UK Politics Thread

[Furunculus]

So the Northern Ireland government has strongly rejected the UK government's NI protocol bill. Who is this readjustment meant to serve again? If the EU and Northern Ireland are happy with the agreement, why is it being unilaterally changed by the UK, and on what authority?

What government?
Do you mean a collection of members from the NI Assembly?
But there is no executive (read: government) as the Unionist Party refuses to to help co-create one.

And this matters in NI (where it would not in most other jurisdictions), because:

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...fast-agreement

"the principle of consent underpinning Northern Ireland’s constitutional status"

Northern Ireland cannot form a government right now, and the NIP is damaging the Belfast agreement – because the EU forgets that consent of [both] communities matters, and that east/west links matter every smidge as much as north/south.

The consent of both communuties; loyalist and unionist.

[Pannonian]

What government?
Do you mean a collection of members from the NI Assembly?
But there is no executive (read: government) as the Unionist Party refuses to to help co-create one.

And this matters in NI (where it would not in most other jurisdictions), because:

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...fast-agreement


Northern Ireland cannot form a government right now, and the NIP is damaging the Belfast agreement – because the EU forgets that consent of [both] communities matters, and that east/west links matter every smidge as much as north/south.

The consent of both communuties; loyalist and unionist.

Sorry, not a government as per your technical definition. A majority of representatives from the Northern Ireland assembly. In UK terms, this might be the definition of a government (a majority of representatives from the UK Parliament).

And typically, you blame the EU despite a majority of NI reps taking their side, that the agreement the UK government signed should be kept by the UK government.

[Furunculus]

And yet in NI it doesn't matter a whit, as the central principle of governance is the need to do so with the consent of both communities. Northern Ireland cannot form a government right now, and the NIP is damaging the Belfast agreement – because the EU forgets that consent of [both] communities matters, and that east/west links matter every smidge as much as north/south. Does the Unionist community assent to the current arrangements?

For sure, there was the EU's chosen way to 'fix' NI which was Single Market and customs union, where the UK becomes a passive follower of regulation made elsewhere. Surprisingly, it wasn't seen as acceptable to the UK Gov't. And in the EU's clever leveraging of its position (and Theresa May's weakness) it insistsed on sequencing the negotiations so that the withdrawal agreement (and NI) happened before any consideration was given to the future economic arrangement.