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THE UK IS damaging itself to appease the EU, DUP leader Arlene Foster has claimed.
Foster wants the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol to be replaced because of disruption to trade from Great Britain to the region.
She said some parcels were still not getting through and major retailers like John Lewis were not delivering despite an extension to light-touch regulation in some areas until October.
The Stormont First Minister said: “There is damage happening to the Belfast Agreement and its successor agreement.
“It has also damaged the UK internal market by putting in place a system to protect the EU single market.
“What we are doing is damaging our own country.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in “listening mode” as he visited Northern Ireland on Friday and met business leaders and the First Minister to hear their concerns about trade.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill refused to meet him.
Stormont’s Agriculture Minister has stalled work on permanent border checkpoints for food entering through Northern Ireland’s ports from the rest of the UK.
Foster told Times Radio: “The Agriculture Minister (Edwin Poots) is looking at all of these issues.
“He is taking legal advice and speaking to officials as to what needs to be done.”
She said food from Great Britain heading for Northern Ireland, like lasagne, would be marked for sale in sterling so posed no risk of entering the Republic of Ireland where euros are used.
She said the EU was imposing third-party checks, similar to if somewhere like China wanted to send goods into its single market.
The DUP leader added: “It is completely disproportionate to what is necessary.”
The Northern Ireland Assembly will be able to vote on whether to scrap the protocol in 2024.
Foster said it needed to take action sooner because the economy was suffering.
She added: “We need replacement of the protocol and a much more sensible way to deal with the risk to the (EU) single market.”
Johnson has said the protocol was not operating in the way he envisaged.
The Prime Minister said he did not think arrangements he agreed with the EU would involve restrictions on the movements of food products such as sausages, on parcel deliveries and on soil from Great Britain entering Northern Ireland.
He said the protocol was operating in an imbalanced way and was causing irritation to the loyalist and unionist community in Northern Ireland as a consequence.
Johnson said the protocol was necessitating more processes and checks than it should and that is why the British government moved to delay its implementation until longer-term solutions are found with the EU.
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time to re-introduce smoking in pubs so..
Am I missing something here ( simple ::::: don’t smoke:::::: ) , if u do u should accept the consequences….
You’re missing a whole rake of somethings. Of course not smoking would be the best way to avoid the associated risks, but surely you’re no suggesting that we don’t attempt to find ways of dealing with the consequences of smoking?
If everyone shared that attitude no scientific or medical breakthroughs would ever be made.
Tax the filthy things out of existence I say.
That’s it… I’m back on the fags.
Lovely fags. Glad I quit them though I was starting to wheeze going up stairs. Miss them but if I go back on them I will be going back to crappy lungs and feeling sorry for myself. I do recommend the 4 D’s method it helped me to quit. Ash Wednesday tomorrow so try the old quit something for lent you never know it could work!
@human being, well done to you!! Sorry for my ignorance but what is 4 D’s??
You know willy giving your self a pat on the back does not count for a positive comment.
I am not a smoker and I am in no position to tel any one how to live ther lives, but if people want to, or need to smoke it’s there money like ever one elce who jumps from a plain or goes TT racing the risks are there two and the hart ache and bills when things go wrong. But its the likes of you and Paul and your selfrightous, no it all bull that turns my stomach!
Both of my parents died early through smoking-related effects, so it grieves me to see teenagers starting to smoke. Still, at that age they’re going to live for ever, aren’t they?
Bans and high taxes have a limited effect. The only way is to somehow make smoking seem very uncool. Any ideas?
The new treatment is call Stop Smoking Now
have your say