
Roderick Crawford: The EU must drop its maximalist approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol
From the start, the trade bloc has not fully understood the Belfast Agreement and has been slow to see that it undermined many of its positions.
From the start, the trade bloc has not fully understood the Belfast Agreement and has been slow to see that it undermined many of its positions.
The CBI supports the Government’s timetable and Starmer is keeping his head down. It is quite the turnaround.
Like it or not, the EU agreed to two customs territories on the island of Ireland – and a solution to the disagreement flows from that fact.
In 2016, 38 per cent of voters in Scotland backed Brexit. So why is the Party currently stuck at 23 per cent in the polls for next year’s Holyrood election?
The Prime Minister has avoided some of the potential dangers, but nonetheless introduced a border inside the United Kingdom.
Whereas other countries, such as Israel and Australia, implemented travel bans mid-March, the country is only following now.
As a member of his first Cabinet, I was tested in Northern Ireland – as elsewhere the new government reduced the defict and reformed public services.
The available evidence “leads to a conclusion that the death rate in Northern Ireland is almost identical to that in the Republic”.
Nation states can act decisively when they wish to do so: the EU seems paralysed.
It’s deeply disturbing for many that a modern European democracy might shortly be led by a party that continues to have its strategy overseen by an Army Council.
The lack of an agreed border with Ireland makes “an Australian-style settlement” more unlikely than would otherwise be the case.
At the least, we can expect reduced growth worldwide – and a more expansionary Budget next month.
For the Protocol to work over the long-term, broad-based political consent for it must be gained then retained.
But is a system of government whereby all power is concentrated in Downing Street likely to result in that power being well used?
We cheer the mission. But government needs more compromise, art, tact and accomodation than campaigning alone allows.