We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
REPORTS THAT SUGGEST Britain would remain in a temporary customs union with the EU, avoiding a hard Irish border, as part of a new deal being thrashed out have been dismissed as “speculation”.
Senior sources told the Sunday Times that British Prime Minister Theresa May has secured concessions from Brussels, with the EU agreeing to write an “all-UK” customs union into the divorce deal.
This would avoid the EU’s “backstop” solution that would have treated Northern Ireland differently from the rest of Britain.
There will also be an “exit clause” from the customs union in a bid to convince Brexiteers that it is not a permanent arrangement as May looks to secure enough votes to get the deal through parliament, it added.
Downing Street refused to confirm the report, telling AFP it was “all speculation”, but that negotiations were “going well”.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan also branded the report as “speculation”.
“There’s a lot of media speculation … which is no more than that, speculation,” Flanagan said.
“I’m not going to say anything that’s going to add to that speculation,” he said.
I do regard it as speculation. However, it must be seen in the context of a rapidly ticking clock as we move towards the end of the year and as we move towards timelines needing to be met.
Flanagan said that Irish priorities “are very much in evidence”, and in that regard, “it’s absolutely essential now that we see the written legal text which is the backstop”.
According to RTÉ, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said the UK has given written commitments last December and March that the withdrawal agreement will give a legal guarantee of no return to a hard border in Ireland in any circumstance.
The Irish border has proved the biggest obstacle to a deal, with both sides vowing not to reinstate a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland for fear of destabilising the peace accord that ended decades of deadly sectarian violence.
Under the reported deal, the EU accepts that regulatory checks on goods can be carried out in factories and shops rather than at the border, the Sunday Times said.
That keeps open the possibility of Britain securing a future free trade agreement similar to the one signed between Canada and the EU in 2016.
The opposition UK Labour party has all but ruled out supporting any deal May reaches with Brussels, leaving the prime minister reliant on her slender parliamentary majority that comprises her own divided MPs and coalition partners the DUP of Northern Ireland.
Legal warning
According to the report, May is expected to warn her most stridently anti-EU MPs that they will be held responsible for the consequences of a no-deal Brexit if they do not vote for her deal.
However, if these Brexiteers are not convinced that the customs union is only a temporary measure they would almost certainly rebel.
Her cabinet is due to hold talks over the plan on Tuesday, with a potential EU summit pencilled in for the end of November if they agree enough progress has been made.
Parliament would then vote on the deal in December.
May’s former Brexit minister David Davis warned in the newspaper that she must be transparent about the legal foundation of her deal or suffer the same “mess” that Tony Blair did over the Iraq War.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.
With reporting by - © AFP 2018
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Lovely thoughts and nicely written.
Thanks for your honesty. Both of my parents passed away in the past couple of years…one to cancer, the other suddenly with a heart attack. We must move on…and move on we do. But we will be OK if we take our time and grieve well. Congratulations on making it through the first year after your loss, and may your grief continue to ease with time.
Who would honestly redthumb this comment.
I’d recommend leaving a journal behind and doing one or more video messages, if you know you’re dying or at risk of it. Its all in how they say their goodbyes to u and what tone that leaves.
This is how I did it. started the journal as if it was a biography, going back as far as I could remember.
I put all my political musings and policy ideas into a separate one that if I come out OK I can turn into a book or something
An aunts funeral not long before got me wondering what way I’d want that done. So I wrote a will, laying out s secular memorial no church,
It used to irritate me to see generic catch all prayers and vague Eulogy’s not specific to the person. So I picked a friend who is like the brother I never had to do the eulogy.
For the video message I got a haircut n metrosexual spit polish, a 9 hour sleep, picked a nice A&F sweater, jeans n shirt doing my best to look like I normally do n less of a pale tired burnout and made a video in the present tense talking to the memorial service. Made some joking refs to the family myths around death, said hi to the priest I knew sisters would bring to do a blessing despite the secular nature of the event, and said my goodbyes. Body language is relaxed and informal like I’m sitting in the room with them. I figured that way their last memory isn’t seeing me laying motionless (however peaceful) in the casket but sitting on a sofa in my nicer clothes smiling and alive, I think its a nicer memory to leave them with.
I could only hope to be so brave. You remind me of my mother.
I wish you, your kitty and your family all the very best x
I lost my aunt some years ago who was like a mother to me she died suddenly in st James hospital I was devastated, my whole world fell apart, then 5 years ago my dad died of lung cancer, he was my knight in shining armour, you never get over a loved one passing on you just learn to cope with it, and know they are happy and pain free..
Thank you for sharing. ..yes life does go on and in time pain, loss, gets a bit easier to deal with and im sure your husband is loving every second of your new found happiness in life …
Beautiful piece
The new fella could do with getting those teeth sorted out.
Beautiful writing so lovely and gentle choice of language.
To parents who lost a child, that is to say the toughest grief my advice is take a moment at a time when your alone and deal with their memory and loss. Then fufil your day with plenty of tender loving care.
To children who lose a parent , you don’t have the words to express how you feel. But if your sad and not in form to do much tell people I am sad. Mammy or Daddy is gone away. To the adult let the child express the emotions and if it has been a traumatic event that caused the death talk to Barnardo’s they give excellent advice.
To the surviving sister, brother, son or daughter. You must grieve because grieving is a process of letting go and honouring the person who is gone with tears of admiration. Take your time set your own pace and don’t rush it.
To all people grieving this article is excellent but allow yourself to live again when your raw emotions heal it normally can take uo to two years. For cancer deaths there is the awe stage of grieving and it can be confusing because you might have delayed onset of grief this is quite normal.
Best treatment is to talk about the person gone. Some day you will think of them and not cry but move on to a better acceptance their gone.
nice but “jameson” as a baby boys name?
Lost both parents to brain tumours; my dad in 1998 and my mum in 2010. After my own dad’s death, whatever my own mum did afterwards, I respected and supported everything she did that kept her happy. After her own death four years ago, it started a long journey to move forward. There was no denying that I changed in certain ways and it wasn’t easy. There were things that I didn’t have the same enjoyment for as I previously did and there was a reluctance to do some things as it just would have brought back memories. I also developed new routines that would keep me positive. In the last year, I started to once again enjoy some things I used to do, but doing it in a different way. I may never have forgotten but in my own ways, I’ve moved on. It’s a journey that requires a lot of patience and understanding and every day is a new day, every step taken is a goal and every bridge crossed is an extension of a journey. The only person who knows when they are ready is oneself.
have your say