Boris was warned by Biden, but he stormed ahead ahead anyway.

[speak easy]

Last edited Thu Apr 8, 2021, 10:02 AM - Edit history (2)

Belfast is burning. Johnson's U.K./U.S. trade deal is going up in smoke.

EDIT: Johnson's Brexit deal is unravelling. The UK choose to be be outside of the Customs Union, so the choice was to put the EU Customs border in the Irish Sea or on the island of Ireland Neither option was acceptable to NI partisans. It was only a matter of time until smoldering resentment burst into flames.

Biden and Pelosi warn UK over risking Good Friday agreement

Leading Democrats tell UK foreign secretary that Northern Ireland peace deal cannot be casualty of Brexit

Joe Biden on Wednesday joined the clamour of Democrats warning Boris Johnson not to let the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement become a casualty of his Brexit talks.

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, is in Washington trying to repair relations with pro-Irish Democrats amid concerns that the UK’s attempt to leave the EU on its own terms will undermine the Good Friday peace agreement.

Democrats have warned that if the UK undermines the peace process or reinstates a hard border to secure Brexit on its terms, the UK’s chances of securing the required congressional support for a UK-US free trade deal will disappear.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/16/us-uk-trade-deal-in-danger-if-good-friday-agreement-jeopardised-democrats-warn

[dem4decades]

1. Biden the presidential candidate? How old is this?

[Wounded Bear]

2. Sep 16 2020, maybe...nt

[speak easy]

5. Indeed.

NI was the Brexit immovable object.

[Volaris]

3. Not sure it matters.

Boris and the pro brexit Brits were warned that if they fuck around and do this wrong, NI will probably blow up. And now that appears to be what's happening.

The age of the prophecy (or Bidens insights) doesnt matter if it was correct. Sadly, it was.

(On Edit) the only thing that does matter, is will Biden (now as president) hold the line and keep calling them out, or will he take a different tack. My bet is, hes gonna take them to the woodshed for screwing it up when they were full well told this is exactly what would happen.

[speak easy]

6. It matters if the UK does not get a trade deal - my word it does.

Boris went to the 2019 election saying Trump wanted a trade deal. OnceBrexit was done, he could nail down a trade deal with the U.S. within months..

[Volaris]

8. And if he still wants that to happen, I'm sure the Biden Administration will oblige;

PROVIDED they dont trash the peace accords.

You're correct that overall, yes it matters a great deal.

I was specifically referring to the original quote from then-candidate Biden. He was right when he said it, and it's still correct (so in my mind, that makes its age irrelevant).

If Britain still wants a deal, that's fine but now theres other strings attached. Wrecking the peace deal probably means that a lot of people will start dying again; THAT is a non-starter.

[speak easy]

10. Unless ... people start dying on TV.

Does not have to be a lot of people, just a resumption of low-level sectarian violence.

[Miguelito Loveless]

7. There was no way to "do it right"

as regards Northern Ireland. Brexit was always going to re-kindle violence. Boris and his merry band of privateers didn't care.

[Volaris]

9. And if NI is the 'immovable object' as another poster put it up-thread,

Not having a way to do it right is the unstoppable force.

I really hope that theres a way out of this, cause it's looking like this whole thing is just gonna have to suck now.

And it's the LAST thing that admin, State, OR Congress should have to be spending time on.

[Miguelito Loveless]

11. They had reached a stable political situation

and got all parties to turn back from violence. The younger generation was sick of it, and sick of the outsized influence religion had on the conflict. The Republic turned away from the Catholic Church, which deprived the Protestant opposition in the North a boogey man.

The only thing that could screw it up was the Brits re-starting their racists policies and hearkening to their colonialist/racist past, which the Tories happily did.

[speak easy]

4. and Pelosi the House Speaker

The article is more relevant today than at the time. Johnson's Brexit deal is unravelling. The UK choose to be be outside of the Customs Union, so the choice was to put the Customs border in the Irish Sea or on the island of Ireland Neither option was acceptable to NI partisans.