THE so-called EU ‘sausage wars’ were discussed by columnists in the newspapers - and a final word on naming the new Royal baby Lilibet.
The Daily Express
Ross Clark said if anyone needed reminding of the petty-minded, bureaucratic attitude that led Britain to leave the EU, “sausage wars” provided a perfect example.
“Only the EU could dream up a system that banned the movement of certain foods between two halves of the same nation, subjected the transport of other goods to impractical levels of checks – and claim that by doing so it was promoting peace and prosperity,” he said. “If the Northern Ireland Protocol is causing misery for supermarkets and shoppers alike, that is because it was meant to.”
He said if we signed up to EU food standards in internal markets we could keep sending sausages to Belfast but that undermined our reason for leaving - to take control of our own laws.
“Trade figures should be a warning to the EU: stop messing everyone around and get on with what you claim is your mission: promoting free trade.”
The Guardian
Anand Menon, director of The UK in a Changing Europe, said it was hard to see a way out of the current impasse.
“The UK has unilaterally delayed putting in place some of the measures the EU says the protocol implies (notably a ban on the export of chilled meat – including sausages – across the Irish Sea) and is threatening to delay still further.” he said. “The blunt fact is that the UK signed up to this agreement, and the EU has legitimate expectations that we will implement it. Yet both sides have a point.”
He said if the UK simply agreed to align with EU rules on animal and plant health – even on a temporary basis – the need for the vast majority of checks would simply evaporate.
“The UK argues, correctly, that there is currently no health issue here, as our rules are the same as those in place in the single market. The EU argues, also correctly, that that’s not the point. It is, to say the least, hard to see how this one can be sorted.”
The Daily Mail
Jan Moir returned to the topic hotly debated earlier in the week - Harry and Meghan’s decision to name their daughter after the Queen’s nickname.
“During a life devoted to public service and being on almost permanent display, Lilibet was the one thing the Queen had that was entirely her own,” she said. “It was hers, and hers alone. Its use was restricted. It was a tender diminutive spoken only by those who knew and loved her.”
She said the name was now no longer the Queen’s.
“ If we all instinctively understand its importance to Her Majesty, why can’t Meghan and Harry understand the enormity of what they have done?
“The Sussexes still don’t seem to grasp the essential divergence between celebrity and monarchy and that different rules apply, but they will take whatever they can get.”
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