Brexit Baloney

This promises to be an interesting topic this year, and so, as a local observer, I'm opening a thread on it. I hope people will get the odd wry smile out of it, if nothing else.

The opening situation: As a result of the 1998 Agreement that ended 30 years of terrorism, the Republic Of Ireland (ROI) normally just called Ireland must have an open border with Northern Ireland, aka North of Ireland (NOI). As a result of partition in 1921, the NOI is part of Britain. The NOI population is split 50/50 fierce Republican and fierce 'Loyalists' with firm attachment to the ROI or UK respectively. There a few moderates in there actually, but they never get elected.

As a result of the 1998 Agreement, the ROI & NOI must be joined at the hip. But the Loyalists need the NOI to be joined to the UK at the hip. So as long as they all stand or sit together, everything's fine. But Brexit ... that's where the fun comes in.

Some nonsense so far.

• The EU set up customs points in Belfast to monitor exports of Astrazeneca vaccine and Loyalists got active, because there can't be a border down the Irish sea.
• The situation of an 'English' food shop in Belgium was covered. It's shelves are bare. It normally has a 40ft container per week over from England, full of a shopping list full of items. But now, after Brexit, every item on the shopping list requires separate customs declaration forms, so instead of one set of papers for the truck, there's perhaps 100 sets of paperwork to be completed. :doh:
• There's an exploitable hole in the system here. The Brexit deal has the NOI keeping EU rules. But the NOI<-->ROI border is open (and unsealable anyhow). So goods from UK to NOI get charged duty, refundable if the goods stay in NOI. So a NOI business doing packaging or wholesaling and being "inventive" with countries of origin is poised to exploit any price differences that arise.
• Secondhand Cars coming into ROI from the UK have 10% duty & 23.5% VAT on them here, but they're free in NOI. Watch that space.