Thread by @jonworth

As arguments about the interplay between the NI Protocol and TCA rumble on, it's time for a kind of typology of solutions

These are:
1️⃣ Turn-a-blind-eye
2️⃣ All-UK
3️⃣ Build-the-infrastructure

A quick 🧵

1️⃣ Turn-a-blind-eye

Example:
"Gove asks EU for extension of NI Protocol grace periods to 2023"
uk.news.yahoo.com/gove-asks-eu-e…

Basically everything agreed is too hard to do, grace periods to be extended long beyond April

Leads to legal uncertainty

Typical quote:
Michael Gove "It does not threaten the integrity of the EU single market to have bulbs ordered from a wholesaler in Scotland or England which will then be planted in a garden in Belfast or Ballymena."

Who wants it ✅
- 🇬🇧 Government (it avoids them having to do anything)
- Northern Irish unionists

Who doesn't like it ❌
- 🇪🇺 (due to legal uncertainty)

2️⃣ All-UK

Example:
"Deal for common EU-UK food safety standards ‘on the table,’ Šefčovič says"
politico.eu/article/deal-f…

Sort out a Brexit problem for *the whole of the UK*, thereby helping Northern Ireland too

e.g. SPS, pet passports

Typical quote:
Stephen Farry MP (Alliance Party) "I am calling on the UK Government to urgently seek a UK-EU veterinary agreement."

Who wants it ✅
- Northern Irish pragmatists

Who could live with it
- 🇪🇺 (it's admin hassle, but works)

Who doesn't like it ❌
- 🇬🇧 Government (they'd have to abandon their sovereignty at all costs Brexit)

3️⃣ Build-the-infrastructure

Example:
"Gove assures EU the UK will speedily build checkpoints at four NI ports"
newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/…

Full checks on imports into NI only due from 1 April - extra infrastructure needed to make sure this happens

Typical quote:
Maroš Šefčovič (in letter to Gove 10.2.2021): "The Border Control Posts (BCPs) or Entry Posts are not yet fully operational. Official controls at the BCPs are currently not performed in compliance with the Withdrawal Agreement Protocol..."

Who wants it ✅
- 🇪🇺

Who doesn't like it ❌
- Northern Ireland Unionists (means border in the Irish Sea)
- 🇬🇧 Government (there are high costs to doing it)

It is not correct to say there are no solutions to the problems posed by the NI Protocol and TCA

But each sort of solution is opposed by at least one of the main players

cc. @KeohaneDan

/ends