More fun and games in NI as British soil removed from plants

 Graun items today show the dimensions and limits of their views. First:

The Police Service of Northern Ireland’s chief constable has urged people to step back from the brink of violence amid rising tensions over disruption to supplies of goods and food from Britain to the region since Brexit. 

Simon Byrne warned of a “febrile” atmosphere after 26 graffiti incidents were detected across Northern Ireland, and EU and local officials were withdrawn from Brexit check duties at ports in Belfast and Larne following threats.

 As predicted, liberals seem to have forgotten the Loyalists. 

Then a revisit to the latest EU cockup beginning with a rather surprising twist:

The EU’s aborted attempt to trigger article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol could be a blessing in disguise for Northern Ireland....it also concentrated minds and crystallised something that until then had not had the airtime it deserved during Brexit negotiations – the impact the protocol would have on a politically unstable region...

Senior public figures not directly involved in politics in Belfast say the problems are caused by the “rigorous and inflexible” application of the protocol....Why did British soil on plants from English nurseries have to be banned? Why were there questions marks over the right of British troops to transport equipment over the Irish border? Why was a BBC camera crew reportedly stopped on returning to Northern Ireland with camera equipment? Where is the creativity and the flexibility Michel Barnier promised?” asked one source.

I must say I do agree with the last bit though:

[there is]...a strong feeling in Belfast that the EU and the UK gave birth to a Brexit baby and virtually walked away without trying to get public buy-in or mitigate the shock of the new.

 And then the GHRaun editorial

The Guardian view on Northern Ireland and Brexit: stick with the protocol
Mr Johnson claimed the right to breach the 1998 agreement once Brexit was complete, a threat he eventually withdrew. [And my God was a fuss there was -- all that shit about Britain's reputation and all that]  Last month it drew closer again, when the European commission recklessly tried to block the export of Covid vaccines from the EU into the UK, in effect hardening the Irish land border.

 The EU and the Irish government dislike it because they dislike Brexit itself. The UK government dislikes it because it tarnishes the dream of a clean break with Europe. Northern Ireland unionists dislike it because it puts Northern Ireland in a special category, simultaneously part of a state that has left the EU but at the same time the only part of the UK still subject to the EU’s rules on trade and hygiene.

 

 [in particular] ...The DUP has got Brexit wrong from the start. It supported leaving the EU when it should have supported remaining. It failed to adapt to Northern Ireland’s vote to stay in, foolishly overplaying its hand against Theresa May, then finding itself ignored by the opportunist Mr Johnson

But there is always good old Gruan liberalism, now the culture hate campaigns have died down:

A readiness is needed on all sides to solve problems practically.