Westminstenders: Break Up or Make Up?

[RedToothBrush]

The next week or so appears to be yet another crunch point (not that any of these crunch points have actually resolved anything so far).

The EU is set to outline the plan for Ireland. Which everyone thought had already been outlined and agreed already. And it had been admitted was legally binding.

Except apparently we don't want to do that, and we are now crying about how the EU want to break up Britain (nothing to do with England wanting to leave the EU and Scotland and NI wanting to stay in it of course).

Jeremy Corbyn has now apparently decided that the customs union is a good idea. David Davis and Liam Fox have responded by saying that this would stop us making our own trade deals. Yes this has obviously stopped Turkey, and why aren't we doing as much trade with China etc as Germany anyway? A vote in the HoC looms before Easter. Will Tory rebels support.

Will Jeremy Corbyn bow to pressure over the single market too? The customs union alone does not stop the border issue in Ireland. Nor does it stop ridiculous queues at Dover. I'm not sure Corbyn is one for listening though. He's got a whiff of power and democracy and reality is just a hindrance to utopia.

As for the Great Repeal Bill. Word has it, its not going too clever in the HoL. The conservatives had something of a show of strength with an unusual number turning up for the debate. But few on the backbenches were willing to speak in favour of...

It all feels like we are making no progress at all. We are still bleating on about cherry picked deals as if this is a negotiation. Its not.

David Allen Green @ davidallengreen
Perhaps the worst thing about Brexit commentary is listening to these speeches.

I just want something to actually happen rather the same conversation over and over and over again.

Funny that painintheear...

Will be interesting to see which companies start considering their position in the UK now TM has confirmed we won't have the same access to the single market and passporting.

I wonder if it's some kind of kamikaze bluff.

I'm not aware that the City is expecting to lose passporting.

Likewise car manufacturers have been assured trade will remain 'frictionless'

Is this an attempt to cause such an uproar that we have to revert to a BINO type agreement.

Mark McA #FBPE
‏*@markmcan*
My tech company MUST be in the digital single market. If Brexit happens, we relocate to EU or we die - and I know dozens more CEOs doing same. UK jobs, tax revenues, tech hubs, ability to hire, all going to Dublin/Berlin/Amsterdam forever. Wake up, @theresa_may & @jeremycorbyn
1:53 pm - 23 Nov 2017

Well, if I've learned anything over the past few days it's that people who know next to nothing about delivering complex tech transformation projects seem to believe just shouting "blockchain" repeatedly is a substitute for actually having a plan for your future customs arrangements.

I suspect the UK will be a world laggard in blockchain at the official level. It's hard to imagine a technology that is more fundamentally incompatible with the UK governments SOP.

Scathing response from Guy Verhofstadt....

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-theresa-may-speech-guy-verhofstadt-eu-resonse-vague-aspirations-a8236866.html

“Theresa May needed to move beyond vague aspirations, we can only hope that serious proposals have been put in the post. While I welcome the call for a deep and special partnership, this cannot be achieved by putting a few extra cherries on the Brexit cake"

Precisely.

So how will technology solve the NI border issue? Will they scan or x-ray all lorries going through to make sure that the goods inside match the customs documentation? How is that frictionless, or "as frictionless as possible". If I move a pile of stuff from Sheffield to London, I don't have to stop and declare what I am moving - that's my idea of frictionless.

we can only hope that serious proposals have been put in the post.

I'm developing a little bit of a man crush

we can only hope that serious proposals have been put in the post.

I am enjoying Guy V.

Are we going through all of this so we can be in a position where we align with the EU to avoid the need for a hard border but do so voluntarily and not through being bound in the SM or CU so that we can officially say we have "taken back control" and appease the rabid frothers?

And as baffling as that position is, there's room for it to get worse (of course): what happens if future governments decide not to align with the EU? It's quite a Damocles sword to contend with. This appears to be what May is suggesting.

I couldn't bear to listen to her. Did she say anything about aviation?

So we 'align with the EU'. What if the rest of the EU doesn't accept our alignment, and insists on stopping lorries coming through, or insists on customs documentation? Or have I missed something?

Align with it by adopting the laws through our parliament.

Yes peregrina, she wants 'associated membership' of agencies we like including aviation.

Adopting identical laws to their laws through our parliament, that should say. Except for where we may diverge in the cherry picked bits? I'm not really sure about that bit.

Alex Andreou
Alex Andreou
@sturdyAlex
May's big speech in summary: We want everything to stay exactly as it is today, except a few small bits we don't like, but if you could call everything by a different name, so the raving loons will vote for me again, that would help us out a lot. Thanks. #Brexit

Well I mean it's all a pile of wank so it's all illogical and inconsistent

Yes peregrina, she wants 'associated membership' of agencies we like including aviation

Ah, cherry picking then.

it's all illogical and inconsistent

My thoughts exactly, it really was a bizarre speech.

Her inanities speech in full

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/theresa-mays-our-future-partnership-speech-in-full/

Enjoy taking it apart

She does put forward the idea that we could have associate membership of things like Euratom, EASA and the EMA - and gives as an example, Switzerland, who is an associate member of EASA but is not subject to the ECJ - which is apparently a lie misleading

All these associate memberships (like EMA, which we hosted ) are going to come at a cost.

At what point will it cost the UK more each year as an associate member than our current net payments as a member?

Now will this promote a leadership challenge? In practice, I suspect not, because J RM et al. would much rather snipe from the sidelines rather than put up for the job.

Let me make it perfectly clear, strongly and stably …

The advantages of Norway
The obligations of Canada
The fiddly bits of Switzerland
The Schroedinger's Leprechaun of an NI border
The fantasies of Ruritania
The arrogant delusions of Empire 2.0
…
Barnier would have to plant a whole new cherry orchard for her to pick from

• but the E27 won't let him

May doesn't appear to have learned anything about the EU trade system since her 1st day as PM
She has a bad case of Brexit Cake Syndrome

At least no letters fell on her and the stage didn't collapse under her
Although many in the wider audience may wish the earth had swallowed her up before the speech

Any bets - 2018 GE or crash Brexit ?
imo, whichever works best for the Tory Party; bugger the country