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Could you draw Ireland's border with Northern Ireland? The border with Northern Ireland has become a major Brexit stumbling block. pic.twitter.com/yyqCRpPFuW
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 28, 2017
WITH THE LATEST round of Brexit talks looming, and with a divorce bill of at least €45 billion for the UK, Channel 4 News took to the streets yesterday to gauge the English public’s knowledge of the situation in Northern Ireland.
Equipped with a map of Ireland and a marker, they asked people to draw the line separating Ireland from Northern Ireland but most got it wrong.
The report came in the midst of several weeks of tense relations between Ireland and the UK over the issue of the post-Brexit border in Northern Ireland.
Leo Varadkar and Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney have been strong on the issue of the border, insisting that the talks cannot progress to trade issues until the British give real guarantees that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
In response, British politicians, and sections of the UK press, have lined up to criticise the Irish approach. This included Labour’s Kate Hoey, who said that Ireland would have to pay for a hard border if there wasn’t a Brexit deal.
“We don’t know too much about it”
With these tensions going on, some members of the public were unable to draw the correct border between the two.
One said: “As a younger generation, we don’t know too much about it. We don’t learn this kind of thing. It’s not something that is taught to be honest. ”
Another said: “I don’t think enough people know about it at the moment. They don’t know the implications of it.
If there’s no border controls between Northern Ireland, we have free movement to Ireland which is in the common travel area… How they’re going to get around it I have no idea.
This man made a stab at drawing a border which cut off Donegal, and sections of a few other northern counties in Ireland.
Another man, who also got the border slightly wrong, said the way the border issue could be fixed would be if Ireland left the EU.
One woman drew a map that cut off half of the country, with places like Galway, Westmeath and Dublin included in Northern Ireland.
She said: “Obviously, they’re separated by water and then to have another hard border with the Republic of Ireland. It would shut a lot of them off I suppose.”
Another woman accused Ireland of “just making trouble because they lost”, adding “it’s a bit petty isn’t it really?” and that “the southern Irish have to lump it basically”.
One man, who was fairly accurate with his drawing of the border, said: “Brexit is going to be an utter disaster all the way round… I don’t think they’ve thought this through frankly.”
Iain Duncan Smith
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith made a faux-pas of his own on Channel 4 News last night when he confidently suggested that Ireland are playing hardball on Brexit because we have a presidential election due next year.
The Brexiteer was asked about the potential for Ireland to veto trade talks with the EU if a border solution hadn’t yet been found.
He said: “A lot of things are in the making on this one. There’s an election going on in Ireland…”
He was interrupted by presenter Cathy Newman, who pointed out that an election was now off the table due to Frances Fitzgerald’s resignation yesterday, but Duncan Smith retorted:
Well no, the presidential election is coming up. And of course the key point about that is that the present government is worried about Sinn Féin so I think there’s a lot of showboating going on in Ireland.
The former Conservative Party leader has been in politics since 1981, but still doesn’t appear to know that our democratically-elected President Michael D Higgins is not a member of the government.
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Hailo raised it percentage take and lost taxi drivers.
When was that?just curious
Hailo charge 12% commisssion, that’s it. No €79.00 or €99.00 a week with Citycabs/Global/Lynk.
Still has over half the Dublin fleet at 7,000+
Hailo will lose more drivers if they keep uping the aunty with price and rules silly rules !
You can’t up an “Aunty”, well maybe you can. Upping the ante is another thing. lol
They do take credit card but yes you do have to sign up first
They lost me when they stooped the use of their credit card facilities for non bailout jobs/customers it was extremely handy
What is a non bailout job or customer
I think he misspelled it ……..its meant to read non hailo jobs as in you used to be able to take credit card jobs of the street now the customer has to download the app if they want to pay by card…….stupid idea from hailo…
Hailo have added the option to pre book now so that’s not a unique feature for lynk
Hailo had to add that feature because it was the next step …….and to keep up with other apps that have that feature before them ….e.g…cab:app
My husband left a cab company recently. The company sold the controlling share to the guy named above. They thought that they could sell the drivers rent as part of the business package, (Approx’ €5K per year),forgetting that the drivers hire the cab company to supply them with work, and they work for the driver. Not wanting any association withthe new owners, he fired them.
He wondered why, as he calls it “the Weakest Lynk”, chose the exact same colour branding as Hailo? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I suppose.
Lynk taxis. €25 free sign up. €5 per journey if you pay by card but wait there’s a €3 booking fee before you sit in the taxi. It is removed after you use your “free” €25. So, free €10 sign up.
They can’t charge €3 for booking ! €2 is max Hailo don’t charge for booking
They do. I got a taxi that usually costs less than €5 and cost me over €8. Minus the “five” free. When you contact them they say that is taken off when your €25 is up.
I always use the lynk app ( Irish owned company)
To be fair Hailo was set up by 3 guys one Irish
it was set up back 3 London black cab drivers
have your say