Stormont.

Its not just DUP who object to the sea border.
There should be an EU checkpoint between the UK and any EU country. That wouldnt be a N/S border. And perhaps goods for the Republic could go straight to Dublin port.
Incidentally my son visited from England recently and found many things here in NI more expensive than in the rest of the UK because of the present system of checks, and there are things no longer available here.. That shouldn't be. We're part of the UK.
The GFA was far from perfect. Should not have been agreed to.

Grantanow

What I find bizarre about NI is that the DUP were fanatical Brexiteers and have significant political leverage whereas the NI voters overall were against Brexit.

There was never any kind of logic to the pro-brexit position of the DUP.

If the UK is out of the EU and the Republic of Ireland is in the EU, then there has to be a border somewhere.

The Good Friday Agreement ensured that there could never be a border on the island of Ireland, therefore, there had to be a border in the Irish Sea - which the DUP cannot accept.

In NI when voting, the border is the important issue. It takes priority. DUP lost votes last time, which is why we have SF as First minister. The next election will be interesting.

What I find bizarre about NI is that the DUP were fanatical Brexiteers and have significant political leverage whereas the NI voters overall were against Brexit.

Urmstongran

True varian.
Wasn’t the referendum 2016 though? Maybe voters who wanted to leave the EU (me) hoped for a more clear cut Brexit. Less of the pussyfooting around - that got us pretty much nowhere.

Well, you can't say you weren't warned.

varian

Back in November 2017 many of us understood the conundrum.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1242729-The-Irish-question

Indeed varian. I remember asking so many people on various social media sites what the solution to the Irish "problem" would be. Lots of umming and ahhing, but no solution - for the good reason that there wasn't one which would have kept Brexiters happy. I still remember Angela Merkel's bemused expression when Boris Johnson said it could all be sorted easily.

True varian.
Wasn’t the referendum 2016 though? Maybe voters who wanted to leave the EU (me) hoped for a more clear cut Brexit. Less of the pussyfooting around - that got us pretty much nowhere.

Back in November 2017 many of us understood the conundrum.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1242729-The-Irish-question

Plevey08

DUP started out as a religious fanatical group. Now think they can call all the shots since their votes for supporting Tories made them rather self important. Now if course Tories need to pay them back for the support.

Sinn Fein affiliated with murdering terrorists, yes.

I am glad we might have an assembly again.
NI needs it's MLAs working asap. There's a lot needs attended to in health and education, sadly neglected the last few years..
I hope they legislate so that neither SF nor DUP can bring the government down in future. SF did the same as DUP a few years ago.
I think DUP were hoping for an election to get rid of Michelle O'Neill as First minister. And who can blame them?It's hard to accept someone like this as head of government.
Remember this disgraceful funeral? No prosecutions.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-53275733.amp
No one who condones or was involved in terrorism should be in government.

Theresa May gave them £1billion. Current govt. doesn't need their support, it has a majority. This is payment for making it look as though the government has done something successful.

DUP started out as a religious fanatical group. Now think they can call all the shots since their votes for supporting Tories made them rather self important. Now if course Tories need to pay them back for the support.

Regardless of the cost it's good news for the Peace Agreement and getting government on the road again in NI.

PS: Varadkar and Micheàl Martin are still power sharing.

How would this technology have stopped the DUP objecting to Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK?

Until Varadkar jumped up on his hind legs the approach recommended by the fella before him (I forget his name in the mists of time - I think they were power sharing) was to use technology. It was progressing favourably. Then of course Blair stepped in, happy to muddy the waters.

The Government sell-out of Brexit continues.

What would your solution to the impasse in Northern Ireland have been, Urms? And how would it fit with the GFA, the need for regulatory clarity on goods transiting Northetn Ireland, and the obvious need to avoid a land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland? And how, if it matters to you - it does to the DUP - would it ensure no increase in the number of people in the north wanting a united Ireland?

Well this is the final sell out for the disgraceful Windsor Agreement deal by Rishi. (“Dearest Rishi!” gushed the smiling Ursula vd Leyen).

This permanently ties the whole of the UK into the EU orbit and ECJ.

3 billion and I suppose they have been paid all the time they sat on their backsides and did nothing. My dh said something about hoping they hadn’t been paid for returning to do their jobs. Though he was sure money exchanged hands. Amazing how principles are abandoned when money changes hands. I would say it’s unbelievable but of course that isn’t true. It’s very believable.

MayBee70

MaizieD

I'm sure you'll get over it..

I wonder where the government managed to find £3billion for the bribe, seeing as they keep on telling us that they can't afford anything like paying NHS staff properly etc.

I can see this having implications for some NI business's which trade with the EU.

Magic money tree?

No, it's nothing to do with magic money trees. It's because the government can issue as much money as it wants to whenever it wants to do it.

This happens over and over again. The tories have dibbed up very large amounts of money over the years without a soul questioning it, yet people still persist in believing that its funded by taxation,or 'borrowing' and would scream blue murder if they thought Labour was going to do the same thing... Grrrrrrr

Be nice if it was used to bring pay up to par with England , or even Scotland , even better

It is mind blowing the amount of money the DUP has squeezed out of the British tax payer - what on earth are they doing with it all? Remember the massive bribe May coughed up to no advantage?

MaizieD

I'm sure you'll get over it..

I wonder where the government managed to find £3billion for the bribe, seeing as they keep on telling us that they can't afford anything like paying NHS staff properly etc.

I can see this having implications for some NI business's which trade with the EU.

Magic money tree?

I'm sure you'll get over it..

I wonder where the government managed to find £3billion for the bribe, seeing as they keep on telling us that they can't afford anything like paying NHS staff properly etc.

I can see this having implications for some NI business's which trade with the EU.