakes in its own shambolic scheme that would have held the UK back.
And she finally took personal responsibility for the blunder that saw Brussels almost trigger a vaccine border in Northern Ireland.
The Commission boss made the admission after being grilled on why Britain's jabs rollout has been so much more successful than the EU's.
- Debbie White
POST-BREXIT EXPORTS TO BITE MORE FROM JULY
Britain sent around £294billion of goods to the EU in 2019, accounting for around 43 per cent of its total exports, according to official figures.
But, the post-Brexit export situation threatens to get worse in July, when Britain implements its full range of physical border checks, warn hauliers.
Trade experts told The Observer on Sunday that the sharp 68 per cent fall in exports since January 2020 was the "coincidence of Brexit and the pandemic".
- Debbie White
GOVE ACCUSED OF 'GIVING NOTHING BACK' POST-BREXIT
Brexit and coronavirus have slashed the volume of surface freight leaving Britain for the EU by 68 per cent from last January, latest stats show.
The stark drop in goods carried on ferries and through the Channel tunnel was registered by lobby group the Road Haulage Association (RHA).
Its CEO, Richard Burnett, has sent a letter to minister Michael Gove warning that the new checks required since Britain fully left the bloc's single market on January 1 were deterring exporters from shipping to the continent.
"Michael Gove is the master of extracting information from you and giving nothing back.
"Pretty much every time we have written over the last six months he has not responded in writing," Burnett complained to The Observer on Sunday.
- Debbie White
'BREXIT IS FOR KEEPS'
Brexiteers must accept that new trading borders between Great Britain and the island of Ireland are a permanent consequence of the UK's exit from the EU, according to Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald.
The focus now needs to be on resolving problems with new Irish Sea trading arrangements – not ditching the Northern Ireland Protocol that now governs the movement of goods, she adds.
"Brexit is for keeps, I mean this is a big game changer for all of us and it has to be managed in a way that is sensible, in a way that is fair," she told Sky News.
- Debbie White
EU 'UNDERMINING REFERENDUM RESULT'
"Brussels is still intent on undermining the referendum result," says the Centre for Brexit Policy.
Its just-released report accuses the EU of "denying the UK the freedom that it demands, and continuing to keep the UK shackled to EU regulations so that we cannot become its competitor in world trade.
“A fundamental rethink is needed. What is desperately needed is an approach that enables Brexit to be delivered for the whole of the UK and at the same time addresses the EU concerns about the integrity of its single market.
“Given the problems being experienced and because we have already left the EU, it is essential that the arrangement be put in place quickly."
- Debbie White
BORDER 'USED AS TROJAN HORSE BY EU' – BREXIT REPORT
The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, "together with the abuse and misuse of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), has been used as a Trojan horse", writes the Centre for Brexit Policy.
The new report adds: "The European Union (EU) has sought to undermine the UK’s attempt to gain back sovereignty.
"The plan was cleverly crafted, insisting that talks on the future relationship could not commence until three issues were agreed: the UK’s contribution to the 'divorce bill', rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU, and – critically – the question of the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border."
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