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Queen’s Speech 2019 (Mark 2) — Key Takeaways and Analysis
While Americans furiously debate last night’s impeachment of Donald Trump, Her Majesty delivered a speech from the throne — her second in as many months — in a scaled-down state opening of parliament. While the speech was sparse on specifics and contained many of the same promises Boris Johnson delivered in his October Queen’s Speech, there are a few takeaways.
“My Ministers will work urgently to facilitate talks to restore devolved Government in Northern Ireland.”
It’s interesting that this line came in a paragraph directly after Brexit — which was the first point touched on — yet completely ignores the most contentious question regarding Northern Ireland, which actually isn’t the lack of a sitting devolved government but the border settlement negotiated by Johnson and his EU counterparts earlier this year. It’s a complicated arrangement, involving no hard border per se but customs checks on goods leaving the island of Ireland for Great Britain and vice versa, with some goods (to be determined later) marked out as “at risk” of being sent from the UK to the Republic of Ireland being subjected to a specific tax which, if it turns out the product doesn’t end up in the Republic, can be refunded by the UK Government. Like I said, it’s complicated. The…
