The Irish protocol.

Several months ago in relation to medicines.

Did you read where Tony quoted the EU - 'easements within the Protocol'?

What you have also been told will happen for months now.

Tomorrow the EU deliver on their word, easing the operation of the Protocol in northern Ireland, Johnson, Frost and their lackeys have to continue to lie about EU intransigence now.

If the unionists want to be part of the UK, implement what is not already in the North. A lot of unionists have close links to Scotland and if you go to Scotland you see road signs in English and Gaelic. This is something they are against. If they want to protocol to say why have they not come out and said so?

I've pointed out to you that it isn't the case, and explained the reasons why it wouldn't be. You didn't disagree with me at the time. I'm puzzled as to wyou you still manage to think that the Irish government wants to maximise the controls on NI/GB trade that are needed to protect the Single Market. It's glaringly obvious that it's very much in their interests to have the minimal constraints that will serve that purpose.

The pressures to maximise the controls have always come from the UK, where the UK government says that it wants the controls minimised, but consistently acts in ways that are likely to maximise them. At some point the unionist movement is going to have to come to terms with the consequences and implications of this, and of the attitude to the union which it discloses.

No. The cost of applying a "destined for NI" label is trivial, and if it avoids significant compliance costs or checks or delays, that's a big saving. There'll be two groups that benefit; GB producers who are already exporting to NI and bearing costs associated with checks, etc who won't have to bear those costs any more, and GB producers who aren't exporting to NI because the costs are too great to make it viable, but who find that the much lower costs of using the label mean that exporting to NI can be profitable. NI consumers will also benefit, though modestly, in slightly lower prices for GB-produced goods or having a slightly wider range of GB-produced goods available or possibly a bit of both.

Well, we'll see.

The EU offer may serve to drive a wedge between the pragmatists and the ideologues in the Tory party. There have been some straws in the wind suggeing that Frost's star in the party was waning. Johnson is reported to have tired of Brexit and of the time and attention it is consuming; the overriding message at last weeks party conference from ministers was that they are "over the EU" and both Brexit and the EU were conspicuous by how little attention they received in the keynote speeches. Even Liz Truss's keynote as Foreign Secretary treated the matter as one of no importance to the EU. Frost was relegated to a speaking slot at 9:10 am on the Monday morning; about 50 delegates (out of I think 4,000 or so) turned up to hear him.

So, the EU offer is an attractive one to anyone in the Tory party who genuinely does want to "get Brexit done" -as in, be done with Brexit. It addresses any issue that the UK might raise that could reasonably be argued as being of practical significance, or as having traction with stakeholders in NI. The only people who won't jump at it are those who are invested in True Brexit™ and in permanent conflict with the EU, of whom Frost is the most prominent.

People like Dowden welcoming the offer is not a surprise. He himself is not a particularly influential figure in the party, but he may represent a large class of those who feel there is no advantage for the UK in continuing the argument with Europe. Frost may find that the party simply won't tolerate him rejecting this offer, and he may have to choose between swallowing his pride and sacrificing his career.

From that point of view the line that downcow is pushing that this is a famous victory for HMG's steely resolve is actually a problem for Frost since, the more people believe that the EU offer is a famous victory, the harder it is for him to argue that it should be turned down. But in order to accept it, he's going to have to concede that the Protocol as it stands is is just fine.

I agree with you here, Frost seems to be on a bit of a solo run here.

It will be interesting to see what Unionism does next, they have been put in a difficult position here again...by themselves I might add. Blindsided by the EU's willingness to use the easements and flexibilities.

The fact you now have to label goods amplifies the difference between the North and GB. How will they check if these goods coming into the North has this label? At the ports when they dock I guess. So still a hard border with more red tape. But let politians claim this as a win.