Irish cream and the Windsor Framework
I always thought it was no consolation at all to be told no matter how bad things are; there is always someone worse off. But apparently the Democratic Unionist Party take some kind of solace from thinking that the Republic of Ireland may be worse off than them.
This is about the only thing in the new agreement on the Windsor Framework that I can see that might placate the unionists. The UK has introduced import controls on EU food and agricultural products and that means Irish exports to the UK get more expensive and difficult.
Which makes the hoops that Northern Irish business has to get through look a bit easier in comparison. As for the rest it is soft soap and warm words; NI is safe in the UK, it will get to look at new legislation, we care, we really do. Now run along and serve under a Nationalist First Minister.
If anything real had changed Brussels and Dublin and Sinn Fein would have said something and their silence speaks volumes.
Increasingly it looks like the Conservative and Unionist party has once again shafted the unionists. After 100 years or more of this backstabbing you might think even the Ulster Unionists might have spotted a trend, but apparently not.
As Samuel Beckett apparently said of the protestant grammar school boys he once taught “The are like Irish cream, rich but thick”.
And these days, in comparison with Ireland, they are just thick.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
I'm sorry Jonty, but I think you are just wrong on this. For one thing, the grammar school boy behind Donaldson is Peter Robinson, but he's (or was) neither as rich nor as thick as those old Portora Royal hooligans Beckett was referring to.
For another, when SF are silent, they do it precisely so that people can read into it whatever it is they want. In this case, they know the DUP has wiped HMG's eye and slipped everything back to the backstop arrangements that TM tried to get through.
My mate Paddy Belton lays out my logic here and a few other things besides: https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/02/northern-ireland-to-get-a-government-as-eu-food-and-goods-rules-tip-balance/