One thing I really like is the way Mr Sunak has tried to rebuild our relationships with the EU. Boris & Dolly Dewdrop (Ms Truss) both went out of their way to destroy the relationship. That could only end badly.
It makes no sense to make enemies of our neighbours & biggest trading partners.
Common sense from both Sunak and Starmer. The simple fact is that this has nothing to do with "Brexit", and (for Johnson) everything to do with his imaginary "legacy". History will show that, having opposed May's proposed way forward, he successfully polished the self-same turrd in order to force Brexit through. Successful in getting us to leave, but sadly deficient going forward.
In reality, the DUP & Sinn Fein have 1 particular "red line" that needs to go. The 1 that says they will automatically oppose anything that is acceptable to the other.
One thing I really like is the way Mr Sunak has tried to rebuild our relationships with the EU. Boris & Dolly Dewdrop (Ms Truss) both went out of their way to destroy the relationship. That could only end badly.
It makes no sense to make enemies of our neighbours & biggest trading partners.
Both of them seemed to only want a hostile relationship with the EU.
Take it or leave it! Rishi Sunak urges DUP to end boycott of Stormont powersharing saying his Brexit deal 'corrects' issues with protocol and will go ahead even if the unionists don't agree - as PM visits Belfast before facing Tory MPs tonight
Visiting a factory near Belfast, the PM said he is 'over the moon' about the agreement and believes he has done the best for Northern Ireland.
Every time some shonky business folds, someone always blames Brexit.
Britishvolt was founded after we left the EU. December 2019. By some Swedes who forgot to mention their previous criminal convictions.
Who raised well over £100 million in funding. And needed to raise at least £2 billion more. Already had hundreds of employees. But never actually made anything.
A major manufacturing business. That, er, never actually got round to manufacturing anything. Too busy trousering money.
Australian firm completes takeover of Britishvolt after failed bid to build battery factory at Blyth
One thing I really like is the way Mr Sunak has tried to rebuild our relationships with the EU. Boris & Dolly Dewdrop (Ms Truss) both went out of their way to destroy the relationship. That could only end badly.
It makes no sense to make enemies of our neighbours & biggest trading partners.
Common sense from both Sunak and Starmer. The simple fact is that this has nothing to do with "Brexit", and (for Johnson) everything to do with his imaginary "legacy". History will show that, having opposed May's proposed way forward, he successfully polished the self-same turrd in order to force Brexit through. Successful in getting us to leave, but sadly deficient going forward.
In reality, the DUP & Sinn Fein have 1 particular "red line" that needs to go. The 1 that says they will automatically oppose anything that is acceptable to the other.
Is Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal all it’s cracked up to be?
Rishi Sunak’s ‘deal’ on the Northern Ireland Protocol is finally out. My first impression is that it is no ‘deal’ at all: the version of the text published by the government is a document with no legal effect that is possible to enforce. It’s a wish list of vague commitments.
The document is patronising in places: it refers to ‘saving money on a pint of beer, buying Cumberland sausages in a supermarket or visiting a garden centre for seeds and plants’. But there are also deeper concerns. Take paragraph 52:
‘We also recognise, as we have done since 2020, that the Government needs to ensure that we monitor and tackle risks of regulatory divergence within the UK internal market‘
The chance that the UK might, at some point, have different laws from the EU is described as a ‘risk’. It focuses here on internal divergence; but divergence internally only happens if we diverge from the EU – do you see how that works? This is the idea that the UK might diverge from the EU and pass a law that is better than one passed by them. Given that Brussels rolled back animal welfare standards, put in place to stop mad cow disease, is that so hard to imagine?
EU laws will continue to apply in Northern Ireland
This fear amounts to the opposite of sovereignty or independence from EU law. It is what the EU has demanded since the referendum: ‘Sure, leave (after you pay us), then do as we say,’ it effectively says. Now we appear to be falling into line.
But perhaps the most worrying part of this ‘framework’ is the difference between the EU text and the UK version. The latter is a soup of words. Indeed, anyone interested in knowing what the EU has done – and what our government has agreed – is far better placed reading the EU text. Here we find the truth about the ‘deal’:
‘The envisaged amendment does not amount to a change of the essential elements of the Withdrawal Agreement’
Why are UK readers not told the same? It makes you wonder whether the EU has put out the real law, while Brits are being given a fluffy document to read.
The reality is that, for all the publicity surrounding yesterday’s ‘launch’, the EU has not given much away. The Northern Ireland Protocol – which the UK Supreme Court ruled is subjugating the union and Northern Ireland’s place in it (paragraph 68) – is going nowhere.
What this agreement means then is that the EU will effectively run Northern Ireland, and the UK can have a voice on the Joint Committee that will do the actual work of running Northern Ireland. But only if the rest of the UK also does as it is told and does not diverge from EU law.
EU laws will continue to apply in Northern Ireland. EU requirements for animal health and plant health remain fully in place, including the animal feed laws I wrote about two years ago. There is still going to be a border in the Irish Sea. Retail goods will be checked at 10 per cent rate dropping to 5 per cent by 2025 with additional checks at the EU’s whim.
You may have heard of a ‘Stormont Brake’ – which purports to allow Northern Ireland to say no to a specific EU law (remember the EU makes hundreds every year). It is a complete fantasy. Exposed, to his eternal credit, very quickly by an accountant called Peter Donaghy as completely unworkable. There’s almost no circumstance in which its high bar is met, something which the EU itself admits:
‘That mechanism could be triggered, in the most exceptional circumstances and as a last resort.’
In the extremely rare event the Brake is ever used, the UK will end up compensating the EU in huge sums for perceived harm to markets. Why? Because the deal lets the EU submit a claim for loss caused by the Break. What checks are there to make sure the EU doesn’t produce its own sums? It is not clear.
And the European Court of Justice is still there, too. Northern Ireland is still under EU rule – but no one need notice this if the whole of the UK agrees to their regulations. Time after time that seems to be the real purpose of the EU’s negotiations with the UK: it has given itself mechanisms (such as the trusted trader scheme it controls) to punish the UK if we dare to self-govern. VAT laws on a variety of products, for example, must match the EU – no competition allowed.
There are two takeaways from reading the deal. Firstly, that the EU were terrified of Boris Johnson’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and were determined to stop it. Secondly, that the EU is obsessed with stopping the UK from diverging from EU laws because it fears that the UK might just be successful on its own.
The EU has written this agreement in order to ensure that the whole of the UK follows EU law. They might (they only said might) be kind enough to let a ham sandwich travel from Liverpool to Belfast unhindered if we all agree to do what they say (and put a humiliating label on it). But it looks very much like they turned up to our government with a pre-written deal and told us to like it or lump it – and then sold it to the public at all costs (remember, we haven’t even had time to draft our mirror laws yet.)
Yet if the deal passes the EU has countless levers to control the UK – no government of any kind will be able to upset it. The EU will effectively call the shots.
The role of the UK government in this looks like pure window dressing. That is presumably why we got the fancy graphic and folksy text, rather than any real law. This deal is dynamic alignment with a fresh coat of paint. The UK itself is now under the EU’s control.
WRITTEN BY Steven Barrett Steven Barrett is a barrister.
One thing I really like is the way Mr Sunak has tried to rebuild our relationships with the EU. Boris & Dolly Dewdrop (Ms Truss) both went out of their way to destroy the relationship. That could only end badly.
It makes no sense to make enemies of our neighbours & biggest trading partners.
Common sense from both Sunak and Starmer. The simple fact is that this has nothing to do with "Brexit", and (for Johnson) everything to do with his imaginary "legacy". History will show that, having opposed May's proposed way forward, he successfully polished the self-same turrd in order to force Brexit through. Successful in getting us to leave, but sadly deficient going forward.
In reality, the DUP & Sinn Fein have 1 particular "red line" that needs to go. The 1 that says they will automatically oppose anything that is acceptable to the other.
Interesting to note that the DUP rejected Theresa Mays plan, which avoided a border, but went along with the Boris plan, that did. This was long before they said that a border was unacceptable. The Spectator article seems to show that Sunaks deal maybe not quite what it seems.
How many of these breakthroughs stand up to scrutiny? As Rishi Sunak claims to finally be getting Brexit done there are worrying differences between what Downing Street claims and what the EU asserts,
ANDREW PIERCE has discovered worrying differences between what Downing Street claims about Rishi Sunak's deal - and what the EU asserts... The PM said Northern Ireland politicians would be able to block new EU laws this using a device called the Stormont Brake. The British team shrewdly ensured the brake can be pulled only if the DUP has returned to power-sharing in the Northern Ireland assembly - an incentive for the DUP to agree to return to government. But in its own document on the agreement, the EU says the brake can be deployed only against amendments and updates to existing laws, rather than new legislation from Brussels.
One thing I really like is the way Mr Sunak has tried to rebuild our relationships with the EU. Boris & Dolly Dewdrop (Ms Truss) both went out of their way to destroy the relationship. That could only end badly.
It makes no sense to make enemies of our neighbours & biggest trading partners.
Common sense from both Sunak and Starmer. The simple fact is that this has nothing to do with "Brexit", and (for Johnson) everything to do with his imaginary "legacy". History will show that, having opposed May's proposed way forward, he successfully polished the self-same turrd in order to force Brexit through. Successful in getting us to leave, but sadly deficient going forward.
In reality, the DUP & Sinn Fein have 1 particular "red line" that needs to go. The 1 that says they will automatically oppose anything that is acceptable to the other.
Northern Ireland Brexit deal: EU-UK mood music sweeter now, but could sour
DUP voters value powersharing more than scrapping Northern Ireland protocol, study shows Research by Queen’s University finds DUP has ‘no mandate’ to adopt ‘hardline anti-protocol, anti-powersharing position’
Comments
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/brexit-deal-stormont-brake-unequivocal-134456124.html
@DPJHodges
·
Follow
Boris not in the chamber. Which indicates Rishi has won.
6:34 PM · Feb 27, 2023
George Parker
@GeorgeWParker
House of Commons packed for Sunak statement on NI Protocol - with one notable blond exception
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL
@campbellclaret
Thoughts and prayers with Boris Johnson’s ambitions and narcissism at this difficult time
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/there-was-one-notable-absentee-from-rishi-sunak-s-big-brexit-deal-speech/ar-AA181jAZ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=0595dcfc0e5e4a70957abb5ad124534b&ei=46
Visiting a factory near Belfast, the PM said he is 'over the moon' about the agreement and believes he has done the best for Northern Ireland.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11801719/Rishi-Sunak-steps-sales-pitch-dramatic-NI-breakthrough.html
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/theresa-may-pretends-to-fall-asleep-during-brexiteer-s-house-of-commons-speech/ar-AA182KxN?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f5baf902d40742ee95a3d03bc256a85d&ei=70
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/the-dup-has-accidentally-become-the-most-effective-promoter-of-a-united-ireland/ar-AA1830OU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f5baf902d40742ee95a3d03bc256a85d&ei=29
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/australian-firm-completes-takeover-of-britishvolt-after-failed-bid-to-build-battery-factory-at-blyth/ar-AA17YkQ6
Is Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal all it’s cracked up to be?
Rishi Sunak’s ‘deal’ on the Northern Ireland Protocol is finally out. My first impression is that it is no ‘deal’ at all: the version of the text published by the government is a document with no legal effect that is possible to enforce. It’s a wish list of vague commitments.
The document is patronising in places: it refers to ‘saving money on a pint of beer, buying Cumberland sausages in a supermarket or visiting a garden centre for seeds and plants’. But there are also deeper concerns. Take paragraph 52:
‘We also recognise, as we have done since 2020, that the Government needs to ensure that we monitor and tackle risks of regulatory divergence within the UK internal market‘
The chance that the UK might, at some point, have different laws from the EU is described as a ‘risk’. It focuses here on internal divergence; but divergence internally only happens if we diverge from the EU – do you see how that works? This is the idea that the UK might diverge from the EU and pass a law that is better than one passed by them. Given that Brussels rolled back animal welfare standards, put in place to stop mad cow disease, is that so hard to imagine?
EU laws will continue to apply in Northern Ireland
This fear amounts to the opposite of sovereignty or independence from EU law. It is what the EU has demanded since the referendum: ‘Sure, leave (after you pay us), then do as we say,’ it effectively says. Now we appear to be falling into line.
But perhaps the most worrying part of this ‘framework’ is the difference between the EU text and the UK version. The latter is a soup of words. Indeed, anyone interested in knowing what the EU has done – and what our government has agreed – is far better placed reading the EU text. Here we find the truth about the ‘deal’:
‘The envisaged amendment does not amount to a change of the essential elements of the
Withdrawal Agreement’
Why are UK readers not told the same? It makes you wonder whether the EU has put out the real law, while Brits are being given a fluffy document to read.
The reality is that, for all the publicity surrounding yesterday’s ‘launch’, the EU has not given much away. The Northern Ireland Protocol – which the UK Supreme Court ruled is subjugating the union and Northern Ireland’s place in it (paragraph 68) – is going nowhere.
What this agreement means then is that the EU will effectively run Northern Ireland, and the UK can have a voice on the Joint Committee that will do the actual work of running Northern Ireland. But only if the rest of the UK also does as it is told and does not diverge from EU law.
EU laws will continue to apply in Northern Ireland. EU requirements for animal health and plant health remain fully in place, including the animal feed laws I wrote about two years ago. There is still going to be a border in the Irish Sea. Retail goods will be checked at 10 per cent rate dropping to 5 per cent by 2025 with additional checks at the EU’s whim.
You may have heard of a ‘Stormont Brake’ – which purports to allow Northern Ireland to say no to a specific EU law (remember the EU makes hundreds every year). It is a complete fantasy. Exposed, to his eternal credit, very quickly by an accountant called Peter Donaghy as completely unworkable. There’s almost no circumstance in which its high bar is met, something which the EU itself admits:
‘That mechanism could be triggered, in the most exceptional circumstances and as a last resort.’
In the extremely rare event the Brake is ever used, the UK will end up compensating the EU in huge sums for perceived harm to markets. Why? Because the deal lets the EU submit a claim for loss caused by the Break. What checks are there to make sure the EU doesn’t produce its own sums? It is not clear.
And the European Court of Justice is still there, too. Northern Ireland is still under EU rule – but no one need notice this if the whole of the UK agrees to their regulations. Time after time that seems to be the real purpose of the EU’s negotiations with the UK: it has given itself mechanisms (such as the trusted trader scheme it controls) to punish the UK if we dare to self-govern. VAT laws on a variety of products, for example, must match the EU – no competition allowed.
There are two takeaways from reading the deal. Firstly, that the EU were terrified of Boris Johnson’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and were determined to stop it. Secondly, that the EU is obsessed with stopping the UK from diverging from EU laws because it fears that the UK might just be successful on its own.
The EU has written this agreement in order to ensure that the whole of the UK follows EU law. They might (they only said might) be kind enough to let a ham sandwich travel from Liverpool to Belfast unhindered if we all agree to do what they say (and put a humiliating label on it). But it looks very much like they turned up to our government with a pre-written deal and told us to like it or lump it – and then sold it to the public at all costs (remember, we haven’t even had time to draft our mirror laws yet.)
Yet if the deal passes the EU has countless levers to control the UK – no government of any kind will be able to upset it. The EU will effectively call the shots.
The role of the UK government in this looks like pure window dressing. That is presumably why we got the fancy graphic and folksy text, rather than any real law. This deal is dynamic alignment with a fresh coat of paint. The UK itself is now under the EU’s control.
WRITTEN BY
Steven Barrett
Steven Barrett is a barrister.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-rishi-sunaks-brexit-deal-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/brexit-endure-sunak-deal-brexitism-060027274.html
This was long before they said that a border was unacceptable.
The Spectator article seems to show that Sunaks deal maybe not quite what it seems.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/david-frost-begrudgingly-backs-sunak-100705305.html
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sunak-on-alert-for-first-brexit-deal-revolt-after-dup-mp-hints-party-to-reject-agreement/ar-AA185BzU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cdea7bf7b7d945bb99a3cee41d2294dd&ei=7
ANDREW PIERCE has discovered worrying differences between what Downing Street claims about Rishi Sunak's deal - and what the EU asserts... The PM said Northern Ireland politicians would be able to block new EU laws this using a device called the Stormont Brake. The British team shrewdly ensured the brake can be pulled only if the DUP has returned to power-sharing in the Northern Ireland assembly - an incentive for the DUP to agree to return to government. But in its own document on the agreement, the EU says the brake can be deployed only against amendments and updates to existing laws, rather than new legislation from Brussels.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11809487/The-worrying-differences-Downing-Street-claims-EU-asserts-reports-ANDREW-PIERCE.html
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/eu-chief-says-sunaks-northern-142118089.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64805985
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/mind-your-own-business-verhofstadt-torn-apart-after-he-claims-brexit-cannot-work/ar-AA18jCaT?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=eba1bd4b07fe4f1f9988514a5e1ab202&ei=22
Research by Queen’s University finds DUP has ‘no mandate’ to adopt ‘hardline anti-protocol, anti-powersharing position’
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/03/10/dup-has-no-mandate-for-hardline-stance-study/