Will (or indeed should) the UK ever rejoin the EU?

The UK and Ireland now being in different customs and standards regimes necessitates the need for an border as long as NI remains part of the UK.

This is just a reality. The border need not be troops and fences and with a combination of modern tech and monitoring and random checking it could be relatively un-invasive and people under the CTA can travel freely anyway so no issues there. If people choose to start shooting that ultimately is their call, it doesn't change the reality of needing a border between two countries.

You are painting the emotive picture of British Troops and militarisation............not required if the two governments got together and worked it out amicably.

I fully understand why it's an emotive issue, why it was weaponised and why people view it as non-negotiable but it doesn't mean it's not required.

We can talk this round in circles all you want and couch it all in emotive language but reality is reality and as long as people avoid it the mess will continue.

The NIP is a load of nonsense and always was, a political fudge and 10 months into this mess it still is.

Do I like the mess no, is it what anyone wanted in Ireland ? Don't think so but it's an unfortunate side effect of Brexit but that has happened now.

Ultimately it's all language. What is a hard border ?

If we had trusted trader schemes, technology and random stops and checks on goods moving across the border with free movement of people is that a hard border ?

It almost became Option A) No Border. B) Wire, Closed crossings and British Army. Why ?

There is a middle ground.

No there is no middle ground - look at what checks need to be done in France. Those checks need people to undertake them - and without an army, those people are soft targets. If there is a single person sympathetic to IRA ideology anywhere in Ireland with a weapon, the first death of a customs official sparks off an immediate and irreversible (in the circumstances) militarisation. (Which is what happened the last time).

Imposing a border in northern Ireland cutting off villages from their hinterlands which are fully open (in breach of the GFA strand 2 obligations let's not forget) will not be accepted by the locals (and why should it).

If you think "trusted trader", facial recognition for sheep, blockchain and all that nonsense works- then it obviously works far, far more easily between NI & GB than between NI & Irl. And don't forget those checks become ever more onerous & important as the UK diverges more and more from the EU.

Furthermore, no it is not a "reality", the UK signed up to the NIP - and the UK government won an election on the back of the "oven ready deal" which"got brexit done".

It is accepted by & benefitted from by the people of Northern Ireland (who let's not forget voted to remain in the EU & single market), it was approved by the Northern Ireland Assembly - who are you to tell them they need to bow to the Brexiters' plan to renege on the UK's solemn undertakings?

It is working perfectly well insofar as it is being operated. NI shelves & petrol stations are full, and NI is attracting investment and exports to the EU are significantly up. It is only through attempted sabotage by UK government, the UK's intentional delay of checks into GB to delay the grim reality of brexit on GB by comparison and the UK government's hurried attempts to get their false narrative out before reality intrudes too much ( which would have been around Christmas if they haven't entered a trade war by then), that makes it seem in any way otherwise as the moment (and even now it's fairly obvious that the UK narrative that it's "not working" is being shown up more & more by food & fuel shortages, wastages of vegetables, animals & milk, inflation, waste not being collected and various other shortages at a snowballing rate).

And again, how long do you think the Irish politician who agrees to that is likely to stay alive? Or that their party stays in existence?

Agree in a way and yes it will be groundhog day for sometime to come folks....

Suspect yes in time as tensions lower on all sides (it is all very emotive still) closer cooperation and alignment will result to a point and that is probably the best solution all round.

The NIP is mostly functional - let's not forget the "80% of checks are being carried out by UK customs officials" line and just last week, after months & months of delay, the UK finally started sharing their data with the EU for example.

Meanwhile, checks for moving goods into the UK are estimated to first be in place in 2025.

Why did the UK absolutely insist on implementing the NIP without warning or business preparation - while waiting years to do the same for GB?

A16 does not implement a trade war. Invoking A16 in good faith certainly doesn't - and even invoking A16 but only using it within its remit does not

Reneging on the protocol, however, does initiate a trade war - and it will not be the EU that takes that step.

An Irish sea border (which we have) is the only solution (aside from revoking hard brexit and not uniting Ireland). It is agreed, it is accepted and it must be enforced. Why should it not? You yourself said that trusted trader stuff etc. is easy - why can't all of that be used on the Irish sea border? There has been an SPS border between NI & GB for a long time, soil cannot be imported since 1972 I believe, and aside from entirely different laws, there have even been different customs.

As for a "non enforced border" - that goes back to Ireland being literally forced to swallow British BSE infected beef that they cannot sell anywhere else in the world and so smuggle into Ireland. Again slightly earlier you were explaining how easy it would be to have "alternative arrangements" at the British border in Ireland - why would it be so difficult to enforce the same in the sea?

Not solely the EU at fault both sides agreeing to the NIP when it was always a fudge was the error. It was from Day one a fudge to meet political needs everywhere.....and now we live with the mess.

NI protocol is mostly working and insofar as it is not, it is mostly because the UK lacks the functional capacity to enforce it because it failed to prepare and refused longer grace periods.

Who cares what is acceptable to unionists? Nothing (in terms of brexit) that is acceptable to them (i.e. DUP/TUV at least - and some parts of the UUP at least) is acceptable to nationalists. And the only way they get to keep Northern Ireland as part of the UK long term is if there is a successful NI protocol. No protocol means a hard border which means a nationalist "must win at all costs" push for unity - a Catholic community which is now a majority as well as Ireland which must push for a United Ireland as a strategic necessity. Furthermore, it is only relevant if if the UK reneges on the treaty - and is put under crippling economic sanctions for reneging on its international commitments.

Furthermore (and to repeat) the people of NI voted to remain in the single market, the NI assembly approved the protocol and no other proposals have "cross community consent" - so why should anyone move away from the (working very well thank you very much) protocol in breach of UK's undertakings- at the behest of a supremacist unionist minority?

Where there is 1 BSE cow, there are more - and it is merely one example of the horrific British (non) standards in food and agriculture - standards which they will try to force on us. (And you should really look up the effects and prognosis of CJD before you dismiss BSE).

Just like the masses of BSE cows in Ireland after our one cow came down with it. Could it be a major outbreak yes, could it be one isolated case quite probably. Right now would happily eat British or Irish beef.

Well aware of CJD thanks.

Not aware of any forcing standards on us by the UK ? Or have I missed something where the UK gets to dictate our food standards now or perhaps they will be flooding Ireland with it in Loyalist gang trucks next spring....

And if you think the NIP is working, well okay, not the case but anyway. Our unionist friends have plenty of ability to turn the North back to the worst of times that is why I care about keeping them passive and quiet.

If we get through this next round of EU negs with the UK over the protocol without a collapse in talks perhaps it can be put on the back boiler for a while. In fairness to the EU they moved hugely on many British demands in the last round of talks so there is hope but it may never be enough but only time will tell.

Fudge it is and always will be and where we end up with it I really don't know.

Not really "secret".

Even Turkish-German...

Forget BSE, that is well under control now. (Largely occurs naturally in older animals that never get into the food chain - that Irish cow with BSE was 15 years old). More of a problem is something like Foot and Mouth. To refresh your memory that came about by an intensive pig farmer in North of England feeding food slops off a plane from South America to his pigs. It spread quickly around UK, including North of Ireland from where sheep shipped to France via Rosslare brought it to France. England will always be a problem because of its intensive farming methods and its fairly relaxed attitude to enforcing standards (not enough vets employed). That is the main reason why you will find the EU very hot on veterinary checks and food standards.

The head of the Jenner Institute is Irish who devoted his life to developing vaccines for tropical diseases such as malaria and covid. Dr Teresa Lambe (UCC graduate) was one of the leading scientists developing the AZ vaccine (there was no way they were getting any credit for their part in Brexit GB). The development of mRNA vaccine by the Turkish-German company will probably have a lot more uses than the Oxford vaccine so should be regarded as a major break through in medicine. By the way, the EU Commission was a major funder of the Oxford vaccine. I don't think the British Gov. got in on the act until it needed to manufacture it.