Sir, – In his column, “Taoiseach’s image was on the bonfire but Donaldson the real target’ (Opinion & Analysis, July 13th), Newton Emerson writes that when the Windsor Framework comes into operation in October, “much of it will be exposed as unworkable”.
He does not give any reasons for this belief.
In the latest issue of the Belfast magazine Fortnight, Prof Katy Hayward of Queen’s University Belfast, the acknowledged expert on Brexit and Ireland, has an article entitled “Will the Windsor Framework work?”
It is a detailed, 1,400-word piece, complete with a timeline of the framework, outlining its various complex elements.
These include a “new UK internal market scheme to minimise customs requirements” and “behind-the-scenes arrangements with the UK government for parcel carriers”, which are “intended to allow Northern Ireland customers to experience little change in business-to-business or business-to-consumer deliveries from GB”; also new labelling on some food and drink products sent to Northern Ireland saying that they are “not for sale in the EU”.
Hayward writes: “The fact of there being a UK-EU agreement is one thing – how it is implemented will be all-important. The texts and implications of the agreement need to be interpreted consistently, jointly and publicly. Northern Ireland’s problems are ones to be tackled collaboratively and by mutual agreement, and not by private deals or public contestation.”
She concludes: “To really act for the sake of this place – where political emotions still run high and democracy runs thin – the UK and EU must realise the potential of each day and each decision to make things better.”
Who are we to believe on this?
Newton Emerson’s pessimistic “one liner” or Katy Hayward’s carefully explained and cautious optimism? – Yours, etc,
ANDY POLLAK,
Rathmines,
Dublin.