What May 2021 means to me

May 2021 was about voting Brits, Pestilence, conflict and a river of fire in the Congo. 

For the past 4 years, Westminster has treated the Northern Irish as a fifth wheel or obstacle for Brexit, not like a Brother nation in the Kingdom. We had a general election this month and the results revealed that the 4 nations of the United Kingdom are on a different page as a result. 

Nationalist parties gained more seats in Northern Ireland, I imagined people that had marched through the Streets of Belfast in Orange all their lives to show their commitment to the Kingdom looking over their shoulder and voting for Sinn Fien or something like that. Perhaps the Island of Ireland will be one state in the near future. A similar thing was happening in Scotland. 

Later in the month there was an exchange of missile fire in Palestine and Israel, the conflict escalated almost to the point of a war but it remained a rumour, the Egyptians stepped forward to negotiate peace, they seem like the go-to guys for peace talks. 

The C19 virus mutated more and was killing more people in the world, I got vaccinated this month along with millions of other Brits. The Pestilence of the C19 virus is very devastating, I have lost some family members. 

Towards the end of the month, mount Nyiragongo erupted and released a river of lava that destroyed towns nearby. I think the lava eventually reached the city of Goma. Thousands of people fled the disaster in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I wish them all peace and good health. 

Then finally at the last bit of the month it was my Dad's birthday, the west Booths and East Booths were reunited at our parents house for the first time in over a year. 

Happy Times ahead? I hope so. 

Irish back stock

The UK prime minister, Theresa May has made a British exit (Brexit) deal with the EU but the house of commons don't like the deal. The main reason they don't like the deal is because Northern island would be treated like a separate country from the UK. They would have checks made on their products before they enter the British Island.

Let me explain the problem the EU faces. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are two separate countries. When the UK splits away from the EU, the Republic of Ireland will remain in the EU and Northern Ireland will remain part of the UK. If goods are free to move from UK to the republic of Ireland without paying a tariff then the UK could do a trade deal with a country outside the EU and send goods that are not taxed into the rest of the EU through the republic of Ireland. For example, we could remove the tariff on Oranges from Dominica and then send them to the republic of Ireland and then the Republic of Ireland could send the oranges to Germany. This would mean that Oranges are entering the EU without being taxed.

The Irish in the North and South wanted to keep a soft border because people own assets and trade on both sides of the border. I think the best way out of this is to leave without a deal and pay the tariffs, I recall that the deal involved a £39 billion exit fee. Use the exit fee to reimburse businesses that are taxed for their exports. Isn't that a more straight forward way to solve the problem.

My son is due to be born and like his father is spending his time as a fetus in a country that is consumed by chaos and uncertainty. For me it was the Falklands war, for him it is Brexit.

Irish bottleneck

When I voted to leave the EU in 2016, I thought that leaving would be straightforward. I thought we were halfway out already, we never took the currency and we are not in the Schengen zone. I thought it was an opportunity to close our biggest tax loophole because I knew that some of the countries in the EU were tax havens yet they share a common market with us.

I didn't realize that the EU was acting as a proxy union between North and South Ireland and allowing movement of goods and people between the two states. The problem is on both sides because if we import goods into the UK from outside the EU then the Irish border could become a back door to cheat the tariffs and bring goods into the EU, none of the EU countries would accept that. The other problem is that North and South Ireland want to keep a soft border. I don't know how this problem could be solved without investing large amounts of money. 

The only thing I can think of is to add rebate zone where goods are taxed and the tax is reimbursed straight away and special ID cards are given to North Ireland citizens that would allow them to enter the rest of the UK and also ID cards that would let the Republic of Island citizens only enter North Ireland without a visa.This would cost a lot of money because many staff would be needed and the system itself would cost a lot of money.

The other option would be to let North Ireland have a referendum on if they should stay in the UK. I can't think of other solutions.