The Irish protocol.

There is no spin. I (+ I doubt anyone else commenting here) knew/knows exactly how far the EU is willing to go to appease the UK. I mean there will be a limit somewhere. I am not an expert and have not read full details of their offer of changes, but my understanding of core of it is EU is prepared to waive some customs controls that would have been expected to begin for goods entering NI from GB. That is the compromise. GB/NI is meant to be an external border of the EU single market for goods with oddity of UK managing it and reporting on it to the EU. I don't think it was originally expected that these Customs checks etc. would be very much different from other EU goods "borders", just that they would be phased in over time in the ports by the UK.

At the moment UK negotiating position is IMO seeking to scrap NI protocol by watering it down to nothing, or if they don't get the EU to agree to this, they say they will use a technical "loophole" (what EU would see as abuse/misuse of Article 16) to get rid of it that way and look for whole agreement to be re-negotiated from scratch. I don't think any of this will fly and if the UK try it, there won't be a renegotiation and some kind of trade dispute + another period of acrimony will kick off instead. I don't believe public UK position has changed at all since the summer, so it is for them to make some new proposals at this point or dare I say it show some signs that they actually want to work with the EU on this. They have never done that IMO.

Yes. They are trying their best to 1) come to agreement UK can live with + implement and 2) make implementation of it as non-disruptive as possible for NI because that is what a member state (Ireland) seeks.

A quiet life, NI stable, no more major shocks, NI-IE border free of a looming threat of it being disrupted in future, UK just implements the agreement + takes a breather from provoking endless rows with the EU.

It's almost certainly going to end in tears I think and my position has always been this NI Protocol has no long term future unfortunately. It is a delicate construction that needs trust and honesty, willingness to cooperate + compromise to operate. What UK practice right now is belligerance and dishonesty + zero-sum games and it can't survive that long term.

Whatever downcow.

You wanna believe that young fella that set himself on fire 'understands' a complex trade arrangement/agreement, you go right ahead.

People of the world certainly are queuing up to get into France and Ireland (some of which are directly from Britain due to Brexit). Many EU countries have higher rates of immigration (per capita) than the UK, many take in a great deal more asylum seekers (per capita) than the UK, despite your earlier ranting. The reasons are multi-faceted (spoken language and family/friends there being a bigger factor I'd guess), despite your odd take that it somehow proves Brexit hasn't impacted the British economy or whatever point you're trying to make about the EU (to which I'll reiterate, step away from The Express and look at the actual number of asylum seekers taken in by the UK versus France or Germany).

If you can't see that you may be viewing this through a distinctly anglo-centric viewpoint, I suggest you have a little look at what the four countries you picked out have in common, and why they may be more appealing to the people you'd generally communicate with.

You forgot the pre-Brexit favoured spots in Spain for your pensioners though. Spain takes in more British migrants per capita than the US.

Might fit you better to ponder why 1/3 of your graduates think that Britian is a better place than NI.

Is there any more savage indictment of a failed state? We had the same issues and did something about it, we didn't purposefully make it worse.

.....correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the young lad set himself on fire while attempting to throw a petrol bomb at the police to somehow protest a multitude of things, including the NI Protocol, CoVid and the Shinner funeral?

Hardly an accident and certainly not unrelated.

Almost looked more like a bunch of young folk riled up and spoiling for trouble because they're angry and unable to express it in a healthy manner rather than legitimate protest due to a fundamental disagreement with anything.....which I believe was precisely the point being made in the post you responded to?

Why question it. His logic is that a young lad who caught fire in NI is not related to the thread, migrants dying off the coast of Britain is entirely related to the thread.