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.

Britain to Process Illegal Immigrants in Rwanda

We have recently been presented with a plan to deal with the huge numbers of illegal immigrants coming over in small dinghies across the English Channel from France.  Boris Johnson has made the case and Priti Patel the Home Secretary has said they will be sent to a processing centre in Rwanda, East Africa. Apparently Priti Patel signed a memorandum with Rwanda last week and will pay the country £120 million.  In the meantime, the Royal Navy will be tasked with policing the English Channel, to apprehend the small boats.  

Naturally all the woke liberals are up in arms at the idea, including charities, human rights lawyers, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Labour MPs and of course peers in the House of Lords, who have been blocking the Nationalities and Borders Bill as it passes through the Upper Chamber.  This is due to be heard again on 26th April. Anyone who wants to see the nit-picking going on, can see it here.

https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/46226/documents/1740

Ideally, all illegal immigrants coming into Britain could be potentially deported on the grounds that they cannot produce their identity documents or passports, (which they have been advised to throw into the sea by people traffickers who they paid to help them across the Channel).

Imagine if a person arrived at a British airport, or any airport, without an identity document or passport?  What would happen?  They would not be allowed to enter the country.  So the same rule should apply and it would quickly solve the current problem.

Since at least the year 2000, Britain has been paying France to deal with this mass migration across the Channel into Britain but far from it ceasing, the numbers keep growing.  It may be that France is also tired of the huge numbers coming into its country and therefore turns a blind eye to those people moving on to England.

When the people of Britain voted in the 2016 Brexit Referendum, many voted to leave the European Union precisely because they felt immigration was becoming a major problem.  Now six years later, nothing has been done about it and it is actually getting worse.

America is having the same problem at its Mexican border and Texas Governor, Gregg Abbott was so fed up that he recently forwarded at least four busloads of illegal immigrants to the Capitol in DC.  Right now he is considering sending them off to Biden's home state of Delaware!

Of course we all care about genuine refugees, for example from Ukraine, but many of the illegal immigrants coming over are healthy young males with their cell phones and smart clothes, who have managed to find the thousands of pounds necessary to pay the traffickers to get them to Britain.  From the footage we see, they do not appear desperate or destitute.  Some have genuinely come from war torn countries but the majority are economic migrants looking for a better life that the UK's generous welfare benefit system will give them.

Of course the argument is that immigrants contribute to a country's wealth in many ways.  Although that is partly true, the fact is that huge numbers subsist on welfare benefits, draining a country's resources.

Meanwhile, there are millions of British families which are in urgent need right now and are turning to Food Banks.  Due to higher bills and food prices many more will become homeless. These people are not being given the help they require because the massive numbers coming in also need to be housed and fed and appear to be given priority.  

Britain is a very small country compared to others and we now have a serious shortage of housing due to this influx, which has been going on since at least 1997, when Tony Blair started opening the floodgates.  This has pushed up the price of property to an all time high and is totally out of the reach of our young people, many of whom are forced to live with their parents.

When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister during the 1980s, people forget she was elected due to her stance on curbing immigration.  She was so strict, that even if you were a British born wife but married a foreign born husband, he was not allowed to live in Britain!

On 24th April there will be the final runoff vote in the French Election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.  Le Pen has made it crystal clear that she believes the French people are tired of showing their hospitality to a never ending number of migrants in France.  

Many European countries feel they have done their bit and enough is enough!  It is incredibly expensive dealing with so many newcomers.  Hungary and Poland for example refuse to take in any at all.  European countries are fast losing their cultural identities, with so many nationalities entering their borders.  Recently there have been days of rioting in Sweden related to immigration.

We must hope the plan for Rwanda will work and discourage people from coming here via illegal routes such as in dinghies and in the back of lorries, but the flights to Rwanda will be expensive.  Perhaps processing people on a relatively uninhabited island nearer to Britain would have been an easier solution.

Brexit Fishing Wars with France

by Louise Mclean

On Thursday 6th May 2021 up to 100 French fishing vessels blocked the port of St. Helier in Jersey in protest against new rules.

Throughout the Brexit negotiations, which carried on for five years, the French were extremely angry about losing any rights to fishing in British waters, which they had been doing since we joined the European Union in 1972.

Things got extremely heated at the end of 2020, when talks between the EU and their British counterparts were putting the final touches to the Brexit deal.  The French government were making threats against Britain regarding the slightest reduction in the number of fish they could catch in our territory.

The terms of the final Brexit deal did in fact hardly reduce the number of fish European nations could take around the coast of Britain and only very slightly increased the number British fishermen could have.

Matters have again come to a head with French fishermen demanding the right to catch fish off the Jersey and Guernsey coastline of the Channel Islands. 

They were demonstrating against post Brexit rules, which state that from 1st May EU fishermen must submit evidence of their past fishing activities, in order to receive a licence to carry on fishing there. 

The reason for the new rules is the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with Britain which was passed by the European Union recently.

Early in the morning of Thursday 6th May 2021 a flotilla of up to 100 French vessels, mainly trawlers and dredgers, blocked the port of St. Helier in Jersey in protest. 

Some Frenchmen were even saying it was another Battle of Trafalgar and one knocked into a Jersey pleasure boat, damaging it. Jersey fishermen said it felt like an invasion.

In response, Britain sent two Royal Navy ships, HMS Severn and HMS Tamar, to break up the tense situation, when flares were set off by the French.  The French then sent two gun boats to face off the Royal Navy but they were not granted permission to enter UK waters. 

The Royal Navy will now remain in the Channel to monitor the situation.

Paris has threatened to cut off electricity to the island of Jersey in retaliation, which is delivered via underwater cable from France.

The Channel Islands are very near the French coast and have been fished by the French for 40 years, so they are up in arms about any changes.

One French fisherman said that they had been told that the Jersey decision is irreversible and that it will affect 250 fishing vessels and 2,000 onshore French jobs.

Apparently 41 licences have already been granted to vessels so far but additional conditions have been added, which are unacceptable to the French.  The French maritime minister accused the Channel islands of dragging its feet about issuing licences.

According to Jersey's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Ian Gorst, all that is necessary is for French fishermen to provide the evidence of the amount of fishing they have done in the past three years in order to receive a licence.  He said out of the 41 licences issued, only 17 provided this information.  This is apparently a condition of the new T&CA.

The French complain that London has imposed new zoning rules for where their fishermen can and cannot go, the number of days at sea, what machinery they can have, as well as insisting they carry data tracking gear.

The EU is saying Britain has broken the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement but currently Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not agree and has reiterated his unwavering support for Jersey.

Sir David Frost, chief UK negotiator with the EU, Mr. Ian Gorst of Jersey and the British Government are carrying on diplomatic talks with France and the EU Commission in order to resolve the situation.

Lord Frost said that the T&CA gives Jersey the right to regulate the fish in its waters.

The full dramatic story and pictures are here on the Daily Mail website.

Is the EU Pushing for a United Ireland?

by Louise Mclean

Currently the people of Northern Ireland are so incensed about the way they have been sold out to the EU by the British Government, that violent nightly riots have been going on all over Northern Ireland since 29th March.

Update May 2021:  Lawsuit - Defending the Union of the UK, Ending the Northern Ireland Protocol

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defending-the-union-of-the-uk/

Ever since Brexit finally happened at the very end of 2020, it has been a very hollow victory for its supporters, mainly because of the terms and conditions relating to Northern Ireland.  The Northern Ireland Protocol, which Unionist politicians believe should be scrapped immediately, has created a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, causing a number of serious problems.  

Here a former Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib, explains why the Northern Ireland Protocol should be dropped and says the border should have remained on the mainland, between the North and South of Ireland, as it has done for over 100 years. 

Firstly, Northern Ireland has effectively been kept under EU law and secondly it is still in the Single Market for goods, so trade between it and the rest of Britain has been seriously impacted. Trade has become too expensive and lined with red tape for British exporters to make it worth their while, meaning that many products are now missing from the shelves of the shops in Northern Ireland.

Problems surrounding trade mean products must comply with strict EU rules on for example, animal and plant health, and traders must complete a range of new processes  in order to ship from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.  Delays due to border checks cause disruption of supply chains of goods moving from the UK to Northern Ireland. Many British firms have decided the market is too small to continue supplying Northern Ireland and that the increased costs, as well as red tape, are simply not worth the bother.

However, the Northern Ireland Protocol is not yet fully operational, as there has been a grace period for certain certifications and declarations, which lapses in the months ahead. The grace period for checks on parcels and some supermarket goods ended on 31st March, revealing the problems.  Conservative minister Michael Gove has asked the European Commission to extend the grace period until January 2023 in order to find resolutions to these difficulties.

The UK Internal Market Bill would have safeguarded trade with Northern Ireland by scrapping parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol and this was favourably greeted by Democratic Unionist Party MPs.  Unfortunately the EU absolutely refused to allow the Conservative Government to push the Bill through Parliament unless those clauses were dropped, saying it was a breach of 'international law', when in fact it would have protected N.I. from many of the crippling restrictions it is now facing.

Currently the Republic of Ireland in the South of Ireland is under the EU empire and it seems as though by holding on to Northern Ireland, the plan all along was to keep them both under the EU stranglehold in the hope of a United Ireland, fully under its grip.

Why Boris Johnson and Conservative Ministers did not see this coming, is extraordinary, as it was plain to many people when the Northern Ireland Protocol was first drafted, this might be the likely outcome in the fullness of time. Few have mentioned this dangerous possibility, which would of course mean that the EU had in fact taken British land as a payment for Brexit.

However, a poll in February showed that nearly 60% of Northern Irish people would prefer to stay in the UK.

Currently the people of Northern Ireland are so incensed about the way they have been sold out to the EU by the British Government, that violent nightly riots have been going on all over Northern Ireland since 29th March. As many as 90 police officers have been injured and petrol bombs, masonry and missiles have been thrown, mainly by teenagers.  The violence is the worst seen in many years.

The EU and British Government say they are currently looking into solutions to the problems of trade between Britain and Northern Ireland but knowing the history of Brexit, this may just be weasel words.  It is far more likely that behind the scenes there is a genuine plan to unite the whole of Ireland under the EU flag and for some reason the British Government is not stopping this from becoming a reality.

Did Brexit Britain Bend the Knee to Brussels?

by Louise Mclean

Boris Johnson unveiled the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on 26th December 2020, which was signed on 30th December 2020, along with a new Bill called the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020, which was rushed through Parliament on that day and almost unanimously passed by 521 to 73 votes.

Finally, we then formally left the European Union on 31st December 2020 but quite honestly, it is a rather hollow victory, as although on the face of it we got back our sovereignty, we won little of what we voted for in 2016 and are still joined at the hip in many ways.

There a number of aspects of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (T&CA) which are unsatisfactory, such as fishing, Northern Ireland's status, the possible effect on trade deals with other countries, our services industry, taxation, funding the EU Defence Force, paying EU pensions until 2064, aspects of the European Arrest Warrant, the 19 new committees and four working groups, as well as still being part of the European Human Rights regime!

According to fishing experts, we have hardly regained any of our territorial waters or fish than we had previously. The deal on fishing will be phased in over five and a half years, with the EU fishermen allowed to continue fishing as before. During that time Britain will be allowed to catch twenty five per cent more fish. 

In 2026 the quotas and rights to fish of EU fishermen will be renegotiated on an annual basis. If Britain wants to drop this agreement on fisheries, the EU would be able to slap tariffs on our fish and seafood exports. The new deal means we are deprived of new fishing stocks even after 2026 because we have agreed these will be shared and quotas will need to be updated on a multiannual basis. This deal hardly gives us back control of our 200 miles of territorial waters but at least we have left the EU Common Fisheries Policy.

Northern Ireland remains in the EU Single Market and Customs Union and is still bound by European Court of Justice legislation, as the TC&A did nothing to change the Northern Ireland Protocol.  Instead of having a border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which would be logical, it is now between NI and Britain. Apparently since the beginning of January, there have already been many problems with trade from Britain to Northern Ireland, despite Michael Gove and Boris Johnson assuring us otherwise.  Unfortunately the clauses in the Internal Market Bill, which would have safeguarded Northern Ireland, were dropped at the insistence of Brussels.

Many UK firms exporting to Northern Ireland are experiencing difficulties due to excessive paperwork and some are deciding not to bother.  Products in lorries need customs declaration forms, some of which take 15-20 minutes to fill out, each different product needing a form.  At the moment it looks like UK firms are not keen to invest in Northern Ireland.  If reforms are not made, this and other complications, will have a crippling effect on businesses in NI. In this video, ex Brexit Party MEP Mr. Ben Habib, explains it well. 

We have yet to find out whether this new trade bill will affect the sixty plus trade deals signed across the world because there are EU 'level playing field' provisions tied into the deal and in some cases the EU refuses to recognise Britain's regulatory systems as 'equivalent'.  The EU may view our new trade deals with other countries as 'unfair competition' on their doorstep!

Britain's economy is predominantly (80%) a services economy.  Very little is mentioned in the trade deal regarding this, except that we must not give other countries superior advantages over those we give the EU. Financial services in particular could be hit. Read the latest here, as it does not look good.

In addition, we are restricted from setting our own taxation system, which may undercut the EU, and give us any unfair advantage.  

Deep in the new Agreement are plans for UK taxpayers to help fund the European Union's new EU Defence Force! Buried in the text of the Trade & Cooperation Agreement is a reference to Horizon Europe, with the cost to us over the next seven years as being 3.8 billion euros.

It has also been revealed that Theresa May agreed that Britain will be paying for EU pensions until 2064 to the tune of approximately10 billion euros, thanks to the fact that we are still bound by her Withdrawal Agreement signed in January 2020.

The EU/UK trade deal keeps us tied to many terms of the European Arrest Warrant, thereby subjugating us to the European Court of Justice in any dispute.

Another worrying aspect of the TC&A is there will be 19 new committees and four new working groups, where laws can be modified or adjusted and these could end up bringing us back into the EU by the back door, if not carefully monitored.

Also as we are still signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, it makes it difficult to stop illegal migrants from crossing the Channel in small dinghies and these people have been continuing to arrive since 1st January 2021. Britain has signed up to 'give effect to the rights and freedoms of the ECHR' and if we are seen to violate this, the whole trade deal could be terminated. No doubt human rights lawyers will still be very busy!

However, at least there is one clause in the T&CA which says we can terminate it on 12 months' notice!

Below is a summary of the 'Star Chamber' of the European Research Group (ERG) of Parliament, written by their top lawyer MPs and Martin Howe QC.  They conclude that we have in fact regained our sovereignty, however it will take many years to unpick all the EU law transposed into UK law, which still remains on the statute books.

https://lawyersforbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ERG-Legal-Advisory-Committee-Opinion-on-EU-UK-Trade-and-Cooperation-Agreement.pdf

It seems the EU is fairly happy with the EU/UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement and it has until its March plenary session to ratify it, yet our Parliament had only one day to debate and vote for the corresponding European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020!  The fact that Brussels is pleased with this new trade deal, tells you why it is rather a rotten deal for Britain!

The Brexit Pantomime!

by Louise Mclean

From 1st January to 31st December we have been going through a transition phase of leaving the European Union, continuing to abide by all their rules and regulations until that final date, when we are supposed to have agreed a trade deal. Since at least March 2020, the UK Brexit negotiators have been talking to the EU, looking for an agreement.  Here we are, nine months' later and that trade deal has not yet been signed.

For the last few months and at least since the end of June 2020, when the deal was supposed to be agreed, four main sticking points have remained.  These are the 'level playing field' (to continue being bound by EU law), sharing our fishing waters with other European countries, disputes being adjudicated by the European Court of Justice and the issue of State Aid, which may give our country the competitive edge over European states.

Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator, has been over to London numerous times and probably thousands of hours of discussions have taken place.  Lord David Frost, Britain's Brexit negotiator has been over to Brussels and now Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister seems to have taken over.

'Oh no you won't!'  'Oh yes we will!'  On and on it goes.  The British Press has been telling us repeatedly for at least two months that the outcome will be a No Deal Brexit.  Then we hear Boris is absolutely dead set on having a deal.  After that we are told that Boris will cave in to the EU's demands and we will have Brexit in Name Only (BRINO).  Then again we hear that Boris will leave with no deal.  

Recently we read that there may even be an extension past 31st December for the transition period. Every day there is chopping and changing and it is enough to drive the public mad with frustration.  After all, we have been waiting for four and a half years already!

Boris Johnson was elected on 12th December 2019 with his promise to 'Get Brexit Done'.  Here we are over a year later, and there is no sign whatsoever that this has been finalised.  Brexiteers are urging Boris to walk away with No Deal.  If he did this, the EU would come running and everything could be sorted out afterwards.  

The sheer number of deadlines that Boris Johnson proclaimed, which have come and gone, is truly astonishing!  The 30th June was the first important one, Then came 31st July, 15th September, 15th October, 15th November and 30th November!  Now we hear that a deal will be secured in 10 days and Parliament may have to sit on Christmas Eve!  

If we had a decisive leader like Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, we would have been out a long time ago.

Unfortunately by constantly changing his mind and by running over to Brussels recently just when he was looking strong, Boris makes it patently clear that he wants a deal, which then makes it easier for the EU to eventually make him back down on his 'red lines', which are the above four areas of contention.

Today Monsieur Barnier has said there are now only two main issues to be agreed and that is sharing our territorial fishing waters and basically stopping us becoming more competitive than EU markets. Does that mean the other two areas have already been agreed?  We do not know.

Recently member states have started to intervene in the negotiations making their own demands and the situation seems extremely difficult, if not impossible.  The fact is that the issue at stake is that Britain is supposed to become a sovereign country making her own laws, which is what we voted for on 23rd June 2016, so the whole thing has become absurd, in that it doesn't matter what EU states want, when we are trying to break free of their control.

We were told repeatedly in the past that our two hundred mile fishing waters were not important and yet right now this has become one of the main sticking points, as countries such as France and Holland take our fish on a regular basis. Today we learn that Monsieur Barnier has threatened us with economic trade sanctions if we lock out European fishermen from our waters!  Only yesterday we were reading that Boris Johnson planned to bring in the Royal Navy to stop foreign fishermen!

It does not seem possible that a trade deal will be agreed in seventeen days by 31st December, since our Parliament must approve it, the EU 27 member states must also rubber stamp it and it must be debated in the European Parliament.  A further extension is therefore likely, something that will infuriate all Brexiteers, as there has been plenty of time this year to come to an agreement.

The whole thing is becoming ridiculous.  The EU is waiting for us to back down and we are waiting for them to do likewise.  Boris Johnson does not seem to realise that the EU is intransigent and will never back down, unless......we left with No Deal.  Only then would they perhaps compromise.  In the meantime, Brexiteers are getting thoroughly fed up with this never ending pantomime!