News15 mins ago
Ongoing Brexit Issues
Despite what some believe there are still issues following Brexit for us in NI.
We still do not have the range of goods in supermarkets that we had previously in particular cat and dog food.
Very few seed or plant companies will deliver to NI and there are issues trying to get stuff from Amazon like batteries/ battery packs and booze.
I have lost count how many times I have gone into to do orders only to discover they don't deliver to NI.
I know that probrexit members will now be going onto Amazon and seed companies to prove me wrong but I live with this every day.
I appreciate that there is a lot of fake news out there and this is not an opening for some of AB members to go on and say I told you so - I am giving you some facts. Tis all.
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Redhelen72. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.> Mushroom suggested a vote be held - I assume he meant in Northern Ireland.
Yes, I saw that, and I said it was ridiculous and insulting. The question is about getting cat food!
But let's continue with the ridiculous sideshow and say there was a vote, and the result was "remain" (NI in the UK, that is) ... then can we actually get back to the question, which is how can redhelen get the choice of cat food she used to have?
Let's be level-headed and honest here. I have no doubt that some companies will not have wished to ship across the sea before or after Brexit. I strongly suspect the details of the UK/EU agreement as to our future relationship will have been the last straw for a further tranche of the remaining companies. So to an extent the situation in NI will have deteriorated; and to correct it, it is vital all understands the reason and then one can discuss how to solve it.
I think it is blatantly obvious the major cause is the internal border within the UK, across the Irish Sea, which gives rise to more regulations and paperwork, which some companies decide is no longer worth it. Since the UK clearly negotiated on the premise that the NI border remain open to comply with the Belfast Agreement, and had zero interest in any internal UK border, it becomes clear that the push to have this internal border as a prerequisite of signing up has to have come from the EU. They not being willing to go with any sensible suggestion made, such as utilising technology, or making the checks they insisted on, on their side of the border. (One might speculate on why they were being that awkward and tried to push responsibility for their checks onto someone else, but the only plausible reason I know of was to try to penalise the nation escaping their clutches, and hoping to hold on to a part of it.)
For sure many in NI did express concern over possible problems, which may well have been a factor in that part of the UK regretfully voting to remain under the EU elite's control, but I suspect many citizens elsewhere in the UK, despite knowing what an awful controlling group was in charge of the EU, still expected them to behave with maturity, morality, and not act in the petulant manner that they did. One lives and learns (but all the more reason to get away from them).
So the change has to be with that agreement and the border issues.
It is my understanding that the agreement allows for either side to trigger Article 16 and force renegotiation of changes. Unfortunately our present government hasn't the courage to consider that option and shows itself as weak & spineless. If only they would make sensible efforts then that Windsor Framework nonsense could be slung into the bin.
Meanwhile, I appreciate that any brainstorming session requires no criticism of that which is suggested in order to give all the nerve to suggest anything, until there are many options for consideration. But I'm sure in these sessions all will note the clearly inappropriate suggestions that can be dismissed as soon as the second part if the process commences. So, for example, a suggestion that capitulating to the other side of the negotiating table who desire to inflict damage on your own nation for the sake of vengeance, by offering to lose part of your nation, is clearly inappropriate, and would simply show you as unable to hold on to your own people and a punchbag for anyone who wants to have a go at you. (And those voting for such a move the most timid and easy manipulated of all.) Besides it wouldn't solve the issue of goods supplied to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, anyway. So I think we know where such a suggestion is destined.