“How the EU and the Republic of Ireland conspired to break up the United Kingdom”

Facts4EU.Org presents documented evidence of an international scandal

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

Is the PM’s New Year’s resolution to resolve the NI issue and reunite the United Kingdom?
And with the US President slated to visit in the Spring, does anyone care if he cancels?

The latest comments out of the White House suggest that US President Joe Biden will not visit the UK and the Republic of Ireland unless the current difficulties over the EU-drafted N.I. Protocol are sorted out.

In addition, on 19 December US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment of Joe Kennedy III as the U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Mr Kennedy is of course a member of the Catholic Kennedy clan, who originally hail from County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland.

The Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Just before Christmas, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak put in a call to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at which the Protocol was discussed.

Given that the mood music coming out of No.10 reeks of the compromise and weakness of the Theresa May years, Facts4EU.Org felt that both No.10 and the White House should read an excerpt from the second-most popular report we published in 2022.

We hope this will inform the badly-informed US President, as well as stiffening the sinews of the PM and his Cabinet in talks with the EU.

How the EU and the Republic of Ireland conspired to break up the United Kingdom
The basic facts

In 2017, committees of the Dáil Éireann and the House of Commons were told by the heads of their respective Customs authorities that no border infrastructure would be necessary as a result of Brexit – even in the event of a worst-case ‘no-deal Brexit’. In 2018 the committee of the EU parliament was told the same thing by the expert they commissioned to produce a report.

The story never told by the BBC

Five years ago Facts4EU.Org published the testimony of the heads of the Irish Revenue and HMRC, followed up by the testimony of the EU parliament’s expert.

All of them made it clear there was no need for a “Northern Ireland Protocol”.

The EU then conspired with the government of Leo Varadkar to prevent the customs services of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom from talking to each other.

Today, together with CIBUK.Org – of which Facts4EU.Org is an affiliate member - we are placing the facts on record once again.

The testimonies

Facts4EU.Org has chapter and verse of the testimonies of the key parties involved in ensuring trade would continue normally across the North-South border in Ireland following Brexit.

Below we present some key extracts which make it clear that there was never any need for an N.I. Protocol and that Mr Varadkar’s government and the EU Commission did what they did in order to divide the United Kingdom – for their own political ends.

Back in 2017, testimony to the parliaments was given on the basis that the entire UK (including Northern Ireland) would be OUT of the Single Market, and OUT of the Customs Union. In other words, with no Protocol and what was deemed "the worst case".

The Leader of the TUV, Jim Allister MLA,
commented exclusively to Facts4EU and CIBUK on our report below

“The infrastructure which was in place on the border for 30 years was not there to stop items which did not conform to trading rules but to stop murderers and gunmen who used the Republic as a base of operations against the United Kingdom and shamefully were protected in doing so by the Irish constitution.
"During the entire debate about Brexit and the Protocol I have repeatedly made the point that no one was suggesting the introduction of a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The U.K. was clear that they would not build it. The Irish Government repeatedly said that they would not. The EU told us that they wouldn’t either. The whole “threat” was a bogus one designed to punish the U.K. for daring to leave the EU."

“I commend Facts4EU and CIBUK for collecting together information from both HMRC and the Irish Revenue Commissioner which make crystal clear that there was never any prospect of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
“Yet this is the justification cited for the internal U.K. border which currently splits our country in two and denies Northern Ireland its rightful place of full and equal citizenship within the nation."
Jim Allister MLA, Leader of the Traditional Ulster Voice party, Thurs 29 Dec 2022

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Damning evidence against the EU and Irish government over the N.I. Protocol

What follows are formal testimonies given to the parliamentary committees
of the UK's and Republic of Ireland's parliaments

1. What HMRC said about there being no need for a Protocol

Q: “In the event of no deal, would it be possible to achieve no border infrastructure?”

Sir Jon Thompson, CEO of HMRC, 2017 : "We do not believe we require any infrastructure between Northern Ireland and Ireland under any circumstances."

2. On the EU preventing the UK and Irish Customs organisations from implementing solutions

Q: “Have you had any dealings with the Irish about this?”

Sir Jon Thompson, Head of HMRC: “There are no formal conversations with either the French or the Irish. We cannot talk to Customs or taxation management organisations in either of those countries. There are only informal conversations with the Belgians and the Dutch.”

3. What the Irish Revenue said about there being no need for a Protocol

Liam Irwin (Irish Revenue Commissioner):

“We are planning for trade facilitation, enabling goods to move. We have absolutely no plans for anything along the Border at this stage.”

Q: “Revenue has identified several locations where customs posts could be erected in------”

Mr Liam Irwin (Irish Customs): “That is not true.”

Q: “That is not true?”

Mr Liam Irwin (Irish Customs): “That is not true.”

4. On the EU preventing the UK and Irish Customs organisations from implementing solutions

Q: “Could Mr. Cody clarify whether there is a legal impediment to negotiations between us and-----”

Mr Niall Cody (Irish Customs): “Yes.”

Q: “-----so we can have discussions but not negotiations?”

Mr Niall Cody (Irish Customs): “The European Union will be negotiating with the United Kingdom in regard to Brexit.”

5. What the EU Parliament’s independent expert said about there being no need for a Protocol

Lars Karlsson, author of the EU parliament’s ‘Brexit Border/Customs Report’ and the EU parliament’s chosen expert, former Director of the World Customs Organization, speaking to the Exiting The EU Committee in Mar 2018:

"There would not need to be any necessary infrastructure and not need to be either CCTV cameras or number plate readers."

Question: “But the technology proposed in this report is untested, that’s correct isn’t it?” asked Joanna Cherry MP (SNP). “The proposal you’ve put here hasn’t actually been tested at any location anywhere in the world.”

Karlsson: “No that’s not correct. It actually has.”

Observations

Our evidence above makes it clear. This is an international scandal.

The heads of both the UK's and the Republic of Ireland's Customs bodies were adamant that no hard border would be required between Northern Ireland and the Republic as a result of Brexit. It could all be taken care of between them.

The independent expert commissioned by the EU Parliament came up with the same conclusion.

Despite this expert testimony, the EU Commission and the Irish government of Leo Varadkar stepped in. They stopped the dialogue between the two professional bodies, and then politicised and weaponised the hard-won peace process which had resulted in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

"A sham and a deceit"

We are grateful to Jim Allister MLA for his comments on our report today. Just prior to Christmas he issued a statement asking the following question: “Can mere adjustments to its implementation change in any way the legal realities and constitutional impact of the Protocol, for example, remove the imposition of foreign law in NI, or cease to regard GB as a foreign country in its trade with NI, or remove the Irish Sea border, or extract NI from the EU’s Single Market for goods, Customs Code or VAT regime, or restore Art 6 of the Acts of Union? No.

“So, aren’t the present talks/negotiations with the EU a sham and a deceit? Yes.”

We must get reports like this out there - to MPs and to Washington

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily.

However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

Facts4EU.Org needs you today

We are a 'not for profit' team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

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[ Sources: UK Parliament | Irish parliament | EU Commission | EU Parliament ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 29 Dec 2022

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Reader Comments 38

1. terence patrick hewett , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 06:55:

The EU are not our friends, they are hostile enemies and neighbours. The EU only understands one thing, and that thing is brute force. It has been ever thus: our enemies always come from the continent of Europe, but when they need us, it is a different story. I find the whole pack of jackals totally disgusting.

2. Sparky , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 06:59:

Still trying to blame someone else for the c*** Brexit that was sold on lies and false promises. It’s not the EU trying to break up the UK, they’re not interested, Brexit is doing plenty of self harm on its own. You have been sold a lie and you won’t accept it and your still listening to the lies.

3. Les , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 07:27:

Sparky, talking of lies, how is your super gonorrhea?

4. Buster , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 09:33:

Brexitists whinging about Brexit - part 1,972.
I appreciate most of you are - how to say this nicely - a bit thick, but it was evident from before you voted for Brexit that the impacts on NI would be profound. There would need to be a border.
During the referendum campaign Tony Blair and John Major walked over the peace bridge together to make this point. They were berated by Farage and Hoey but it turns out the former PMs were right - again.
Brexit was primarily about borders. You all said so throughout the campaign - take back control of our borders. Our waters. It would have helped if you actually understood what a border is - but none of you did.
So let me help you. A border is a barrier to anything which crosses it. Whether it is a person, a lorry or a cheese sandwich inside that lorry. The rules on one side of the border are different from those on the other side of it. Hence the need for checks.
It is a towering achievement of the EU that borders between its members have been eliminated - enabling goods and people to cross them friction free. I can make goods in a factory in Calais, stick them on a Polish lorry and have a Spaniard drive them to Croatia via half a dozen countries. And I can do this without physical checks because the same minimum standards apply throughout. Those standards are set by EU law and are enforced by the ECJ.
But Brexitists wanted to scrap standards and hated the ECJ - even though they didn’t know what it was - so it was evident we would need borders. That’s easy at Dover - where lorries carrying UK exports now sit in a permanent Brexit traffic jam awaiting checks. There are no checks on imports because Jacob Rees Mogg said it would be too costly. So we are no longer policing products coming into the country - relying on the EU, whose standards Brexitists reject, to do it instead.
(Part 1 - part 2 coming shortly)

5. Buster , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 09:44:

(Part 2)
There are also long queues for people as well as Brexit borders mean more checks, more paperwork and will soon mean visa waivers for British tourists. These checks have decimated industries like school exchanges. French and German kids don’t bother coming here any more as in a desperate attempt to keep the brown people out the Brexitists made it too hard for anyone else to come in.
Then there is Northern Ireland. With close to half the people in NI rejecting British rule all together this was always going to be a flashpoint. In fairness to Theresa May her deal - which the Brexitists rejected - avoided a border. But Johnson and Frost asked for a border down the Irish Sea and they got one. The public endorsed this at a general election and Brexitists in Parliament voted for it.
It has worked as Northern Ireland’s economy has outperformed the rest of the UK by a considerable margin. NI is, in effect, a control experiment to see whether Brexit has worked economically. NI effectively remains inside Margaret Thatcher’s single market and economically it has done much better than the rest of the UK.
This is why the Brexitists are desperate to unwind their protocol. It proves Brexit has failed.
But I’m afraid despite the nonstop whinging of Brexitists their protocol is going nowhere. Their protocol is Brexit. You wanted it and this is what you got. You were warned and you didn’t listen. You thought you knew best. You didn’t.
So stop your moaning and enjoy filling in your Brexit customs forms on stuff you are sending to Belfast.

6. Ursula von der Leyen , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 10:14:

Buster, good little puppet, thank you for publishing the lies - I mean lines - I fed you. Your fake silvers are already in transfer. Keep up the trolling!
Love,
Ursula
Xx

7. NoSurrender , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 10:22:

Brexit offers a great opportunity to build a wall between NI and the RoI and get the EU to pay for it.

8. Paul j , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 11:43:

Can someone remove permanently this lying EU troll Buster?
He is now just spreading blatant lies.
Two thirds of Northern Ireland people want to remain part of the UK in the latest poll and Northern Ireland is one of the worse performing parts of the UK because of the protocol proven by the recent pmi results.
Buster YOU are a typical rejoiner liar and shame on you!

9. Ashley Great Britain , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 11:51:

4,5 Buster.
Your very articulate in providing mistruths in your case against Brexit.
You choose to utterly disregard this report and the expert evidence provided in it.
The words and reports of these officials were viewed by people around the world during the start of Brexit.
It is plain as day that the EU commission planned to create as many problems as possible for an exiting Britain.
Couple that with great swathes of EU supporters in UK office and we arrived where we are today.
Britain has and is still fighting enemies foreign and domestic.
The whole of Brexit could and should have been a smooth process but Britain's EU exit has been undermined from the start.
The EU is angry at what they have lost, they don't want a successful Britain as neighbours.
By the way I'm quite sure a visa waiver is like when a British citizen goes on holiday to say, South Africa. At the airport the immigration officer asks, what are you here for, you say a two week holiday, he says you have three months, enjoy your stay and stamps your passport.
This is very beneficial for a British traveller.
If EU customs wish to charge £8 for the same privilege then so be it on them.

10. Buster , Thursday, December 29, 2022, 11:54:

Bless. You are using a poll. I am using actual election results from this year - 35 NI Assembly Seats to nationalist parties. 35 NI Assembly seats to unionist parties. The rest to the Alliance. Anyway if you are so confident have a border poll - see how you get on.
As for PMI - they’re forecasts.
I appreciate your Brexit is a disaster. I appreciate your ability to engage in facts is limited. But I enjoy very much laughing at all of you. Frankly, you couldn’t have delivered such an epic t*rd as your Brexit is if you had tried.
The country hates your Brexit - even swathes of those that voted for it. They think you spectacularly failed. They’re right. And watching you all squirm and get angry is fun. Particularly as this is as good as it gets for you and Brexit t*rd.

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