Category: UK News

Johnson will urge political leaders in Belfast to get back to work and deal with “bread and butter” issues such as the soaring cost of living…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is heading to Northern Ireland on Monday to try to end a political deadlock that is preventing the formation of a regional administration.

The trip comes amid threats by Johnson’s government to break the Brexit agreement with the European Union that it signed, but now blames for the crisis.

Johnson said there would be “a necessity to act” if the EU didn’t agree to overhaul post-Brexit trade rules.

Voters in Northern Ireland elected a new Assembly this month, in an election that saw Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein win the most seats. It was the first time a party that seeks union with the Republic of Ireland has won an election in the bastion of Protestant unionist power.

The Democratic Unionist Party came second and is refusing to form a government, or even allow the assembly to sit, until Johnson’s government scraps post-Brexit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

Under power-sharing rules set up as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, a government can’t be formed without the cooperation of both nationalist and unionist parties.

Johnson will urge political leaders in Belfast to get back to work and deal with “bread and butter” issues such as the soaring cost of living, his office said Sunday.

But Johnson also accused accuse the EU of refusing to give ground over post-Brexit border checks.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with the EU. When Britain left the bloc in 2020, a deal was agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks, because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Instead, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

The arrangement is opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland, who say the new checks have put a burden on businesses and frayed the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

The British government agrees that the regulations are destabilizing Northern Ireland’s peace agreement, which relies on support from both Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist communities.

The prime minister’s office said Sunday that the trade agreement — which Johnson’s government negotiated and signed — had “resulted in the unionist community feeling like its aspirations and identity are threatened.”

In the Belfast Telegraph, Johnson accused the EU of failing to recognize that the arrangements weren’t working.

“I hope the EU’s position changes. If it does not, there will be a necessity to act,” he wrote.

Johnson said his government would “set out a more detailed assessment and next steps to Parliament in the coming days.”

The U.K. has said it may pass a law allowing it to override parts of the Brexit treaty if the EU doesn’t agree to scrap the checks. If that happened the EU would hit back with legal action — and potentially trade sanctions. The 27-nation bloc is Britain’s biggest economic partner.

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Lady Paul was strikingly good looking and the story goes, the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray wanted to cast her in one of his movies….reports Asian Lite News

Lady Aruna Paul, wife of Lord Swraj Paul of Marylebone, was cremated at north London’s Golders Green crematorium on Wednesday in the presence of family members and close friends.

At the service preceding the cremation, Cherie Blair, eminent barrister and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said: “It isn’t easy to build a life in a new country as Aruna and Swraj did here in the UK… their achievements were marked by Swraj’s elevation to the House of Lords for his services to industry and to the Labour party and many Labour leaders including Tony welcomed and listened to his advice, and therefore, I know they were listening to Aruna’s advice.”

Lord Paul also briefly spoke at the ceremony in a moving manner. He recalled: “65 years ago I married one of the most beautiful girls of Calcutta.” With tears in his eyes, he concluded: “Aruna I will miss you. Good bye my dear. I love you. I will always love you.”

Lady Paul was strikingly good looking and the story goes, the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray wanted to cast her in one of his movies.

She leaves behind a 91-year-old husband, who is chairman of Caparo Group, which has businesses in the UK, the US, India, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

Also in mourning are twin sons Akash and Ambar, daughter Anjli, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The last rites of Indian industrialist G.D. Birla were also performed at Golders Green crematorium in 1983.

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The PM will update party leaders on the UK Government’s discussions with EU leaders over recent days, in which the EU have confirmed that they will never change their current negotiating mandate….reports Asian Lite News

The Northern Ireland power sharing institutions must get back up and running so that they can start delivering on the issues that matter for the people of Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister will tell party leaders this week.

Delivering a “tough message” in private meetings on his first visit to Belfast since the Assembly elections, the Prime Minister is expected say that – while the UK government will “play its part to ensure political stability” – any action to fix the Protocol must result in all parties coming together to form and Executive and Assembly.

Drawing on his time as Mayor of London, he will say that there is “no substitute for strong local leadership”. Legislators must “get back to work” so that they can deal with the “bread and butter issues” like supporting families with the cost of living, cutting covid backlogs and fighting crime.

In his meetings with party leaders, the Prime Minister will also guarantee the delivery of three pre-existing commitments to Northern Ireland in the “coming weeks” including: Taking forward the Language and Culture Package agreed as part of the New Decade, New Approach, Intervening to deliver abortion regulations and place a duty on the Department of Health, so that women and girls have access to services that are their legal right and Introducing new measures to deal with the legacy of the past, with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland setting out more detail in the coming days and weeks.

The PM will update party leaders on the UK Government’s discussions with EU leaders over recent days, in which the EU have confirmed that they will never change their current negotiating mandate.

He will tell party leaders “that we will always keep the door open to genuine dialogue” however “there will be a necessity to act” and protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement if the EU does not change its position.

The PM will make clear that the government has never suggested scrapping the Protocol. There will always have to be a treaty governing the UK’s relationship with the EU in respect of Northern Ireland in order to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland and protect the integrity of the EU single market.

Instead, the Protocol needs to be reformed so that it delivers on its initial objectives to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in all its dimensions.

He will say that there is “no disguising the fact” that the delicate balance of the Agreement has been upset by the Protocol, because one strand of the Agreement (North-South) has taken precedent over another (East-West).

This undermines the text of the Agreement, which makes clear that all strands are of “interlocking and of equal importance”. It has eroded the historic economic bonds which link Great Britain and Northern Ireland and resulted in the Unionist community feeling like its aspirations and identity are threatened.

The UK and EU’s “shared objective” should be for a reformed Protocol to enjoy “the broadest possible cross-community support” when it faces a consent vote in 2024, he will say.

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