The Other Side...

...of the rock, that is.  Looking West this time towards Benbane Head way in the distance, where you will find the Causeway of a certain Giant called Finn McCool:

Delta 3200 film, on MGV paper. 

Things are quite depressing in Northern Ireland at the minute.  Not, perhaps, as bad as things across the pond, where the scenes in Washington DC last week were, quite frankly, astonishing.  And sad, given the loss of life.  I don't know where Joe Biden and his team would start to bring the country together again but it's clear that a lot of people need to step back from the rhetoric and stop stirring the pot.  We know all about that over here, where certain politicians know exactly what buttons to press to get one side at loggerheads with the other.  Unfortunately not everyone is capable, or willing, to see the damage done - or perhaps they are, and don't care how fractured society becomes as long as they keep hold of their little slice of the pie as long as possible.  Good luck Mr Biden - you'll need it.

Over here, in sleepy Northern Ireland, the final severing of the cord between the UK and the EU is starting to hit home.  In case you haven't been keeping up with events, NI is remaining in the EU single market for goods, essentially to stop a hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (which is of course still firmly in the EU).   The upshot of that is that goods arriving from Great Britain (England, Scotland & Wales) are now required to be checked at NI ports.  That means that all goods entering NI from mainland GB require paperwork.  All fine and dandy, except that no-one seems to have done any planning whatsoever to ensure that the new system will work.  Already we are noticing that some Amazon Marketplace and Ebay suppliers are refusing to ship to Northern Ireland.  That's annoying, particularly in the current climate where we are being advised to 'Stay Home', but is, I suspect, only temporary.  Well, I hope it is.  The bigger problem is food.  Every supermarket in NI is reporting shortages and reduced deliveries.  The problem, as I understand it, is that a whole container can be held back if the paperwork for one item is not correct.  Not an issue if that container holds bicycles or computer parts but a big problem if that container holds perishable goods.  GB suppliers are reluctant to ship as if the food spoils and is rejected by the buyer then the seller may well be liable for the cost.  We've been doing a weekly online shop since the start of the COVID crisis - this week they failed to deliver broccoli, butter, cabbage, orange juice and various veggie/meat free products.  There are, apparently, lots of empty shelves in the supermarkets.

So...the next few weeks will be interesting.  Prices will undoubtedly rise, as they always do when supply is interrupted.  Hopefully the politicians will actually earn their salaries - I  was about to add 'for a change' but stopped myself since not politicans are useless, even if it appears like that at times.  Actually I might be being overly-generous here - and step in to get things moving again.  

In the longer run, Northern Ireland may well prosper under the new arrangements.  We have a big farming community so we shouldn't be in any danger of serious food shortages, although we might have to forget about eating avocados, grapes and oranges for a while.  We should be fine for dairy products, meat and fish.  And potatoes, of course. Our local suppliers might even find an uptick in sales, which would be no bad thing for our economy. And remaining part of the EU single market, while still in the UK does put Northern Ireland in a unique position, which should work to our advantage.  Time will tell.