Damn the newts

A few weeks ago, Boris Johnson complained that planning and building work was being held up by too much consideration to wildlife, newts in particular.

Bloody newts.

So news came yesterday that work began at the Ashford site for the lorry park/Brexit check point, with news that such considerations being being ignored and even a public footpath had been closed, with no appeal, no notice. Just gone.

And in the Commons, Micheal Gove announced that four more such sites would be needed in Kent alone. Because that's what people voted for.

Although the Brexit voting people of Kent were warned that this would happen, or things like it, and with cries of "project fear" these were ignored. It was blindingly obvious that once outside a regulatory area, goods and services entering it would have to be checked for compliance, and not just a piece of paper saying "its all kosher, Guv", but paperwork to the EU's satisfaction. If not, vehicles and goods will not be allowed onto the ferry of Tunnel shuttle.

So in taking back control, the UK handed over the say so on what goods or vehicles can or cannot cross the Channel. But it was always going to be this way, no matter how many times May, Johnson, DD, Raab or whoever said it wouldn't. WTO demand it, the very same organisation that Brexiteers think will lead to a new era of buccaneering trade for the UK.

But as previously written, the UK will not be able to negotiate any deal unless the UK Government has secured the UK, or more accurately, the British Single Market. Yes, those words again. Currently, and in another ironical twist, the EU guarantees the UK internal market, meaning rules and regulations are the same in all for countries of the Union. Not after December 31st this year, many powers have been devolved, and means that there is potentially no UK SM. Certainly, NI is going to be a special case, either with or without a deal with the EU, for many goods, in effect NI will have the same rules as the EU, and the process for importing goods into NI will be the same as in use at Dover.

I didn't see that on the side of a bus.

But in creating a GB SM, this means that The Government has to claim back some powers from the devolved administrations, by legal force. The repatriation of powers will be fought by Scotland and Wales, and could end up in the Supreme Court where the Constitution will decide, or be clarified. Brexit has been forced onto Scotland, in particular, by England (and Wales), taking it out of the EU against its will. And now the food standards that membership of the EU brought is being threatened in order to secure a deal with the US.

Johnson and Cummings will not baulk at forcing Scotland to dance to their tune, but this would only strengthen the case for a further independence vote north of the border. In the end if will come to a basic question, who is supreme in Scotland, Westminster or Holyrood? But without that being judged, the UK Government can't really negotiate a trade deal with anyone and be able to assure the other side that the whole of the UK, or GB, will comply.

As DAG says, Constitutional Law should not be exciting, and it is a bad sign when it is. Brexit has made Constitutional Law very exciting, has limited some of the Government's and Prime Minister's Henry VIII powers, which is why for the Government COVID has been a boon, giving it the ability to pass legal statues without the scrutiny that a new law would in both Houses.

So the power grab would continue, and any perceived "emergency" could be used a pretext for expanding or creating new SIs on the Scots, Welsh or all of us. With no chance of review or legal challenge.

Government by diktat, by Ministers, under the orders of Domic Cummings, and unelected English bureaucrat. I thought this was Brexit was supposed to be all about ending?