Thursday, January 31, 2019

Nice One, Poland!

BREXIT BREAKTHROUGH: Poland demands EU give May deal that WILL be supported in Commons

THERESA May’s hopes of a revised Brexit deal were boosted last night when the Polish government urged the EU to prevent Britain quitting the bloc without a deal.

Prophecy.

The Time Is Surely Getting Short.


Birdie.


Nigeria Is Getting Worse.

VIOLENCE DRIVES NIGERIA UP TO NUMBER 12 ON THE WORLD WATCH LIST

16 January 2019
Nigeria is joint top (tied with Pakistan) for the place where Christians experience the highest levels of violent persecution. It has risen two places to number 12 on this year’s World Watch List.
In the north of the country, Boko Haram continues its deadly attacks – even killing Muslims working for the Red Cross (thus defying Nigerian Army claims that it has been defeated). But it is not as active as in the past few years. And anyway, Boko Haram was only ever a part - albeit a violent and extreme part - of persecution in Nigeria.
Across the Middle Belt of Nigeria, decades of climate change and creeping desertification, combined with rapid population growth, has led to an increasingly violent struggle for land and resources. The conflict is largely between nomadic, predominantly Muslim Fulani cattle herders and indigenous, predominantly Christian farmers.
During the first quarter of 2018 (the most recent for which comparison figures are available) 1,061 deaths were documented in 106 attacks by the Fulani militia on communities in Adamawa, Benue, southern Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba states, with an additional 17 lives lost in attacks in the south of Nigeria. Seven instances of violence targeting Fulani herders or communities, in which 61 people lost their lives, are also documented; two of these attacks were in the south of the country.

‘ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CLEANSING’

These are more than just random attacks. An increase in the use of AK-47s and heavier weapons, and the murder of entire families in their homes – such as in the city suburbs of Jos in October 2018 – has led many Christians to claim such attacks amount to a campaign of ethno-religious cleansing. Meanwhile, government accounts often deliberately under-report the number of victims. For instance, over one weekend in June, around 230 were killed, but the BBC and other news agencies reported the ‘official’ government figure of 86.
When he met the Archbishop of Canterbury in London in April, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari told him that foreign fighters from Libya had come via the Sahara region to exacerbate this long-running conflict, which experts say has killed more people than has the Boko Haram insurgency.
But persecution in Nigeria is more than violence. A Christian-Muslim fault-line runs across the middle of the country. In the 12 northern Nigeria states ruled by Sharia (Islamic law), Christians continue to report being denied their constitutionally protected rights. They simply do not receive the opportunities, provisions and protections afforded to Muslims. Violations include difficulty in accessing education and denial of access to jobs in security and many other sectors.

STAND WITH YOUR CHURCH FAMILY IN NIGERIA

Your support and prayers are vital for our persecuted church family in northern Nigeria. Rev Danjuma from northern Nigeria recently told us, “Open Doors is an organisation that identifies with the persecuted church holistically, meeting both our spiritual, physical and economic needs. Without your assistance many of us will die of hunger. Widows who get the school fees support would not have been able to send their children to school if not for your support. Your support has rekindled our hope and strengthened our faith in God.”
Open Doors partners with the local church to strengthen persecuted believers in Nigeria with training, community development, emergency relief, trauma care and legal assistance. This work is only possible thanks to your support. £20 can provide food aid to a hungry family in the region for two weeks, to help them survive.
Please pray for our church family in northern Nigeria. Pray for an end to the violence that has been raging against them for years. Pray that God will provide for all their needs, and use Open Doors local partners to reach those in most need of support. And pray for strength to endure. Rev Danjuma says, “The most pressing request from Christians in persecuted areas is pleading for prayer to be able to stand strong in the faith. Christians do not want to deviate from the Truth when there is so much hardship.” Open Doors.

The Diversity Agenda.

THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF THE “DIVERSITY” AGENDA

 JANUARY 25, 2019 Melanie Phillips.
If there’s one concept in Western progressive circles that is deemed essential for a decent society, it’s “social inclusion.” The promotion of diversity is assumed to be morally unchallengeable.
That’s also the prevalent attitude among Jews in both America and Britain.
Many if not most support liberal immigration policies and equate antisemitism with “Islamophobia.” The belief is that those who are against immigration and diversity will be against the Jews too.
In fact, the opposite is the case.
The default narrative on the left is venomous hostility to Israel. This is the “new antisemitism,” singling out Israel for demonization based on lies and distortions afforded to no other country, people or cause, and which has legitimized antisemitic tropes straight out of the Nazi or medieval Christian playbooks.
In Britain, this has all but consumed the Labour Party under its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn. In the United States, it is making steady and unchecked headway in the Democratic Party.
But what has not been acknowledged is that this is being fueled by the embrace of diversity.
In Western Europe, mass immigration and the increasing Islamization of countries such as France, Germany or Sweden are the principal cause of a horrifying increase in violent attacks on Jews. This is rarely acknowledged.
In Britain, antisemitic attacks have reached record levels. They are perpetrated by significantly disproportionate numbers of Muslims relative to their proportion of the population.
This is rarely acknowledged – although the Muslim activist Mehdi Hassan did blurt out in 2013 that the British Muslim community’s “dirty little secret” was its “routine and commonplace” antisemitism.
In America, the promotion of “diversity” is producing similar results. Three of the four co-founders of the Women’s March – Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour – are devoted admirers of the vicious anti-white racist and antisemite Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam.
In November 2016, when Perez posted a picture of herself holding hands with Farrakhan, Sarsour commented: “God bless him.”
Sarsour has asserted that there is “nothing creepier than Zionism,” hailed the Palestinian tactic of getting children to throw rocks at Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers as the “definition of courage” and claimed that “some folks … always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”
Mallory has called Farrakhan the “Greatest of All Time.” A year ago, she attended a Farrakhan speech in which he denounced Jews as “children of the devil” and mentioned her in complimentary terms.
Tablet magazine has reported the claim that Mallory turned on Vanessa Wruble, a Jewish co-founder of the Women’s March, with remarks such as “your people hold all the wealth.”
There’s worse in Congress. Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, elected last year as a representative for Michigan with the support of Muslim Brotherhood Islamist groups, danced at her victory party draped in the Palestinian flag.
In April 2017, she shared a platform with Palestinian terrorist Rasmeh Odeh, convicted for the murder of two Israelis in a 1969 terror attack, saying she was “honored” to be on the same stage.
On her first day in office, Tlaib posted a “correction” to the world map in her congressional office by marking Israel as “Palestine.” Her swearing-in ceremony and a subsequent private celebratory dinner were attended by Abbas Hamideh, executive director and co-founder of the Palestinian activist group al Awdah.
Hamideh has repeatedly stated that Israel does not have a right to exist, equated Zionism with Nazism and ISIS, and voiced support for the Iran-backed genocidal terror organization Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who he says is “the most honorable Arab-Muslim leader of our lifetime.”
Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, the new representative for Minnesota who was also backed by Brotherhood groups, has opposed moves to stop BDS, called Israel an “apartheid regime” and expressed antisemitic views.
In 2012, during one of Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza, Omar tweeted: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
The claim that the Jews hypnotize the world is of course one of the signature tropes of paranoid antisemitism. Omar initially blamed the subsequent outrage on “Islamophobia.”
This week, however, after even The New York Times called her out for this, she issued a lame apology saying she had used the word not realizing it was “ugly” and “offensive” to Jews. This won’t do. The key point is that she thinks of Israel in this paranoid and potentially murderous way as uniquely and conspiratorially evil.
If any Republican was revealed ever to have appeared on a platform with, say, David Duke or parroted neo-Nazi rhetoric there would be an eruption of outrage and their career would instantly be terminated. Yet in response to this anti-Jewish bigotry, the Democrats and their supporters are not just turning a blind eye but actually embracing it.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has called the Women’s March leaders “the suffragists of our time”; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has praised them as “courageous”; the American Civil Liberties Union’s magazine has extolled Sarsour as a “leader in the truest form of the word.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, once again displayed his dismayingly shallow grasp of antisemitism when, after referring to Omar evoking an “old antisemitic trope,” he tweeted: “And hats off to Rep Omar for her honest apology & commitment to a more just world.” This about someone who continues to call Israel “evil.”
Most astoundingly of all, Pelosi has now appointed Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Thus the Democratic Party has now actively embraced and implicitly legitimized vicious antisemitism and an agenda aimed at the destruction of Israel that any decent leader should exclude from civilized discourse.
The reason for this moral collapse is the shift in political gravity that has taken place on the left in which positions previously shunned as marginal and unacceptable have now become mainstream.
Support for “Palestine” has transformed what has never ceased to be a genocidal agenda into a presumed liberation movement and the signature progressive cause.
Black power, once seen rightly as a hateful, anti-white, violent revolutionary movement is now an accepted narrative in America’s black community. This would undoubtedly have horrified its great and visionary leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Contrary to the poisonous travesty published a few days ago by The New York Times that vilified Israel and wickedly suggested that King would today be its foe, he actually said: “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews. You are talking antisemitism.”
Tragically, the mainstreaming of black power has now also mainstreamed black antisemitism, just as the championing of “Palestine” has mainstreamed hatred of Jews.
This shift that has taken place to an anti-white, anti-West, anti-Jew agenda is denied largely because it is so closely associated with “diversity” – that is, black people and Muslims.
The sheer terror of being tarred as racist or Islamophobic causes such circles not only to deny this is happening, but to hurl accusations of racism or Islamophobia at any who point it out.
Black power demagogues like Farrakhan whip up black-on-white race hate wherever they can. Preying on America’s guilt over its terrible history of slavery and anti-black bigotry, this anti-white racism threatens to unstitch America’s social fabric.
In 2014, the Investor’s Business Daily described how the “radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc.”
Social inclusion has meant embracing not just the unconscionable but a dagger at the throat of Jews, America and the West.
Jewish News Syndicate. Melanie Phillips.

Venezuela - Super Speech In Brussels By Jonathan Arnott MEP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Td37sSkeIs&feature=youtu.be

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

The New Plan.

Warring Tories UNITE behind Jacob Rees-Mogg approved Brexit plan - ‘It’s time to DELIVER’.

RIVAL Conservative MPs, who previously backed the competing ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ campaigns during the Brexit referendum, have formulated a new EU exit plan which has won the approval of arch Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The plan has two sections, depending on whether a formal exit deal is agreed with the EU. They argue an agreement can be reached if the Northern Ireland backstop is replaced with a new “backstop protocol”. If not the plan explains how the UK can transition to trading on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms.
Former Remain supporter Nicky Morgan and top Brexiteer Steve Baker wrote a joint letter to The Daily Telegraph defending the plan.
They argued: “We each campaigned on different sides during the referendum and we have been playing our part in trying to ensure that we agree a Brexit deal that is in the best interests of our constituents.
“We’ve decided to come together with our colleagues Jacob Rees-Mogg, Stephen Hammond and Robert Buckland, convened by Kit Malthouse, to publish a plan.
“It allows us to leave the EU at the end of March, end the stalemate, and restore Government unity and direction."
The plan would replace the current controversial Northern Ireland backstop with a “new backstop protocol”, which would ensure the UK is not trapped in a customs union and that there is no hard Irish border.
By JAMES BICKERTON, Express.

Birdie.


How God Is.


Prayer Corner.

Please pray for little girl Alissa who is desperately ill.

Asia Bibi Update.

Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan wins final appeal – and can now start a new life in Canada with her daughters

  • Supreme Court rejected challenges against acquittal of mother-of-five Asia Bibi
  • Decision infuriated Islamist protesters who say 53-year-old 'should be murdered'
  • Mrs Bibi can now finally join her daughters who were granted asylum in Canada 
  • But Islamists say her release is a sin and Muslims everywhere will want to kill her

We Must Never Forget What Dictatorial Regimes Can Do.


Protest For Leah and Prayer For Nigeria.

Pray for Nigeria: Tuesday 12 February. CSW.
The next few weeks will be hugely significant for Nigeria. Can you join us in prayer and protest?
On 16 February Nigeria is holding elections that will determine its future trajectory. Our team recently returned from Nigeria with an urgent call to pray. As well as troubling accounts of continuing attacks on communities and a resurgent Boko Haram, they shared reports of intimidation of journalists and activists, and concerns over potential vote tampering. 
We want to cover this event in urgent prayer, can you join us?
Location: St Michael's Church, Chester Square, London SW1W 9EF 
Time: Tuesday 12 February 2019, 7-9pm. 
The event is free, but please sign up to let us know you’re coming.
Not able to travel to London? Download these prayer points.
#
Protest for Leah: Tuesday 19 February​
Leah Sharibu was named Person of the Year 2018 by two Nigerian newspapers, The Nation and The Guardian, proving that although Boko Haram thinks it has silenced and humiliated her, her testimony speaks louder every day, inspiring all who hear it.
We have no update on Leah since the one we shared in November. Although Leah’s life, along with that of humanitarian worker Alice Ngaddah, has been spared, Boko Haram say they are keeping both women as ‘slaves for life’.
We want to make sure those in power in Nigeria know that we’ve not forgotten Leah or Alice, so on 19 February, we’ll be outside the Nigerian High Commission in London all day with the message, ‘Still here. Still waiting for action’. 
Find out more details
Not able to travel to London? Join us on Facebook at 11am on 19 February.
Please ask your church to pray for Leah using these downloadable prayer points. Every church in Leah's denomination, ECWA, will be praying on Sunday 17 February specifically for the release of Leah, Alice and all of Boko Haram’s captives.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Disgraceful Abortion Law.

BP This Week: New York’s Radical, Bloodthirsty Abortion Law

January 25, 2019

The “Reproductive Health Act,” makes abortion legal for any reason right up until birth–and how even if, God willing, Roe v. Wade is overturned, the battle for life continues, especially in the states.

Sharia Law.

January 25th, 2019 
The Council of Europe has passed a hard-hitting resolution this week which calls on the UK to take six specific actions in relation to the influence of Sharia law. Tim Dieppe welcomes the points made and shows how Sharia law is, practically speaking, incompatible with human rights.
https://www.christianconcern.com/our-issues/islam/council-of-europe-calls-on-uk-to-act-on-sharia-law

India's Shame.

https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/stories/india-190116/

New Name - Sugar Butter, Perhaps?

Peanuts are packed with protein, which takes more time to digest, blocking hunger signals from the gut, but some are packed with sugar and fat. Here's our round-up. Mail.

Birdie.


There Is Only One Way To Interpret These Statistics But Watch The Left Invent 'Other Ways' To View The Stats From 'Alleged Racism' To Bias By Police & Courts!'


Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons has found 51 per cent of 12- to 18-year-old boys held in young offender institutes in England and Wales last year were from a black or minority ethnic background. Mail.




When the excuses are inevitably trotted out - how many leftists will conveniently forget to mention the huge numbers of unfortunate black kids who have an absentee father, something which is the REAL issue here?

NO Condemnation Through The Son.

Amendment. Oh, Dear ... This CANNOT End Well!

Dame Caroline Spelman

What does it do: Rejects the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Who supports it: The most popular of any amendment tabled, it is backed by dozens of MPs from across the House of Commons.
Chance of success: 9/10. The scale of support for the amendment means John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, will almost certainly select it. MPs of all stripes are against the UK leaving the EU without a deal...

Monday, January 28, 2019

Egypt: Persecuted Copts and New Cathedral.

RADIO REPORT – NEW CATHEDRAL AND FRESH BOMB ATTACK ON EGYPT’S COPTIC CHRISTIANS

While Christians in Egypt faced a bomb attack over their Christmas celebrations, Egyptian President Al Sisi opened what has been described as the largest Christian cathedral in the Middle East. Trans World Radio’s Dave Piper asked Andrew Boyd of Release what Egypt’s Christians were making of the mixed messages coming out of their country…
audio download
10m 7s
mp3
128kbps
 
Release Int.

Birdie.

Jolo Cathedral.

Philippines vows to crush 'terrorists' after church bombs kill 20

Reuters  Sun 27 Jan 2019 13:29 GMT
    The Philippines vowed to destroy those behind twin bombings that killed 20 people during a Sunday church service in the country's restive south, six days after a referendum on autonomy for the mainly Muslim region returned an overwhelming 'yes' vote.
The attack wounded 81 and was one of the deadliest in recent years in a region long plagued by instability. It came amid hope and excitement about the ratification of a devolution plan that aims to bring development, jobs and peace to one of Asia's poorest and most volatile places.
ReutersThe interior of the bomb-hit cathedral in Jolo.
The first explosion went off inside the cathedral on Jolo island, in Sulu province, and was followed by a second blast outside, which was detonated as security forces raced to the scene, officials said.
'The enemies of the state have boldly challenged the capability of the government to secure the safety of the citizenry in that region,' said Salvador Panelo, spokesman of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
'The armed forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals.'
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but police suspect the bombings were the work of Abu Sayyaf, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and is notorious for its bombings and brutality.
'They want to show force and sow chaos,' national police chief Oscar Albayalde told DZMM radio, suggesting Abu Sayyaf was the prime suspect.
Jolo is a stronghold of the group, which runs a lucrative piracy and kidnapping operation that successive governments have failed to break up. The group, which operates in the waters and islands of western Mindanao, has beheaded numerous foreign captives when ransom demands were not met.
Pictures distributed by the military of the inside of the Jolo church showed several rows of wooden pews destroyed, with debris strewn across a blackened floor.
'Dastardly act'
The attack followed Friday's announcement that the region, a mainly Muslim part of the predominantly Catholic Philippines, had ratified the creation of an autonomous area called Bangsamoro, with 85 per cent of voters behind it.
Although Sulu was among only a few areas that rejected autonomy, it will still be part of the new entity when it is fully formed in 2022.
Defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana called the attack a 'dastardly act' and urged the local population to cooperate and "deny terrorism any victory".
National security adviser Hermogenes Esperon called those responsible 'mass murderers' and 'extremist criminals'.
'We will not allow them to spoil the preference of the people for peace,' he added.
Civilians bore the brunt of the attack, which also killed five soldiers. Police lowered the death toll from 27 to 20, after discovering duplications in initial records.
The referendum came amid concerns about the presence of extremists in the Philippines and the possibility that foreign radicals will join those of Indonesia and Malaysia in gravitating to Mindanao to capitalise on porous borders, jungles and mountains, and an abundance of arms.
The Philippine military in mid-2017 encountered its biggest and longest battle since World War Two when an alliance of extremists loyal to Islamic State, among them foreigners and children, overran Marawi City and tried to establish a caliphate. Christian Today.

Christ's Return.


Save The Pangolin!

Pangolins are scaly mammals that live in Asia and Africa. Poaching has made pangolins the most illegally trafficked mammals in the world.
Save Pangolins supports conservation efforts around the world and raises awareness about these fascinating animals.
You can help save pangolins by learning about pangolins and the threats facing them, and supporting the efforts of conservationists working to protect them.
Donate
Make a donation that goes directly to pangolin conservation where it’s needed most.
Shirts and merchandise available! 100% of profits go to pangolin conservation. Shop now.
Stay Informed:
> Join us in San Francisco for the WCN Expo Saturday October 13
> Is there hope for pangolins? Read on
Join us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest pangolin news.
 
Photo by Frans Lanting

Two Views.

Welcome To The Wonderful World of 'Equality of Outcome.'

White males applying for a role at West Midlands Fire Service have to score 70 per cent in a verbal and numerical reasoning test, compared to only 60 per cent for women and ethnic minorities, it was claimed. Mail.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

The Lex Talionis.

This is the Law of tit-for-tat; it is the Law of balance; the Law of proportion; the understanding of retribution; the Law of Justice.
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he had not come to abolish the Law.
Jesus preached 'turning the other cheek'.

Let us be quite clear - if the Lex Talionis was right before Jesus then it must have been so during and after his earthly ministry. If this is not the case, then God is unequivocally not "The same yesterday, today and for ever."

Wherefore such an inconsistency in Judeo-Christian teaching?
Why such a terrible contradiction?

The misunderstanding is one which is largely a modern creation. For reasons incomprehensible, the 'liberal left' have no belief in the fundamental societal principle of 'let the punishment fit the crime'. It is anathema to them.


The Lex Talionis showed society just how it should respond to judicial punishments: fairness; evenhandedness; protection of the community; vindication; obviating the need for revenge by individuals.

This is the essence of the question - The Old Testament tells people how to run a society with fundamental principles.

Who could possibly believe that Jesus would have wished to abolish that?

The misunderstanding lies in the basic failure to grasp that Jesus's ministry was largely targeted at individuals! This is the real difference between the testaments.

Liberals who fail to understand this will run to the story of 'the woman taken in adultery' - a false hope for their case, if ever there was one and sadly, this is pretty much their best shot.
(Look up the story by using the search engine on this Blog.)

A secondary failure is that the liberals are singularly unaware of the distinction between punishments for crimes against society and for crimes against God. There is, of course, a considerable overlap.
You must be answerable to society for crimes against your fellow man and answerable to God for your crimes against Him. These are otherwise known as sin.

How can people who must believe that the ultimate spiritual punishment is Hell - or not be a Christian at all - are unable to believe that society has been tasked with dealing with wrongdoing on a much tinier scale? 

Christianity is about balance: for Society; for Man; for The Universe. It is what God has willed.

God offers no respite from the Justice He has tasked to Mankind. Through the blood of God the Son, we may be saved from Hell - but we always remain answerable to earthly justice.

Romans 12 makes little sense in a context of unchecked lawlessness. Revenge should never be the goal of Man - fairness alone. 
A proper balance occurs when people know that society has taken all need for vengeance out of their hands. 
We are adjured not to 'avenge ourselves'. Retribution (never revenge) is the sacred task of leaders and governments.

Our job is to forgive. In a proper context that is easy.
Amongst all of our lawless godlessness - it is horrendously difficult. (Read the updated version of 'The Unassuming Assassin' by Les Arnott - shortly to be re-released  by Steel City Press, Sheffield, for an examination of these issues.)
A society cannot function when it permits crime to run unchecked. It is the duty of our leaders to protect us.
Under-punishing is not merely a cause of social damage, it is a moral requirement - shunned.

Birdie.


England Test Defeat In Barbados Described:

UNMITIGATED HUMILIATION.

Revelation 15:3.


Free On Kindle.

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It’ll Be Okay By Sheryl Giesbrecht Turner
 
“An enormously caring and relevant book” (New York Timesbestselling author Don Piper): Rather than a sign of weakness, doubt can be critical to deepening your belief. Using Scripture, this hopeful read explores the role of doubt in your journey of faith.Free! £9.99 Amazon
 
Christian Nonfiction

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Irish Taoiseach Wakes Up And Smells The Coffee?

By all accounts, the penny has finally dropped in the brain of the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
It has apparently now dawned on him that, in order to stuff the British over Brexit, the EU has played him for a sucker. It seems he has now finally grasped that if the UK leaves the EU with no deal, it is Ireland that will be stuffed. Big time.
This is apparently causing panic not just in Dublin but in Brussels. Paul Goodman writes a good summary here. Earlier this week, Margaritis Schinas, the EU Commission’s chief spokesman, said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit Ireland would have a “hard border” with Northern Ireland.
This merely restated what the EU had been saying for the past two years. Nevertheless, the consternation this seemed to cause in Dublin prompted the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, to blurt out that his team had studied “how controls can be made paperless or decentralised, which will be useful in all circumstances”.
This of course was pretty well what Britain’s former Brexit Secretary, David Davis, had been promoting, along with numerous other Brexiteers who have been pointing out until blue in the face that the physical encumbrances of a hard border can mostly be obviated by technology and good will. So what therefore has this monumental and reputedly insoluble problem actually been about?
You may well ask. It’s now obvious that, as Brexiteers have also been saying throughout, the only people who want to create a hard border that would disrupt trade between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are the EU – who invented the Irish border impasse solely as a bludgeon to force the UK to abandon Brexit in one way or another.
But now Britain looks as if it might indeed depart with no deal, there’s panic in Brussels as well as Dublin – because of course, contrary to Project Fear scaremongering, it is Brussels and Dublin who have so much to lose if Brexit really does happen.
You’d need to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
Given Ireland’s dependency on the UK, Brexit, with or without a deal, has the potential to devastate the Irish economy. There is, however, an obvious solution to the problem which I first canvassed here in July 2017.
This is for Ireland also to leave the EU.
This is said to be unthinkable, but for Ireland it is in fact (if they can think about this rationally) a no-brainer. The case for Irexit was argued in June 2017 in a Policy Exchange pamphlet by Ray Bassett, a former Irish diplomat and part of the Irish Government Talks Team during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations.
Although obviously this was written before all the developments during the Brexit negotiations, his basic point remains persuasive. In summary, it’s that although Ireland’s economic success has had much to do with its EU membership, this attachment is shallow. Far more important – and despite the obvious historical tensions – are its immensely close economic, cultural and political ties to the UK. If these were damaged, Ireland would be devastated. Melanie Phillips.

Birdie.


Barbados Test - Day Three.

The Windies batted superbly well and made a huge total for England to chase on a benign looking pitch. The England bowlers found it hard work as the home side refused to declare until the skipper had his double century.
You were absolutely confident that England would collapse to the fast bowling attack - but they didn't. The openers batted through comfortably to stumps.
The only small problem is that to get a draw, England must bat through SIX full sessions.
Surely impossible as the pitch wears on the fifth and final day - but can England's batsmen get even close to taking it into that last day? - I seriously doubt it!

God’s Love and Ours. 1 John 4.

God’s Love and Ours. 7)  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows G...