The Irish protocol.

Remind me again why you want rid of the NIP...?

But it's Unionism's nightmare. Once again the dichotomy. You are pretending all is hunky dory but political Unionism is 'ating' itself from within trying to find a way to accept where they are - where they have led themselves.

Yes....just like all those other times during the negotiations that the EU caved. It'll be more, 'NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.....Okay' as the UK media tries to sell utilising existing easements within the Protocol as a win.

Thread had some purpose at the start and was quite interesting because the OP had nailed his colours to something definitive - a court case was being taken and (in his opinion) it would be won. Being a fast case, we knew that very quickly he would be proven right or wrong.

Now however, he has set himself up a 'no-lose' position. Either the EU will concede on the 'checks' (in which case the OP wins) or he can keep with saying that they will do so sometime in the future (he can't lose here, can never be proven wrong).

You really need to put some time scale on these claims dc, otherwise it's kinda pointless.

The "petty checks" start disappearing when the UK is willing to enter into agreed arrangement for that to happen. The mechanism for agreeing those arrangements already exists; it's built into the NIP protocol. But so far the UK has been reluctant to operate it.

Essentially the UK wants checks to disappear because, e.g. in the case of rabies, the UK as a matter of fact, currently rabies-free. But many parts of the world are, as a matter of fact, currently rabies-free; there are still movement controls on animals coming into the EU. The EU's position is that being currently rabies free is not enough; we need a mechanism for knowing that this animal, coming from the UK, is free of rabies. An animal which is coming immediately from the UK may previously have been in a third country, or may have come into contact in the UK with an animal from a third country. If the UK thinks it reasonable for the EU to admit animals without checking where they have been or what their rabies status is, the assumption has to be that the UK itself is willing to admit animals on that basis, so this isn't a fanciful concern. Hence, there need to be agreed arrangements, commitments, whereby the EU can be satisfied that an animal coming from the UK is rabies-free; they won't just assume it.

There were such arrangements until recently; the UK chose unilaterally to terminate them. The EU is open to agreeing replacement arrangements, but the UK apparently is not. The "petty checks" apply, therefore, because the UK chose for them to apply. When the UK chooses for them not to apply, their removal can be agreed. Downcow will present that as the EU backing down. The EU will smile quietly to itself.

The whole point of checks are to be proactive, not reactive. Imagine we had proactive checks for Covid way back when?

Rabies may well be irrelevant today between the EU and many global nations, not just the UK.

How can the EU be assurred it won't suddenly become relevant tomorrow? Next week? Next month?

How can the EU be sure that the UK is maintaining the same standards tomorrow on rabies checks into its territory that it does today?

How can the EU be sure the UK will inform it immediately upon detection of rabies within its territory?

The answer to all of the above is it can't, because the UK won't agree any commitment to maintain that same level of standards on checking for and managing prevention of rabies from non-EU countries and the UK is under no obligation to inform the EU of any outbreak should it occur.

Thus, the only way in which the EU can manage the risk of rabies is by specifically checking for it at its external border, which in the case of the island of Ireland, is in the Irish Sea between NI and GB.

You can sit and pick off lots of individual checks in isolation and dismiss what they are checking for as irrelevant because it isn't present either side of the checks right this moment, but that doesn't mean the checks themselves are irrelevant, absent any formal agreement from both sides to agreed shared standards.

Starting checks for rabies after an outbreak is already well established is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted (literally).

As for victories, well I don't think anyone in the EU will claim anything got to do with Brexit as a victory. It has been a massive distraction, a huge timesink and a large hit to businesses across Europe trying to adjust to an ever changing landscape because the UK keeps agreeing to things only to do an about turn before the ink has dried.