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THE UK’S BREXIT minister David Frost has said Britain will not sweep away the Northern Ireland Protocol as he warned conflict over the deal risks creating “cold mistrust” with the European Union.
The negotiator of the post-Brexit agreement renewed calls today for Brussels to accept a “substantial and significant change” to the deal that he negotiated.
Northern Ireland is effectively kept in the EU’s single market for goods by the protocol, which prevents a hard border with Ireland but has created trade barriers with Britain.
Unionists have pressured for the abolition of the protocol, but Brussels has repeatedly rejected the UK Government’s plea to negotiate it.
Speaking at the British-Irish Association conference in Oxford, Frost said: “The stakes are high. The arguments can be bitter.
“And I worry this process is capable of generating a sort of cold mistrust between us and the EU which could spread across the relationship.
“It’s holding back the potential for a new era of cooperation between like-minded states in a world which needs us to work together effectively.”
The Conservative politician reiterated the UK’s position that the “threshold” for triggering Article 16 to effectively tear up parts of protocol has been met.
But he added: “Some would like us to sweep all the existing arrangements away. That is not our position.
“It is obvious there will always need to be a dedicated UK-EU treaty relationship covering Northern Ireland. It is a question of finding the right balance.”
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“Waaaah he got more than me! It’s so unfair!” “Yes honey, but you’re an adult now and need to learn how to negotiate for yourself.”
What a sad world we live in.
@Virtual Architect: Women are equal to men, they just need lots and lots of help.
@Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Women are not equal to men and men are not equal to women. however, women can be just as or more capable than men at a particular task or profession and vice versa. Very interesting piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
Oh tubridy, oh joe… where art thou?
@Nick Allen: No of course not. What they did was perfect. Let the men fight their own corner and treat the women like the children they are.
The forward march to a Maoist utopia continues.
Fantastic!!
Being over-paid is equally wrong for both sexes. Female millionaires care as little about poor women or general income equality as do their male counterparts. They are both far removed from the little people on the average industrial wage etc. in my opinion, no-one is worth more than E100g annual salary, and the work of a janniter is as essential as that of a medical consultant – notwithstanding the massive gulf in social status.
@245hkJ01: Yes, but the point here is that male and female janitors, say, should be paid the same if they do the same work.
@Brendan O’Brien: What if the female janitor has been with the company for ten years and the man for two weeks? Should the man expect the same pay as the women, or should the women be paid more because she is of more value?
@?: You sure do ask some silly questions. The relevant comparison here would be between a male and female janitor of equal experience, who should be paid the same. Obviously people may get pay rises as their service increases.
@Brendan O’Brien: people who are hired with similar experience, etc are paid the same.
however, in a lot of these media cases highlighted recently, the men have more experience or are doing other work that the women aren’t doing so would deserve higher pay.
@Brendan O’Brien: Oh say you’re saying it’s more nuanced and complicated than simply looking at the gender of the people? Well done. Let’s look at some other factors that may account for the gap. How about hours worked, overtime, competency, willingness to ask for a raise etc… Maybe they have more of an impact than the employees genitals? Seriously mate, if you believe this pay gap nonsense then you are almost a lost cause. It is a lie that has been debunked for probably longer than I’ve been alive. Get out of your echo chamber brother.
@Brendan O’Brien: using that system of comparison there is no gender pay gap
It’s funny how the lads money is being dropped instead of the ladies money being raised…
they are an embarrassment to all men and and should ask their wives for their liathroidi back.
They are some big big numbers for radio DJ’s right there – crazy.
@YouHaveGotToBeJoking: in fairness jeremy vine does tv work for bbc2 although I wish he didn’t he’s an awful version of his brother and nowhere near as funny
Oh how pathetic. This just makes me want to throw up. If there are any lads and lasses out there who love to compete and push themselves and achieve based on merit. Lets do that and leave this sad lot off.
Equal pay for equal work: a difficult concept for many people commenting here to understand, it seems.
@Brendan O’Brien: kuk
@Brendan O’Brien: yeah sure everyone works equally hard, are equally productive, equally intelligent, equally capable, equally motivated. And so should be rewarded equally. Everyone should get a gold medal in the Olympics.
But it should be equal pay for equal results. I could present a show….but just don’t have that character about me that keeps the audience engaged, so should I expect equal pay still.
@Markonline: You shouldn’t expect higher pay simply for being male.
@Brendan O’Brien:
Should someone who does their job more effectively not deserve more money?
@Brendan O’Brien: when the similar issue was being discussed in RTE ( six one news Dobbo and Sharon ) the vast majority of comments and indeed the media narrative including from Dobbo was to INCREASE the female pay to match the (overpaid) male level …..and very very few were saying hang on – look at the high levels in RTE generally – if there is inequality we should lower the male to match the female levels in cases of same work -make it equal pay. Interesting thats what the BBC are doing but not much comment about how Ireland of course always chooses the route that costs the taxpayer MORE…..i
@Nick Allen: Perhaps, but if that person is invariably male, suspicions of bias may be aroused.
In real life, bias is an obvious fact, not a suspicion.
@Brendan O’Brien: why should pay equalisation involve lowering one group’s salary to match another’s?
@Joe Bloggs: I didn’t suggest that it should.
@brendan; I don’t, as shouldn’t people who do not obtain the same results as a co worker, but base their argument on sexism. I don’t go around demanding pay equality for male and female strippers.
@Markonline: The average workplace is not at all similar to the case of strippers. Equal pay for equal work, and an end to discrimination against women, is a sound principle.
@Brendan O’Brien: Who’s discriminating against women?
@?: Any organization that pays them less than men for the same or similar work.
@Brendan O’Brien: to break a company’s pay rates down by gender and not productivity is a completly obsuurd metric to use. Which is why no serious economist give any credence to the gender pay gap.
@John Mc Grath: That’s not true: ‘new figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there are big discrepancies in pay between men and women engaged in similar jobs’.
@Brendan O’Brien: Why don’t companies just hire women and save themselves loads of money in that case?
@Brendan O’Brien: surely if all these organisations are paying women less than men for the same job, there would be lots of companies appearing in court for discrimination!! have you got any examples of this?
HR managers are mainly women – are women allowing other women get paid less?
Also, it is not widely reported but women in their 20s and 30s earn more than men. there is a gender pay gap here – why is that not reported?
it is only when women start having children that they start to earn less due to them choosing to work part time hours, maternity leave, etc
@Brendan O’Brien: again gender is but a single metric and to draw this conclusion based on a single metric will not give a true reflection of reality. And to start with the presupposition that men only get paid more because their men is also a major flaw in this thinking. To not break it down into a multi varied analysis is obsuurd. You have to factor in productivity, hours worked, type of work undertaken, to name but a few. For example, according to government figures men on avarage are working 15% more hours then women but is ever factored in?
@John Mc Grath: John, do you agree that a man and a woman doing the same job: the BBC’s China and India editors, say – should be paid the same, or do you think the man should be paid more simply because he is a man?
That is the issue here.
@John Mc Grath: Brendan is obviously a member of the Cathy Newman Justice for Lobsters Society.
@Brendan O’Brien: No it isn’t. Nobody is arguing that anyone should be paid more simply based on gender.. except feminists.
@Brendan O’Brien: if they are doing the exact same job with same quals and experience, of course they should be paid the same.
however, we don’t have the full facts. maybe the lads work on other jobs that she isn’t and have more experience.
if everything is equal, she can sue for unfair pay instead of writing about it in the papers.
@Brendan O’Brien: you are using “job title” and “work” as if they are interchagble they are not. You can have the same job title/ job description as some one and not be as productive or produce the same value. So to answer your question. Should men and women with the same job title/job description be paid the same? Not necessarily. Should men and women with the same job title who are equally productive and produce the same value be paid the same of cousre.
@Brendan O’Brien: so take the BBC for example, use the metric of gender if you like. Look at the highest paid male presenter and the highest paid female presenter. Their salaries are not in the same ball park, so you can assume some form of discrimination. However if you look at viewership/listenership figures you will see they are not in the same ball park either. So who do you think brings in the greatest add revenue for the BBC. Who has a much better hand to negotiate with when is comes to Salery.
@John Mc Grath: Take a look at my response to the very first comment, where I cite the listenership/viewership of Evans and Winkleman.
@Brendan O’Brien: not as simple as that. My colleagues are both male and female. We are employed to do the same job in different areas of our organisation. If us and our teams do not deliver the results, we get less of a merit increase than someone who has achieved strong results. It’s about competency and results where I work, gender hasn’t a look in.
@Nick Drake: That’s good. ‘Gender hasn’t a look in’ is all that the BBC women want.
Gender imbalance is terrible.
We urgently need to get more women working in building sites, coal mines, oil rigs and on the frontline of battlefield situations.
We also need to drastically increase the amount of male teachers and nurses. You know, in the name of equality .
@Al O’Saurus: It’s not about equality. It’s about a small number of women who want special treatment because of their junk.
Here ìll fix your headline: 5 morons tricked by feminist propaganda at the communist BBC.
@?: Hilarious. You really have swallowed far-right politics whole. I hope you’ll get a bit of sense some day.
@Brendan O’Brien: The delusion is strong with you Brendan.
@Brendan O’Brien: Listen carefully, there is a gap but it is an EARNINGS gap, not a “pay” gap. There is no problem here. Do you just believe any old crap you read?
@Brendan O’Brien:
HR managers are mostly women – are you seriously saying that women are allowing other women be paid less than men??
@?: From the article we’re commenting on: ‘BBC’s China editor Carrie Gracie resigned from her position in protest at unequal pay between male and female international editors.’
@Brendan O’Brien: Where are the millions of lawsuits put forth by women for gender discrimination? That’s illegal you know. Has been for a long time.
@Brendan O’Brien:
why doesn’t she sue then? she would most definitely win.
we don’t have the full facts – have the men more experience and are they doing other work she isn’t. if so, they deserve higher pay.
do you really think that an organisation like the BBC with an extensive HR dept is going to allow true gender inequality??
Oh dear goodness.
Wow look at all these angry comments from single Broflakes, they are so triggered right now. Top tip fellas, if you are too fragile to deal with this article, don’t read it and retreat to your safe space.
@Alt Right Crybaby:
looks like you are the one who is triggered at the ‘broflakes’ presenting actual facts!
@Alt Right Crybaby: -initiate trollbot sequence- -searching database for buzzwords- buzzword selected- -enable post@journal.exe- deploy bullshìt- confirm y/n- bullshìt deployed- initiate shutdown6211i.exe-
@Alt Right Crybaby: Says the fragile crybaby who reported my comment the other day.
@Alt Right Crybaby: Nice one. They are certainly a fragile bunch.
@Alt Right Crybaby: women make mommy.take her brothers sweets off him and give them to her…whining crybabies
Wow..men and women are not equal that should be obvious but not anymore
@Leroy: No they are equal but different, and they are good at different things.
Not equal but equivalent.
All we ever hear about is pay gaps in high earning jobs, sorry if I don’t shed a tear for someone on 500k a year
Soy boys…bowing to the pc agenda. Bag up lads
instead of cutting men ,salaries down what about increasing the women ones ?
- “The BBC said it is not yet known how much the reductions in salary will be.”
Like they’ll give twopence.
@Nick Allen: exactly
Time the BBC was privatised.
Cowards working at the BBC, not men
Why don’t they just pay their female colleagues the same ?
@John Judd: Why should they? Because they have boobies?
Is Nick Cambell the bloke from Big Think? Very disappointed in him.
BBC must be delighted!
I’m so confused. Why don’t they pay the (extremely talented) women more, instead of cutting the men’s?
have your say