Sir Keir Starmer's Britain

The Labour government was voted into power at the General Election held on 4th July 2024 and has over 400 MPs in Parliament.  Sir Keir Starmer is now the Prime Minister and has currently been in power just over 2 months.  

In that time he has brought in a series of new measures that are proving to be highly unpopular, not only with the general public but also with Labour voters as well.

At the end of July there was a very nasty incident in Southport where children were stabbed and the local community were outraged, thinking it was caused by an illegal migrant. This was later announced to not be the case but resulted in major riots in Britain.  Starmer's response was to arrest and jail people found to have taken part in the riots and in addition to crack down hard on any social media posts on the subject.  People who just happened to be in the street witnessing the riots, were also caught up in this and questioned by the police.

The next thing he did was to announce he was removing the Winter Fuel Allowance from 10 million old age pensioners, despite the majority being very hard up and terrified as to how they will be able to afford to heat their homes during the coming winter.  On Tuesday 10th September there was a vote in Parliament about scrapping this benefit and Labour, being in the majority, won the vote, despite widespread outcry at the unfairness.

There is talk too of removing old people's free bus passes, which they have been entitled to for many years. Also to take away the reduction in Council Tax for old people living alone, which we all pay to local councils.. Most old age pensioners live on a paltry £11,500 a year, which is their State Pension.

While removing pensioners' fuel allowance, Labour MPs still get their own heating costs paid on their second homes, as well as many other expenses.  The total bill for the winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners is about £1.3 billion.

Yet this government seems to have enough money to send more than £10 billion in foreign aid, as well as £3 billion a year to Ukraine ('for as long as it takes'). Our Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently met his US counterpart Anthony Blinken and they flew to Ukraine to meet Zelensky. Now Sir Keir Starmer has flown to the US to meet Joe Biden to discuss sending long range missiles to attack Russian cities.  Starting WWIII does not seem to be a very wise move.

Labour has long had links with the Trade Unions, who are their biggest donors.  Therefore as soon as he assumed office, Starmer was quite happy to please them by giving favoured sectors inflation busting pay rises, such as to train drivers and others. Doctors were given a 22% pay rise over 3 years.

Another of Starmer's policies is that he wants to prevent evictions of tenants in rented properties.  This of course puts off landlords renting their property and will make them want to sell it instead, thereby reducing the rented accommodation available, at a time when it is already in great shortage.  It is said that this policy will increase rentals by 10%, when it is already very expensive and unaffordable for many.

There is already a massive shortage of rental accommodation in Britain.  Millions of Britons are on waiting lists for social housing, yet newly arriving migrants have been jumping the queue for these cheaper homes ahead of the indigenous population.

We have a population explosion in Britain with estimates of 10 million people arriving here in the past 20 years.  Sir Keir Starmer's answer to this is to 'smash the people smuggling gangs' bringing in illegal migrants in small boats across the Channel from France. So far he has done nothing whatsoever to stem the tide of between 350-1000 people a day coming into Britain illegally.  He got rid of the Rwanda plan outlined in a previous article, immediately on taking office, which was meant to be a deterrent by sending people there if they arrived illegally. 

The next extremely worrying announcement is that Keir Starmer is releasing up to 5,000 prisoners, as he says the prisons are currently full. 2,000 were released on 11th September with gang members greeting them outside the prisons with bottles of champagne and cannabis joints (all filmed by mainstream media!)

There are apparently 10,000 foreign born nationals currently in our prisons and there have been calls to make room by deporting them back so their own countries can deal with them.  Of course this won't happen because judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have previously prevented very dangerous criminals being deported, even when they were on a plane about to take off on the runway! 

The latest is that newly elected Reform party leader MP Nigel Farage, who has a one hour show three times a week on GB News channel, might be forced to relinquish his job because a new 'Modernisation' parliamentary committee has decided that MPs should not have two jobs.  Lots of MPs have had two or more jobs for years.  Perhaps it is only because Nigel is so good at getting the truth out on his evening programme and is so very popular with the public that he is being targeted.

It seems this new Labour Government is very keen to clamp down on free speech and it may only get worse before it gets better.  Thousands if not millions of people are waking up to this and the injustice of all of the above policies.  

We are getting unpopular policy announcements nearly every day from this new Labour government and quite frankly don't know what to expect next!

The Rise and Rise of the Reform UK Party

by Louise Mclean

When Rishi Sunak announced on 22nd May 2024 that there would be a General Election being held on 4th July 2024, it came as a surprise to everybody! No one was prepared, least of all the main political parties, except perhaps the Labour Party, who were taking their orders from the World Economic Forum, knew they were on course to win it. 

Reform UK had been steadily building and creating a solid political party since it was first registered in November 2018 by the party leader of the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage, which it replaced, taking the logo and turquoise blue colour of that party with it. 

Everyone had thought that a general election would be likely to be held in the autumn, giving the smaller parties time to get themselves ready. For Reform UK, it meant a mad dash to get everything into place. They had already chosen nearly all the 650 candidates for all UK constituencies but nevertheless there remained a great deal to be done. At the time Richard Tice was party leader. 

On 3rd June 2024, Nigel Farage suddenly decided that he would stand to win a seat in the election in the Essex seaside constituency of Clacton. He also took over the party leadership from Tice. He held quite a few rallies in Clacton which were very popular. People were thrilled when they heard he was going to stand as an MP. 

Richard Tice stood for Boston and Skegness and Ben Habib for Wellingborough and Rushden. Ben had fought to stop Northern Ireland staying in the European Union and unfortunately did not win the seat, which was a great pity as he is a very decent person. Many of these people had previously been Brexit Party MEPs in May 2019 when nearly 30 of them were elected to go into the European Parliament because we hadn't yet left the EU. 

Reform held a huge rally of 5,000 people at the NEC in Birmingham, which was a huge success. The whole campaign took off like a rocket! The Establishment were dismayed as they did not like any challenges to their Uniparty of Conservatives and Labour. 

Reform decided not to have a Manifesto, like other political parties but instead a 'Contract with the People' which listed a huge number of extremely popular policies, which can be found on their website, the No.1 being to stop uncontrolled immigration.  

It was testimony to how fed up the British people were with the millions coming in to Britain that Reform UK came second in 98 constituencies in the country! Though only 5 people were elected as MPs: Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe, Lee Anderson and James McMurdock. 

Lee Anderson had previously been elected a Conservative MP for Ashfield in the 2019 General Election when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister. In March 2024 he was kicked out, when he was Deputy Chairman of the party, for making a comment about Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, saying Islamists had got control of Khan and got control of London. He refused to apologise. After that within weeks he joined Reform UK as he found their goals and values to be similar to his own. 

Lee was hugely popular with the country, as he is a man of integrity and as far as I can see, so are all five of the Reform MPs. Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth is already donating all of his MP salary to charities and good causes in his constituency! This is what we want for Britain. Sensible policies and MPs who cannot be bought, blackmailed or bribed. 

In the end of course Labour did win the election by a huge majority, though its popularity is dropping fast after only just over 5 weeks of its 5 year term! As at yesterday's date Labour was on 33%, Reform UK on 21%, Conservatives on 20%, so Reform has already surpassed the Conservatives. 

The reason the Conservatives did so badly in the general election is that they had been in power for 14 years since 2010, had 5 different Prime Ministers (David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss briefly and Rishi Sunak) and far from reducing immigration as promised in 4 manifestos, they had massively increased it! 

In the 2024 general election, Labour added 211 seats for a total of 412 MPs, the Conservatives lost 121 seats and now have a total of 251 MPs. The unfair system of 'first past the post voting' meant that the Liberal Democrats got 76 seats with about the same number of votes as Reform who only got 5 seats!

 

Currently, party leader Nigel Farage wants to create a nationwide party infrastructure and get lots of Reform candidates on the Councils in 2025. His aim is for Reform to win the next General Election in 2029! 

Incidentally, as this is a Brexit blog, I should add that Sir Kier Starmer, our new Prime Minister, head of the Labour Party, is very much a Remainer, i.e. he would like Britain to be back in the European Union. Unfortunately as I wrote about last year, virtually all the EU legislation in the UK Parliament has not been repealed, so it would be fairly easy to slot us back in again. Hopefully this will not happen but nevertheless all the benefits and opportunities of Brexit Britain have not been utilised and so far we have had BRINO (Brexit in name only!)

Retained EU Laws and Latest Migration Figures

by Louise Mclean

Retained EU Laws

It has recently been revealed that despite a Bill to remove unnecessary EU Laws from the British Parliament's statute books, this has not happened.  I tend to believe that the reason, unknown to the general public, is that there is a plan to bring us back into the European Union and especially if the Labour Party gets back into power at the next general election. Certainly the likes of Tony Blair and other Arch-Remainers would want this.

Prime Minister Theresa May embedded Retained EU Law in the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018 'to ensure legal certainty and continuity' immediately after Brexit, by preserving all EU and EU-derived law as it stood immediately before the UK's departure.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022 was introduced by Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg last year. According to this https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-retained-eu-law-revocation-and-reform-bill-2022

laws that are no longer needed will be removed by the end of December 2023.  This government article talks of bringing forward the 'opportunities of Brexit', although few of these have been realised, due to Britain having globalist leaders and entrenched anti-Brexit civil servants.  

It says the Bill will let parliament update our legislation through 'substance and status reviews' and mentions '2,400 pieces of retained EU law across 300 unique policy areas and 21 sectors of the economy'.  The reality is there are approximately 57,000 EU laws on our statute books! Watch Patriotic Lawyer Exposes Truth about EU Laws in Britain. 

This month it has been revealed that our PM Rishi Sunak has said that only about 600 laws will now be revoked instead of at least 4,000, after he had promised to shred them in his leadership campaign last summer.

Latest Immigration Figures

When there was a national referendum on leaving the European Union in 2016, millions of people voted to leave because they wanted to control Britain's borders and massively reduce the numbers coming to live here. Apparently this fell on deaf ears to the Conservative Party who have been in power since 2010 because immigration has been steadily rising to an untenable number.  

The latest figures that came out on 25th May 2023 show that a total of 1.2 million people came to live in the UK during 2022!  The net migration figure is 606,000, meaning 600,000 people left the UK.  This net figure is always put out to make the total arriving here look less.

These figures show only Legal Immigration and do not reflect the number of illegal immigrants who crossed the channel in dinghies over the past year.  These are estimated to be around 45,000 people, though probably far higher and of course the figures do not include stowaways in lorries and others that creep in around our long coastline!

According to this site, the Home Office granted 3 million visas between March 2022 and March 2023, which is a 90% increase from the year before! The categories break down like this:-

Visit Visas - 51%

Study Visas - 21% (including dependants)

Work Visas - 16% (including dependants)

Family Visas - 3%

Other reasons - 9% (including Ukraine Schemes and BN(O) route)

The Home Office has 62,292 organisations on its register who sponsor work. These are British companies that encourage immigration but there is strong criticism that they should be training British workers instead of importing cheap labour.

It's clear that a small island like Britain cannot continue to take in over a million new people every year. Apparently a new home would need to be built every 2 minutes to house them all. Right now there is a great shortage of housing for our own people and of course that means rental prices have soared and you won't get a decent 2 bedroom flat for less than £2,300 a month in outer London.

Not just housing but all public services are under strain right now and the traffic is very congested on the roads, as our roads were never designed for so many people.  It has been said that Britain is now the most highly populated country in Europe.  Apparently the whole world wants to come here and the reasons are many. Generous welfare benefits, free medical service, free schooling, £ sterling converts so highly into other worldwide currencies to send home.

But for the British people who have lived here for generations, they are dismayed at the massive influx, which is now clearly impacting on their culture, their language and their way of life.

Currently the Illegal Migration Bill is going through Parliament and being carefully checked by the House of Lords right now.  Nevertheless no one really believes that with the current extremely lax system, which seems to allow almost anyone from around the world to come here, that anything will really change. If you don't believe how lax the system is, just look at the Government's own website. https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration

Read more at Migration Watch UK and sign their Petition: 

And Nigel Farage tells it like it is!

Northern Ireland and the Windsor Framework Sellout

 

by Louise Mclean

This is not a post that I particularly wanted to write because we are as far from achieving Brexit as ever and if anything, things have been getting worse.

On 27th February 2023, with much fanfare, Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented the Windsor Framework at Windsor Castle. This was with the blessing of King Charles, effectively using the Royal Prerogative, which avoided a vote in Parliament. 

The fact that the King endorsed the Windsor Framework, without a formal vote in Parliament and which subjugates Parliament to EU law, calls into question the delicate constitutional balance between the monarchy, Parliament and the People.  It compromises King Charles's position as head of state before he has even attended his formal coronation.

The Windsor Framework was their answer to dealing with the problems of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was agreed in 2019 as part of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, with the aim of preventing a hard border between the North and South of Ireland.

As we know, although the United Kingdom had left the European Union on 31st January 2020, Northern Ireland had been left behind and was still subject to the decisions of the European Court of Justice.

The Windsor Framework was supposed to address the problem of trade but many Conservative MPs and especially the DUP Northern Irish MPs are unhappy and say that it does not solve it.

It is so complex by design, that practically no one except those who drafted it can understand it.

Our government has now agreed to implement a whole range of checks and controls for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which had not been enforced yet, due to the current grace period.

On 22 March 2023, Parliament then voted for something called the Stormont Brake by 515 votes in favour and 29 against.  The Stormont Brake was implemented by Statutory Instrument to amend the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It is basically inserting Theresa May's  Back Stop, which was voted down three times by Parliament. 

Altogether 70 conservative MPs either voted against the Stormont Brake or abstained, which was an uncomfortable rebellion for Prime Minister Sunak, and all of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) voted against. The Labour Party voted it in, despite the fact there was barely time to read it beforehand! It is a critical part of the Windsor Framework, which in fact gives the EU a direct return to regulation of the entire UK from Brussels.

The whole thing is so complicated and devious in its creation, that I am at a loss to explain it fully!  All I can do is point to these three excellent articles by Caroline Bell, who sets everything out as clearly as possible.

https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-windsor-framework-getting-brexit-undone/

https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-windsor-framework-a-legal-and-democratic-sting/

https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-stormont-brake-con-is-critical-for-the-imposition-of-direct-eu-rule-on-the-uk/

What it does seem to be is an affront to the people of Great Britain and a backdoor pathway to letting the EU regulate all of our trade and not just that of Northern Ireland. Perhaps this is being used as a way to get the UK back into the European Union and push the North and South of Ireland into a United Ireland.

Certainly Theresa May made sure by passing the EU Retained Law Bill, that despite Brexit, all EU law in Britain would be retained and very little of the thousands of regulations, if any, have been repealed since we officially left the EU in January 2020.

 

The extent of the legal shenanigans of the Rushi Sunak government and the EU, leave my head spinning!  It is all clearly designed to dupe MPs and the public into thinking a good solution has been found for Northern Ireland!  Rishi, as we know, is one of the young globalist leaders of the World Economic Forum and is no doubt following their instructions!

Another good article is here: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-windsor-agreement-deserves-to-be-exiled/

CPAC - Farage, Orban, Trump and More

by Louise Mclean

The Conservative Political Action Conference was held this summer from 4th to 7th August in Dallas, Texas, with a big line up of speakers.  

There was a great deal of excitement at the conference because Donald Trump's 43 candidate endorsements had nearly all won their primaries and the majority of people in the audience were MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters!

On Thursday 4th August, Viktor Orban took to the stage to often rapturous applause, especially when he attacked the Woke agenda by saying: 'A man is a father, a woman is a mother and stay away from our children!'  He also talked about how Hungary had refused to take in any illegal migrants and how they had built a wall which had successfully kept them out. 

Orban is no fan of the globalists and their agenda.  He mentioned how Hungary was a Christian country which believes in the family. They have given tax breaks to married people, which has resulted in a doubling of marriages in the past 10 years and a halving of abortions.

Also attending was Nigel Farage who spoke on Saturday 6th August. He has attended before and he is due to attend CPAC in Sydney.  His speech was not as long as Orban's but he made it clear that the biggest threat we face is the 5th column inside our countries attempting to destroy the family unit, our Judeo Christian culture, our constitution and our history, through a Marxist education system infiltrating our schools, colleges and universities. 

Nigel also attacked the Fake News and how he was sick of hearing the accusation of white privilege in the English speaking countries. 

Farage said our conservative parties and elected representatives were not actually conservatives. The Americans have their RINOS (Republicans in Name Only) and he thinks the UK has the same, as Boris Johnson was elected as a Conservative Prime Minister but chose to govern as a liberal. 

Nigel said if America falls, we all fall and he urged the people there to fight back against all this and pointed out that the silent majority of the public are on our side. 

Nigel went on to praise Trump and pointed out how in 2018 Trump had warned the Germans not to be dependent on Russian energy and they had laughed at him but 'they are not laughing now'.

The highly anticipated big speech of the weekend came from Donald Trump on Saturday night.  He spoke of how the US is a nation in decline, how energy prices are sky high, when under his administration America had been energy independent. Now President Biden has been begging Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for oil, having closed down oil production in America. He said the US now has the highest inflation in over 40 years and that the Stock Market is at its lowest for five decades.  

Trump pointed out how the US had surrendered in Afghanistan and left behind $85 billion worth of the finest military hardware in the world.  He said the nation no longer had a free or fair press and free speech was no longer allowed.  The education system was failing badly, crime in Democrat-run cities was rampant and the economy was collapsing. Trump felt America was no longer respected or listened to. 

He also talked about the political persecution he has had to endure since 2016.  How he was accused of working with Russia, which was proven to be a hoax and was nearly impeached twice for committing no crime.

However he believed that soon the US would have its greatness again and the hard working patriots who built the country would save the country.  With all of Trump's candidates winning in the primaries recently, it certainly looks like the Republican Party will win the November midterms and make a highly successful comeback!

Two of the biggest stars at the conference were Republicans Kari Lake of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Kari Lake had just won her primary for governor of Arizona.  Kari is a hugely popular ex journalist and does not hold back when speaking. Marjorie is also a very popular, straight talking woman, who has been continually attacked by the press. She actually went to visit the January 6th prisoners and reported to the world on the terrible conditions they are living in. Altogether there were nearly 40 speakers.

It does seem a bit of a coincidence that Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI on Monday 8th August, the day after this important conference ended, ostensibly to find classified documents that Trump was purportedly holding.  The world is shocked that this could happen to a President of the United States but Americans are hoping that the candidates he has endorsed to stand in the midterms will be unstoppable!

Who Will Fix the Northern Ireland Problem?

 

by Louise Mclean

For the past couple of years, Northern Ireland has been in limbo, due to the very restrictive rules of the Northern Ireland Protocol signed by Boris Johnson as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement legislation.  Currently the rules which affect trade with mainland Britain are still going through a 'grace period' due to end shortly. 

Over the past few months the Assembly in Stormont has been shut down by the Democratic Ulster Party, who refuse to allow it to operate until this has been sorted out. It has been effectively without an executive since February 2022.

The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was introduced on 13 June 2022 and has just gone through Parliament.  It would alter the wording and override parts of the Protocol affecting trade and it has yet to make its difficult passage through the pro-EU House of Lords.  It will not radically change the problems that need solving.

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Secretary, said that the Bill was designed to make the free flow of goods as easy between Northern Ireland and Britain, 'as from Great Yarmouth to Carlisle'.  Right now the problems are so bad, that many companies on mainland Britain are simply no longer sending their goods there, due to massive EU bureaucracy and paperwork.

Yesterday Lord David Trimble died. He had served as the First Minister of Northern Ireland and helped draft the Belfast Agreement (or Good Friday Agreement) in 1998, for which he received the Nobel Prize.  

Former Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib has been involved in a lawsuit to overturn the Northern Ireland Protocol which he and Lord Trimble, who was a co-litigant, felt was a breach of the Belfast Agreement.  He says that there should have been cross community consent for the Protocol but this was in fact recently removed from the Northern Ireland Act 1998!  

They felt that the best possible solution was to have the NI Protocol completely nullified because it breaches the Belfast Agreement.  

Top politicians have all praised Lord Trimble and sent their condolences but many such as Tony Blair, being Europhiles, are not concerned that Northern Ireland remains under the power of the European Union, while the Protocol is in force.

In fact Nancy Pelosi came over recently to warn that there would be no trade deal with the USA if the Northern Ireland Protocol was changed in any way.  She does seem to rather exceed her role as Speaker of the US House of Representatives!

With Britain currently choosing its next Prime Minister, it is generally felt that top candidate, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, would be best placed to deal with the Northern Ireland problem because she brought forward the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. 

Unfortunately, she still believes it is possible to negotiate the Protocol wording with the European Union, who have proven to be totally intransigent in past negotiations. 

Northern Ireland has been a part of the United Kingdom since 1801. Without fixing the problems with trade as soon as possible, Northern Ireland is effectively still operating inside the European Union's Single Market.  While the rest of Britain left the European Union in January 2020 with the Brexit legislation, Northern Ireland was left behind and remains still firmly inside the EU!  

Will Parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol be Scrapped?

by Louise Mclean

Northern Ireland Parliament

In 2019 Boris Johnson accepted the Northern Ireland Protocol as being part of the Brexit legislation, eventually signing it into effect in January 2020.  While the rest of Britain left the EU, the Protocol meant Northern Ireland was left behind in the Single Market and under European Union law.  Here Lord David Frost explains the full history of the Protocol.

https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-northern-ireland-protocol-how-we-got-here-and-what-should-happen-now/

In order to avoid a hard border between the North and South of Ireland, a customs border had to be created in the Irish Sea between Britain.  This has been totally unacceptable to the majority of people in NI, making goods coming from Britain too expensive to be exported, with many UK companies ceasing to export altogether.

So since Britain left in January 2020 the people of Northern Ireland have been effectively trapped in the European Union's Single Market.

As mentioned in a previous post, there seems to be a genuine push to create a United Ireland of the North and South, all of which will be in the European Union, with the South - Republic of Ireland being already in it.

This goes against the 1800 Act of the Union, which was the legal basis for incorporating Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom. There has been other legislation since then and more especially the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 (under Tony Blair's Government), which gives the people of NI a final say as to its future, in a referendum.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/belfast-accord-fundamentally-alters-nature-of-north-s-place-in-the-union-1.150356

The above link explains the legislation and how it changed in 1973, (just after Britain joined the European Union), making the people of Northern Ireland sovereign and entitled to a vote if they want to break away from Britain, which would happen if the whole of Ireland were united. This may have laid the foundation for a United Ireland under the European Union.

The recent election which was held in Northern Ireland was won for the first time by the Republican Sinn Fein party, making it the largest party in the Stormont Assembly. Sinn Fein originated in the South of Ireland and historically fought for a united Ireland.

Therefore the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which was previously the leading party, now takes on the role of Deputy First Minister.  The two parties did not work well together in the past and Sinn Fein are very pro the European Union.

Sinn Fein have already announced that they do not want to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol and are talking of giving the Northern Irish people a referendum for a United Ireland within the next five years.

Polls in Northern Ireland show that overall the people do not want to leave the United Kingdom, mainly for economic reasons.

However, since last week's election, the DUP, which advocates Northern Ireland remaining in Britain, is refusing to nominate ministers to form a new Executive until the problems with the Protocol are sorted out.  Under rules of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Fein cannot appoint their First Minister, without a DUP Deputy Minister and the DUP are refusing to cooperate until their demands for changes to the NI Protocol have been addressed.

Despite a recent debate in the UK Parliament to scrap the NI Protocol, the UK Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, said it would be better to negotiate with the European Union, which is a pointless exercise, when you look back at past endless negotiations that went nowhere!

The EU has indicated that it is not prepared to make any changes to Brexit legislation, which has already been signed into law and is unwilling to remove clauses relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Today Liz Truss, the British Foreign Secretary, has spoken to European Union leaders and given them an ultimatum after rejecting their recent proposals and the UK Attorney General has received legal advice that it could scrap aspects of the Protocol if it was causing social unrest.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61417798

Ms. Truss says there has been an impasse in power sharing between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein since the election, which cannot be improved without changes to the NI Protocol.  She says: 'Prices have risen, trade is being badly disrupted, and the people of Northern Ireland are subject to different laws and taxes to those over the Irish Sea (in mainland Britain), which has left them without an Executive and poses a threat to peace and stability'.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/10/liz-truss-stands-firm-eu-threatens-trade-war/

Britain may need to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allows for either party to suspend parts of it, if it is causing serious problems, such as 'diversion of trade' and 'societal difficulties', which would be legal justifications.

The EU is not happy about this and is making lots of threats, including cancelling the Brexit Trade deal, legal action, dispute procedures or tariffs.  

This is an ongoing situation and we will have to see if Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have the courage to take action.