Strikes. Spreading. Royal Corruption. Trouble in Ireland. British capitalism is creaking

at the seams and the British state is too. I'm Barnaby Rayne standing in for Michael

Walker and this is Tisky Sour. My co-conspirator in the plot to drive Michael Walker from

his job tonight is Ash Sarkar who joins me for the next hour to host the show Ash. Welcome.

Thank you so much for having me. Hopefully, when Michael comes back, there'll be nothing

for him to host, just a pile of ashes where the Tisky studio once stood and you'll

have salted the earth so nothing can grow for a thousand years. A truly poetic imagination.

Liz Truss has introduced the Northern Ireland protocol bill to the House of Commons for its

second reading. If it passes, the bill will grant the government the power to ditch parts of the

Northern Ireland protocol and according to Truss, their reason for bringing the bill is to

protect peace in Ireland. We are taking this action to uphold the Belfast Good Friday Agreement

which has brought peace and political stability to Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland protocol

is undermining the functioning of the agreement and of power sharing. It has created fractures

between East and West. It has diverted trade and meant people in Northern Ireland

are being treated differently from people in Great Britain. It has weakened their economic rights.

This has created a sense that parity of esteem between different parts of the community

and essential part of the agreement has been damaged. This bill will address these political

challenges and fix the practical problems the protocol has created. It avoids a hard border

and protects the integrity of the UK and the EU single market. It is necessary because the

growing issues in Northern Ireland, including on tax and on customs, are baked into the protocol

itself. Our preference remains a negotiated solution and the bill contains a provision that

allows the negotiated agreement. But the EU has ruled out upfront making changes to the

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