Dumb and dumberer

In relation top Brexit, there are two sets of laws which have to be complied with: national and international.

Changing a domestic law does not stop obligations under international law.

That’s first up.

Second, Northern Ireland was always going to be problematic for Brexit. Brexit demands there be borders, the GFA demands there be no borders, at least on Ireland between NI and the Republic.

So, a fix which satisfies all of the above was always going to require the wisdom of Solomon. We have Alexander Boris de Piffel Johnson.

The prosecution rests.

But, whatever happens, international law mandates that for many goods, NI remains in the EU, or following EU rules, so to secure the All Ireland Market. This will require border checks at British ports to NI and at NI ports receiving goods.

But this morning, the Financial Times ran a story that the UK Government under the twin brains of Johnson/Cummings was planning on introducing domestic legislation on the UK internal market making such customs and regulatory checks between Britain and NI.

We have been over this before, the “oven ready” deal that Johnson agreed to and Parliament ratified and the electorate voted for, broke the UK internal market, leaving a rump Britain and making NI, at least partially, in the EU. The WA and the PD are part of an international treaty, and cannot be just ignored. If the UK Government does enact such a law, and fails to implement the agreements for the NI Protocol, then it will be serious indeed.

We cannot be sure the Government is serious about this, or just playing to the Brexiteer/ERG crowd, or will do it. Reneging on an international treaty when you have to negotiate many dozens of new such treaties is not a good look and will make the UK untrustworthy.

All this at the start of the final round of talks between the UK and Eu on the future arrangements for trade and everything else. The UK talks about bad faith on the EU side, without really making a firm case, but this is indeed bad faith. Agreeing an international treaty without intending to implement it is the ultimate act of bad faith, and will have devastating effects on the economy and country as a whole.

In writing these posts, and hopefully, you reading them, gives an understanding to what is at stake with Brexit and what it would mean to break a treaty. I am tired by this, all of it, and wish whatever happens, happens. The effects are fixed and we can get on with our lives. Europe will not move, it will always be 23 miles off the coast of Kent, we will always want to trade with them, they will want to trade with us, but Brexit is putting economic sanctions on ourselves, and will do irreversible harm to our economy and industries.

And what of the GFA and the generation of peace it has created on Ireland? To be cast aside to satisfy the internal conflict of the Conservative Party? As Tories have learned, play with extreme right wing rhetoric and you get flag-waving fascists and the like, play with the GFA and get something else on a different scale. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the entire British Armed Forces could not keep the border secure, the slimmed down version we have now certainly cannot.

And the EU has responded, it expects the UK to honour what it has already ratified.

Dumb.As.Fuck.Tories.