Internal market

Tomorrow will be an interesting day; the UK Government is to publish its white paper on the UK internal market, which is expected to clarify what it is planning in relation to the border between Britain and NI.

All through yesterday, spokespeople tried to row back on the FT story about undermining the WA, and the NI protocol. And yet today, in many papers the line coming out of Downing Street and Whitehall is:

"Brexit deal never made sense" and is "contradictory regarding Northern Ireland".

A reminder, once again, this is the deal that Johnson took personal control of, negotiated with the EU agreeing to something that May said "No UK Prime Minister could ever agree to", a border in the Irish Sea.

The new tranche of Tory MPs had to sear an oath to support this new WA, and on January 9th 2020, this Parliament ratified the WA and PD.

All that time, Johnson denied it would mean setting up border control infrastructure in ports in Britain and NO, but, of course, the details meant that such things were mandated. And so over time, building of border check points was planned, though the meaning of what new infrastructure meant was bent to mean new buildings meant no new buildings.

But beyond that, there is what the internal market means for Britain.

The Act of Union, 1707, created Britain, but meant that Scotland had legal independence in many areas. This is especially true in public health, which is why we have seen the performance of Scotland so much better in dealing with COVID, with towards the end of the first wave, most deaths were English deaths, with Scotland, in many parts, COVID-free.

Scotland introduced minimum until pricing for alcohol, in order to tackle problem drinking.

Which brings me to the point: Scotland could make some foods, say, chlorine washed chicken or hormone injected beef, illegal in Scotland, and there would be nothing Westminster could do. It also means that Johnson could not negotiate a single trade deal for the whole UK, giving away food standard rights in return for maybe a deal in itself.

So there is the UK single market white paper.

Scotland has a slight majority in favour of independence, but forcing fundamental changes to the Act of Union, removing Scotland's ancient legal independence would be a massive boost to the SNP's campaign, and shows that Westminster really does not care about Scotland.

This could be another hammer blow to the heart of the Union of Great Britain, but in order to be able to negotiate a Britain-wide trade deal, something that would need to be done, otherwise agreement from the devolved Governments on any aspect of a Britain=wide trade deal would be needed.

Who would have thought Brexit could be so complicated and dangerous to the Union? Not the Brexiteers, for sure.

In May, it emerged that prior to the ratification vote in the Commons in January, those "Red Wall" MPs who had been taken on as candidates on the proviso that they unflinchingly support Johnson's "oven ready" Brexit, were told by Michael Gove that there was no need to read the WA as it could be changed later."contradictory regarding Northern Ireland" Which is partly why we are here now, the WA in place, ratified by the EU and UK and it contains issues that will have split the Union apart, or will do come Jnuary 1st next year."contradictory regarding Northern Ireland" Johnson calling it deal that he declared oven ready, now containing issues that he labels: "contradictory regarding Northern Ireland", these issues were raised at the time but we were told by Johnson that such checks on the border between Britain and NI were not needed. For goods travelling from NI to Britain, maybe not, but the other way, yes."contradictory regarding Northern Ireland" And in cables between the EU negotiation team and the EU council, there is increasing distrust in the UK Government. "contradictory regarding Northern Ireland" You don't say!