Notices by M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club), page 47

@nigelsezyarr Well, maybe, maybe not. The EU is a customs union, so they would tell Ireland to build a c) wall (no free movement of goods from NI into the EU), at least until an UK-EU trade agreement is reached. It took Canada eight years or so to finalise our deal.

OTOH, while the EU overall would feel the UK needs a deal more than the EU does, at least one EU member would be eager to remove barriers to the passage of goods.

@nigelsezyarr Too simplified. The Brexiteers basically want walls that separates them from a) EU institutions and b) free movement of people. They do not want a wall against c) free movement of goods -- hence the desire for a Canada-plus trade agreement.

They could put the a) wall at the NI border, the b) wall in the Irish Sea, and there would be no c) wall, at least not erected by the UK. Wouldn't that basically satisfy the GFA, with goods and people freely crossing the NI border?

@nigelsezyarr UK could say, "We're honouring the GFA; it's Brussels who's disrupting it."

@nigelsezyarr Guess I wasn't clear. My point was that a post-Brexit UK could easily keep the NI border open for people and goods (at least on their side of the border). It would be the EU saying to the Republic, "Hey, we don't have free trade with the UK, honour the customs union and put up barriers or else."

Yes, the barriers would ultimately be the result of #Brexit, but they'd also be because of the EU. The Republic would have an incentive to push hard for a quick trade deal.

Thoughts?

Good old Trinidad & Tobago; sweet T&T.

I went to a political rally there that started with opening prayers from (as I recall) a Catholic priest, an imam, a pundit and Shaker Baptists.

These are all the world's major religions in one map
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/this-is-the-best-and-simplest-world-map-of-religions/

#religion
#Trinidad&Tobago

Of course, I'm probably not seeing the whole picture with respect to the Northern Ireland border. Comments or corrections would be very welcome.

#Brexit #Ireland
#NorthernIreland

Reflecting about the border of Northern Ireland, I think that it is more a problem for the Republic than the UK.

Brexiteers in general want free trade with the EU, but no free movement of people. So the UK could just refuse to install customs booths along the border, and check passports for airplanes or boats crossing the Irish Sea — that is not so different from present practice.

If the Republic wants to respect the customs union, then *they* would need to install EU customs booths.

#Brexit

"Would-be criminals and terrorists are policed by services that cooperate as intimately as if they served only one sovereign. Britain and Ireland have found a way to be one marketplace, one travel area, one energy grid, one food emporium, one security partnership—while maintaining two independent political systems"

Brexit Could Reawaken Northern Ireland’s Troubles - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/brexit-could-reawaken-northern-irelands-troubles/584338/

#Brexit

"What emerged during the rancorous three-way negotiations among the U.K., Ireland, and the EU was the baffling 'backstop,' a contrivance to keep the Irish border open. During the transition period scheduled to begin March 29, 2019, it would be Britain’s responsibility to solve the border problem [otherwise] the backstop would come into effect.

Ireland Has Remarkable Power Over Brexit
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/ireland-has-remarkable-power-over-brexit/584434/

#Brexit

@lpmanchettes Aucun peuple n'a le droit complet de déterminer leur statut politique. Moi, je peux le faire seulement selon les lois, même chose pour mon quartier, ma ville, ma province et mon pays.

Le peuple québécois doit choisir leur destin politique en accord avec la loi; et pour la #sécession du Québec (pas très demandée ces jours) on aurait besoin d'un changement constitutionnel.

Si on ne suit pas la loi, ce n'est plus une question de droit, mais de force.

@ink_slinger yep, phones home all the time regardless of whether you have a subscription or not. then you get the base set of channels for usually a whole month, and it seems not to be automated because sometimes they leave it on for another week or so into the next.

@sohkamyung I read a theory that the fungus was spread by the boots of researchers...

#Frogs

@LeDevoir Les seuls exemples sont la France et les Etats-Unis ? Il y a plusieurs autres modèles intéressantes dans le monde.