The humble sausage – now a ’cause of war’
Thanks to footie, covid and the G7 theatre the ‘Sausage War’ between us and the EU has been relegated to the inside pages of the MSM. I’ve stockpiled the few relevant MSM reports from the last two weeks in order to look at them collectively.
We recall the foot-stomping of that Brussels Kommissar, Mr Sefcovic, who tried to bully Frosty, using language straight out of the communists’ handbook. We recall the intervention of Mr Biden who was so very worried about the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
We noted the usual EU intransigence in the run-up to the G7 summit. It was just ‘Grand Theatre’. The fact that a certain M Barnier was astonishingly silent about this should have been an indicator that things were not quite as they seemed.
Now we’re told that graciously Brussels might agree to an extension of that ‘grace period’ which allows sausages and mince from the UK to enter NI. These products were going to be banned from the end of this month.
However, a few days ago one report caught my eyes. It demonstrated that, actually, this ‘sausage war’ was only about the EU trying to show some sort of strength on the international stage in the run-up to the G7 summit where both Ms vdLeyen and M Michel were present. Why our MSM didn’t laugh the whole thing out of court, well, once Remain – always Remain! Savour this:
“Northern Ireland’s most popular supermarkets will be unharmed by any EU ban on British bangers […] Tesco, which boasts 50 stores in Northern Ireland, has only stocked sausages from local suppliers for several years. Marks and Spencer, which has about 20 stores in the country, also gets its entire chilled sausage stock from Northern Ireland, which means the popular shops are invincible in the face of the threatened ban on imported UK sausages. Other major supermarkets operating in Northern Ireland, which has a proud sausage making tradition, are believed to source most of their bangers domestically.” (paywalled link)
Clearly, this ‘sausage war’ wasn’t about saving Ireland and the EU from UK-made sausages infiltrating their pristine Single Market! Clearly the ‘threat of a trade war’, so eagerly picked up by the G7, was a political pretense, making those leaders look good and important, bent on defusing ‘a war’ – which was in fact a fabrication of Brussels.
Our friends at facts4eu have dedicated a whole series on the question of NI and, as always, presented some very inconvenient facts which should have caught the attention of the EU ‘reporters’ in our MSM. They show for example that this kerfuffle about sausages and trade wars is in reality about something else.
They document that, actually, the NI cross-border trade with Ireland amounts to 0.2% of all goods entering the single Market. Yes – that’s correct: 0.2%. Read the whole report here – there are also links to their previous reports on this EU-made problem. Their observations are worth repeating:
“Who do the EU think they’re kidding? The value of the EU’s imports of goods crossing the Northern Irish border to the Republic of Ireland, still an EU member, is just 0.2% of the value of all goods imports entering the EU. In accounting terms this is a rounding error. If the EU thinks the integrity of its Single Market is in any way under threat from such a tiny amount of imports, the vast majority of which are in any case covered by a small number of N.I. exporters under the trusted trader scheme, then they really are in trouble.” (link)
It doesn’t stop there. There’s also a report based on the EU’s own trade figures for the first four months of this year according to which trade between the UK and the EU dropped by 27% (link). In that same period, imports from China (!) rose by 22%, imports from covid-infested India rose by 14% and the EU even imported 12% more from Russia, despite “Putin – bad”. In other words, Brussels is hell-bent on punishing us for Brexit, regardless of the UK having:
“adopted a light touch to border controls for EU products entering the UK. The EU has done the precise opposite to UK products entering the EU. – The UK has unilaterally allowed EU firms ‘equivalence’ to operate in financial services in the UK. The EU has done the opposite, actively trying to prevent City firms from operating in the EU.” (link)
That puts the whole NI ‘Trade War’ into a different perspective. Thanks to our Remain MSM people simply don’t know about this. It’s this ignorance which allows Remainers to fight tooth and claw against revoking the NI protocol altogether. It’s this wilful, purposeful Remain fight, trying to keep us in the dark again, which fuels their crowing about mighty Brussels to which we surely must bend the knee.
This Remain mindset is the reason why the reports this morning, about the EU being willing to accede to Lord Frost’s letter asking permission to extend the grace period for another three months, paint Brussels and Mr Sefcovic in the colours of a benign potentate as the wordings in the relevant articles in the DM (link) and the DT reveal. For example, Lord Frost wrote a ‘begging letter’, formally requesting the extension of that grace period to September 30th which Brussels ‘welcomed’ (paywalled link). Here’s RemainCentral:
“The EU is preparing to agree to a three-month extension when Britain can send processed meat to Northern Ireland in an attempt to avoid a “sausage trade war”. Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, formally requested the extension until September 30 from Brussels yesterday. Publicly the commission said that it would “assess” the request. Britain had said that it could unilaterally extend the deadline if Brussels did not back down. Sources said privately that the EU planned to grant the request to give the sides more time to reach a settlement on all aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol.” (link, paywalled)
A sweet little storm in the Brexit teacup? Not quite. It turns out that in reality these issues have been addressed for months now, as facts4eu report (link). There, they publish the minutes of the London meeting before the G7 summit, together with the revelation that apparently “the EU Commission would not consider the UK’s request to resolve these issues until they had received a formal letter from Lord Frost” (link). In other words, Brussels demands to be begged before they deign to resolve items already having been negotiated for months.
Thanks to covid this pernicious Brussels attitude hasn’t got the attention it surely deserves. Our MSM much preferred to turn a blind eye. However, it’ s time to take up the cudgels and say that enough is enough. Instead of writing ‘formal’ begging letters it’s time for Lord Frost to inform Brussels that we’re not playing any longer and that we’ll scrap the NI Protocol and go full WTO.
The trade figures show that our EU trade can’t be more damaged by Bruseels than it is already. Our mellow attempts to provide unilateral equivalence, to ease customs barriers with the EU are clearly not bearing fruit. So why must we keep bainging our heads against Brussels’ walls?
Perhaps Frosty ought to tell BoJo that he would look oh so grand on the international stage if he showed determination, standing up for our country against the EU tyrants and going full WTO. June 23rd next week, the anniversary of the EU Referendum, would be a good day for it.
KBO!
Photo by ChodHound 
Scrap the N.I. Protocol. June 23rd would be a good date to do that.
And isn’t there a clause written in to it allowing us to do that?
Slightly off topic but covid related, given the large numbers of adverse reactions and deaths due to the jab it is very strange that it does not appear to have affected any politicians of note, despite the huge numbers of them. Why would that be, I wonder?
Well Ladies and Gents, 27% means we are starting to hurt the eu. However we need more so lets rally to cause and put our boot on Sefcovids neck as we intensify the boycott of eu goods and farm produce
Surely, knowing the fact that only 0.2% of goods pass into the EU Single Regulated Market from N Ireland, should have caused our negotiators to laugh in their faces and broadcast to the world what blockheaded goofballs we were dealing with. It’s almost as if our Cabinet and Civil Serpents wanted to hive off Northern Ireland. Now that couldn’t be the case could it?
What good advice from Ghandi: ” (You) Be the change you want”. Thanks for that Mike D.
Boris Johnson is a root and branch supporter of the global trend towards full scale totalitarianism. I can only assume that he is ‘on the payroll’ of those whose avowed intention it is to subjugate the World. I am sure that the EU is in on the act and as Johnson is a ‘friend’ to the EU (despite his BREXIT front) it follows that Johnson is part of the ‘club’ that threatens us all! As there doesn’t seem to be another politician in the ‘House of Cards’ that has any patriotism or backbone to resist the destruction of their Country it would appear that only full scale rejection of the whole damn bench will solve our problem. I cannot see that happening any time soon because most of the vaxxed sheep are blind to the damage that has been done.
Colin is being kind to Boris when he describes him as a clown.
Boris is a mess.
It might improve his image on the World stage if he could find a tailor to make him some clothes that fit. A tent-maker might do as good a job.
Next a decent barber
And finally a week with some brass-lunged Drill Sergeant from the Brigade of Guards, who might be able to get him to stand up straight and take his hands out of his pockets.
He might, just might improve his image in the eyes or the electorate if he could tell the truth consistently, listen to the ordinary working men and women, and be seen to be working in the best interests of Great Britain…. But that really is wishful thinking.
And then he’d be just like every other politician. Why do you think people voted for him? Because he’s different!
Dickatbarn, you are right I am being polite, but I would like to use much stronger language but it wouldn’t be permitted. I just have a very deep mistrust of the man, even though I voted for the twerp in 2019. In short he is just an opportunist of the worst kind who lacks any real political conviction, nothing more nothing less. The sooner is gone, the better it will be for the ruddy useless Conservative Party and the country as a whole.
The only connection between the resident clown in Downing Street and Sir Winston Churchill is that the clown wrote a book about Churchill, which in fact isn’t that great, and there are far better books around on that subject. I have several books on Churchill gracing my bookshelves, and Johnson’s version is one of those that is absent, and will remain so. The chickens are now coming home to roost as far the clown is concerned, and not before time. He has utterly wasted the goodwill give to him by the people who voted for his party in 2019 to give us the Brexit we voted for in the Referendum, because he has personally screwed it up with the Northern Ireland protocol and allowed the province to be treated as a separate entity from the rest of the country. However anyone who thinks that voting for any other party in 2019, and I include Jake in this category, lives in cloud cuckoo land if they think we would have got any type of Brexit over the line. That and the total and unequivocal failure of his useless government to stem the flow of illegal migrants into the country from France which to any sane person is a source of inward progression of Covid 19 and other diseases, and his plan to reform planning rules to give the green light to developers to build across the green belt, and reducing the abilities of residents to object. And to cap it all, the clown’s ridiculous use of the English language like ‘one least heave’ and ‘taking the foot off the accelerator’ to deprive the citizens of this country of our civil liberties and freedoms for at least another four weeks or more like likely several months, all because of an illness that affected a small portion of the population. Yes, the chickens are coming home to roost, and if the Conservative Party have any sense which I doubt, they would be wise to ditch the clown at the earliest opportunity because he will be a vote loser, and the ‘blue wall and red wall will collapse. The Conservatives have been complacent for many a year, and treat the electorate like mugs and quite wrongly believe they can rule over for us forever and a day. I only wish we had a decent alternative to vote for. Assuming UKIP gets it act together, I and other I know might be tempted to return to that fold, as Reform UK doesn’t cut the mustard in any way shape or form.
“I only wish we had a decent alternative to vote for.” Wishing won’t fix it, nor will an alternative party. To quote Mahatma Ghandi: (You) Be the change you wish to see.
One locally chosen independent candidate in every constituency who would stand as a constituency representative rather than a party representative, would utterly transform the way politics works in our country. I do not believe that it is impossible to find 650 independent, local candidates from among 65+ million people. But only if you truly want to see change, you understand?
Michael D. Me and a political colleague from UKIP days and more latterly The Brexit Party, have already gone down the line that you have have suggested and set up an Independent Party local to where we live. We had both been selected to stand as Reform UK candidates in the local elections, but when Nigel Farage stepped down from the leadership and Richard stepped into his shoes, the writing was on the wall. We both felt that we could go onto the doorstep and promote a party that was not democratically run or have any discernible policies, and immediately went about about setting up an ‘Independent Party’ and website and formed our own local policies. With only six weeks campaigning under our belt and with limited finance and manpower resources we achieved 9% share of the vote. Of course we didn’t win the two county council seats, but we believe that under the auspices of Reform UK we would have been lucky to have received 1% of the vote, which has largely been borne out by the results in both Hartlepool and Chesham and Amersham. Going independent is the way to go, but I am open to returning to UKIP should it reform and rebrand itself, as it should have done years ago when the opportunity arose.
The country gave The Fat Boy all the cards he needed to deliver the Brexit we voted for. Those who voted for him thinking they were getting a Churchill got a Chamberlain instead.