Will Boris break the Stormont deadlock?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Daily News, Politics

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Boris is in Belfast today in an attempt to repair relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein. In a 2000 word article for Belfast Telegraph, the Prime Minister laid out his intentions not to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol, but instead to fix it. Can these two polarised parties find a middle ground?

Also on the podcast, Jeremy Hunt was on a media round over the weekend to publicise his new book on the NHS. Yet he was unable to avoid questions about his party.

All to be discussed as Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management, award-winning wealth managers
0:05.6	who go above and beyond to support and guide you. Visit candewelth.com to start building your wealth
0:12.5	with confidence. Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the spectator's daily politics
0:20.4	podcast. I'm Isabelle Harbman and I'm joined by Katie Bulls and James Thecife. Boris Johnson
0:26.6	is in Belfast today where he will be calling on both sides to decrease the tensions and for
0:34.9	the DUP to go into the Northern Ireland executive as the DUP have been refusing to do this over the
0:42.2	Northern Ireland protocol. James, how likely is it that anyone will pay any attention to what he
0:48.8	has to say while the issues with the protocol remain? So Boris Johnson has risen this kind of
0:53.7	2,000-word essay for the Belfast Telegraph, setting out his issues with the protocol. And I think
1:00.3	it is fair to say that the tone of this is different from some of the move music that has been
1:05.3	coming out of the UK government. It is more, well, how do we solve this problem that we can't get
1:10.0	the institutions up and running because there isn't cross-community consent for the protocol.
1:14.4	We're prepared to carry on talking. Although he doesn't resign from the idea of unilaterally
1:19.2	legislating to dis-apply parts of the protocol, he is indicating that that is his last resort.
1:26.1	I think the question here is, I mean this legislation is designed to try and get the EU to change
1:33.2	its negotiating position. It's negotiating mandate. But I think that the EU feel that they are
1:39.2	very reluctant to do that and they also think that as soon as they do that, the concession will be
1:44.4	pocketed and then more will be demanded. But I think what we have seen in the last few days
1:52.7	is both sides having slightly de-escalated in the rhetoric. If you think back to last week,
1:59.2	the UK side was talking more aggressively about publishing the bill and acting unilaterally.
2:04.4	You had the Belgium Prime Minister indicating that the EU was prepared to cancel the entire trade
2:08.8	deal with the UK and if the UK were to actually do this. But I think what we are going to see
	...

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