terrific response to last week's show particular in a way sion to our fantastic young american activists from the u.s. we me says what amazing articulate mature and intelligent young women i hope to go out into this world and make the changes happen for all our sakes alex let them talk he's a brilliant host bob says i think maybe trump lives on feedback he tweets something outrageous and then reads the feedback then tracks to mary and after working the mumbo jumbo through his heads what scotty says medea benjamin we love your three wishes kid and says fantastic final show of the usa special highlighting the rural urban divide young old and the changing demographic of the us see if only the average americans but as educated as these lovely young women. just a says you're sure as a breath of fresh air interesting guests would never get the chance to highlight their cause an octave as i'm on any show in the u.k. so more power to you thank you uncle joseph bob says i know fine of alex salmond but yes i'd agree one hundred percent that the show was a triumph for example

a decent program on. the rambling one the following week. i sympathize with you trying to stop alex from rambling but it's not easy then susan says so love the alex i'm unsure we need the sense making conversation daily learning loads and feeling cheated by the mainstream t.v. even more than before not a picture of what we're missing out on here is the scottish broadcasting taking all thank you so much susan now back to our legs. from deadlock in downing street to good luck in the palace of westminster where the bombs and butter masses of the coughing up rough from the government. housing over top of the government no less than fourteen times on the legislation is this a case of the peals against the people or is in fact the house the logs who have caught the public mood today we look at the government's lamma through the lens of thought island beyond the silent island of ireland because behind to these amazing

. inability to solve the irish a big to manage but. with no border in ireland no one who watched a trilogy of programmes on ireland at the start of this year would be told surprised at the government's present and dangerous dilemma the three key figures we interviewed then ports on the u.k. proposals this is what they had to say what david davies lights to mention is the american canadian border. and i don't know why he keeps mentioning that because they always have to do is google this and you'll see the massive queues of traffic . waiting for the checkpoints so that's precisely the example you use this is precisely our fear i listened to theresa may and i listen to others from the english tories saying that. don't worry about the border in ireland ireland will be

fine on the one hand and then insisting that britain will leave the customs union leave to single marcus and so on and of course the reality is that those two positions are completely at odds with each other i think the tories have played a very dangerous game no way can arland or show daryn and or will arlen's be the collateral damage in the midst of all of the us my worry is of course that the parliament some of the paramilitaries the smaller operations have not gone away they do not enjoy public support but give them a cause and that cause could be a camera on a border it could be you know it could be a mobile patrol on the border because here's the thing we enjoy a completely open and free border after brags that whatever we get will be less than that so other government can't retrieve the irish rock and some very hard cases among the bricks that the i'm in the democratic unionist party on whom they

depend for the commons majority i asked john tong professor of politics the university of liverpool how much of the european impasse is being dictated by the board of politics of ireland how surprised are you professor tong that the prime minister has reached this impasse on the customs union issue. i'm not surprised at all this was always going to be a major problem and basically treason is now casting around for solutions which frankly appear workable anyway and would almost certainly be rejected by the european union and by the irish government it doesn't matter whether it's the so-called max flack solution maximum facilitation which frankly is a betrayal of what the government initially said because initially said they said that there would be no new infrastructure the board of relies upon the installation of new technology so it's inconceivable that's going that's going to be accepted or

whether you go for the customs partnership arrangement in which you get the bizarre spectacle of the u.k. leaving the european union elect and yet still collecting the e use taxes or tariffs and basically reimbursing traders neither is a very practical solution neither addresses the essential problem of a reinvigorated border which the vast bulk of people on the on the violent do not want where you go from where you go for customs partnership you do have a stronger border and that was what we were told simply would not happen and isn't the issue of the irish border that's very much at the heart of this customs. absolutely and it was treason may who said in the break that referendum campaign in one of the very few utterances about that border it was treason may herself who said it was inconceivable that the border could remain the same but if you go back to december it was quite clear what the agreement was between the u.k.

ireland and the e.u. that there would be full regulator ian customs alignment if a satisfactory deal could not be found between britain and ireland and we're still miles away from a satisfactory arrangement between britain and ireland so the default position will be full customs and regulator of the alignment that simply has to take place and britain is almost friendless on this. a listen to remarkable professor tong that the small island of ireland or at least irish interest from north border has marshalled the total solidarity of the european negotiators and do you see that situation changing here used to be said the irish question dominated british politics but the irish question is dominating european union politics now because you know that frankly the u.k. is almost bereft of allies on this issue all the sympathy across europe or lies with ireland the fact is that the border. whilst it was silent whilst it was a political fact rather than

a fence most people could tolerate that most european union countries knowledge than hailed the good friday agreement as a fantastic piece of peace making its architects won the nobel peace prize it was internationally lauded for the government to try and drive a coach and horses through that agreement really you know we will be considered as reckless by the vast bulk of european union countries the all ireland i mention of the good friday agreement strand to makes little sense in the context of bragg's it . the good friday good was predicated upon seamless cross border trade and therefore you know although the good friday agreement only assumed common e.u. membership it's it really is struggling to function once the actuality of brigs it takes place assuming it goes ahead on the twenty ninth of march two thousand and nineteen and that's an acceptable you've got to remember the good friday agreement was voted for by huge majorities on both parts of the on the violence it was

supported right across the globe frankly and countries are not going to stand aside and simply see the good friday agreement torn asunder by e a unilateral action from the united kingdom gnomish a bomb is a a well read man but do you think is familiar with the churchill quote that the dewey steeples of for man and tyrone are no dominating british landscape. are you saying they know dominate the politics of the continent of europe. and european union more broadly you have been insistent almost from day one the day after the referendum took place that they will stand by our island and on the border question the has to be a solution that is acceptable to the republic of ireland they've not budge from that position now the u.k. government has come up with a whole variety of slogans and cliches since that referendum saying there will be no return to a hard border that we no infrastructure the british women's already hinting that rowing back from that no you infrastructure because it's talking about

technological solutions well your technology has to be put in place somewhere i wouldn't want to be the first person in strength to install border installations it's not just myself that would say that the chief constable of northern ireland has warned that it would be reckless to try and install anything at the border to try and reinvigorate a border there was a conflict about that border that cost three thousand six hundred lives only recently to try and reactivate a border which was. which had largely gone silence and were people whether they be yunus or nationalist on the island of ireland were enjoying the benefits of seamless cross border trade and activity to try and jeopardise that by making the border more than a political fact and turning it into something more serious you know i think it's damaging it's been even seen the damage is done to british irish relations which it hugely improved the governmental level in the context of e.u. membership you can almost trace the improvement in relations to the day they both

joined the e.u. way back in january one nine hundred seventy three you saw the contribution of the european union in terms of massive peace programs which benefited the situation in northern ireland now what you've got is the first really retrograde step that reinvade reinvigorates a border which has long been unpopular. and finally a professor of law the prime minister has a divided cabinet the house of lords isn't revolt scotland and wales are not happy and the irish bar the issue is dominating all how long has the visa me got to come up of a solution well time is ticking i mean the e.u. want this solved by june this year i suspect the latest take the british government could push it back would be october. the government is getting defeated readily in the house of lords fourteen amendments fourteen defeats for the government within one week some of very serious defeats i think it will be difficult for the

government to reverse all of those defeats in the house of commons even with the piece of pork frankly there are north conservatives who are pro membership retaining our membership of the customs union for them to inflict a defeat upon the government so for all the bombast of the government's initial white paper which says we will be leaving the customs union i'm not sure there's a majority there in parliament for the government to get that through so the chances are the u.k. will remain part of the customs union will be unable to conduct these wonderful free trade deals that we were promised will retain you know a lot about here insta the european union and in some ways it's the worst worst of all worlds we leave the e.u. we give up all the influence that we had within the european union and don't really again any influence or sovereignty ourselves then there's the issue of scotland and obviously the scottish parliament withholding legislative consent the first time that it's done for any westminster item and the embarrassment of that and you've

got to remember that the bulk of scots did not vote for braggs it in the same way that the bulk of the northern irish did not vote for it and frankly there's been no respect given to either of those countries in terms of of the what they said in terms of break that referendum instead westminster is trying to steamroller. ed and you know it's got into ever greater difficulty in resolving these questions so ultimately we're looking at a scenario in which the break that is will not get their way i'm fairly clear i don't i also don't think they've got the power to bring down trees or may either and what you have is a softer breaks in the what was originally envisaged professor john tong of the university of liverpool thank you so much for being on the alex salmond show my pleasure.

you're not stance is not only enough they cannot be a partner. they have taken the. solution in this region to one of the listeners extremists in this region have been strengthened and bravado the ammunition by the decisions and actions more than the time before moderates and people like me have been destroyed but it was such actions such fascism such a part of being excited by israel and israel getting away with it i think this is opening the gate of this region. in twenty four to you know bloody revolution to the demonstrations going to be relatively peaceful political protests to be increasingly violent revolution is always spontaneous. is it.

spilling you know to the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty four. those who took part in this today over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these another poll that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. welcome back to this breaks special we're looking at to resolve may's customs union dilemma i'm joined by a prominent labor member of parliament a pro but someone of a great interest in the irish issue welcome to the alex. labor member of parliament with us tonight what should assessment of the recent customs union. well i think she's. getting herself into a bit of a mess because the arrangement customs arrangement she's absolute determined not to say in the customs union but the customs arrangement is incredibly difficult and

technical and has been very much ruined already by the e.u. and i think has been ruled out by probably the majority of our m.p.'s so i think that's i remember there is a border there in northern ireland that may not be seen but there's an excise border there's a border on currency there's a border and all those kind of things and it's all dealt with remotely and doesn't have any physical structures to what extent has to be caught by surprise by strongly the irish board the issue has a marriage in the well it's been it's a marriage because the irish government changed it it's t. shock and the new t. shock has made this a big issue for his own political reasons and also because he wants to be seen very much as backing the e.u. the previous teashop was already involved in committees looking.