sheldrake wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:06 pm
Blah blah blah
I don't think YOU understand A16 in that you think it's the magic bullet that will make all of the Conservatives' problems go away and that just invoking it will make the entire NI protocol vanish
You're missing the bits about how any actions have to be the most limited possible to solve the problem, only be invoked after discussions between the EU and the UK on how to solve the issue and so on. The Tories and their apologists are presenting it as "give us what we want or we'll invoke it and scrap the whole deal". Which is not how A16 works.
You've still not explained why you think it is 100% the EU's fault for everything, when all it is doing is expecting the UK to abide by measures it's government negotiated, agreed to, signed to agree to, AND ratified the agreement saying they would do those things - because this is how it comes across with your stuck record "customs integrity" trope. There were after all other ways to have ensured that trade between GB and NI was unimpeded, whilst at the same time maintaining the GFA - and the EU would have agreed to them in all liklihood (for example keeping the whole of the UK in the single market for goods, which was BTW something promised by Vote Leave in 2016). It was the Conservatives who decided, without mandate, to pull the UK out of the single market and customs union. Now they seem to be expecting everyone else to fix the problems they caused, and also claiming it's the fault of every one else but them (the EU's for making them keep their word; businesses for not being properly prepared for something they were told wasn't going to happen. I'm sure they'll come up with a way of blaming asylum seekers and immigrants in due course)
We talk about "unionist" communities in NI. However the peace generation in NI, who grew up after the GFA, tend to identify less with the identities of "nationalist" vs "unionist". So although we think that everyone from a "Unionist" background would automatically vote to stay part of the UK in any referendum on whether reunify Ireland, a lot of the peace generation identify as European as well, and see the ignoring of the fact that NI voted to remain in 2016 by the Conservative government as a remote out-of-touch government imposing their wishes on them against their will (actually almost everywhere in the UK a lot of people under the age of about 45 feel that - that age group overwhelmingly voted remain and have been roundly ignored). They also see the prosperity and opportunity that membership of the EU has brought RoI. So it's likely that a chunck of the peace generation from a nominally Unionist backgrounds would also vote to reunify Ireland, to regain their inclusion in the EU as part of a member state and the dividends that brings.
If, say, consistent opinion polls, or a vote by a majority in the NI Assembly supported holding a referendum into reunifying Ireland, it would be difficult in seeing how the Westminster government could forbid a referendum.
CF