I spent yesterday feeling very angry.
I've known, and written about, Johnson's duplicity, lying and consequential corruption of the standards of government before now, but the deliberate (and not denied) intention to renege on the Transition Agreement reached with the EU, and only signed into law by Johnson's own government in January this year, offended me more than all those things.
I have no doubt that I this is because this gameplay on his part threatens the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). The trolls have been out in force saying it does no such thing. But without claiming to be an expert in the GFA I dispute this.
That's firstly because those who are expert in the GFA clearly disagree. The concern on this issue, and agreement that the GFA is under threat, appears commonplace everywhere but in the Conservative Party. The US Congress expressed its concern in a vote yesterday.
Despite that trolls are claiming the experts are wrong because the GFA makes no reference to the EU single market and customs union. There is, however, good reason for that. It's because they were as much issues taken as read, and beyond the need for definition, within that agreement as was the calendar used for the purpose of defining dates. There comes a point when drafting any agreement when what is obvious does not need to be defined: it simply is.
And in this case the GFA was built on a foundation of the customs union and single market that Johnson is now threatening. Food supplies, veterinary services and many other arrangements cannot now be effectively separated across a land border in a small island that cannot properly function without the agreements reached in the Transition Agreement - which is why they were reached and insisted upon by the EU. The Irish electricity agreement, which operates seamlessly across the border now, is similarly impacted, with the threat to it implicit in Johnson's plan having enormous consequences.
It is argued that that these are not as important as sovereignty issues. But again, I disagree. The absolute virtue of the GFA was it left so many sovereignty issues hanging that all could believe what they wanted on the issue whilst the border effectively disappeared, which suited literally everyone because peace was the bigger prize, which means that these are very definitely sovereignty issues.
And now Johnson wants to put that border back in place in a way that can only create tension, north and south of it, and do untold economic, social and political harm.
And what really annoys is me is that I literally have no idea what this destruction is for. At best it is hinted that it is because the UK cannot now comply with the EU's rules on state aid. The ridiculousness of that is staggering. For decades Tories argued that the state should not pick winners and losers and that doing so was to undermine free markets. And now they will sacrifice international agreements - and even one that brought peace for more than twenty years - to do what they have always condemned.
In the circumstance do I have the right to be angry? I suggest so. I think we all should be livid.
But the trolls are still out supporting Johnson's right to destroy all he surveys. And in that case I fear Tory MPs will do his bidding.
The consequence is that all the time my sense of foreboding grows.
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He’s doing it because, in the view of Paul Waugh, political editor of the Huffington Post, he’s calculated that most leavers couldn’t give a stuff about NI, they just want to be out of the EU.
And he’s right in that calculation
But some of us do care
And the international community does
All this destruction of norms is designed, in my opinion, to maximise the opportunity for the most adaptable amongst us to increase their share of the world’s wealth, working with but being personally uncontrained by the backward looking nationalist sentiments of the least adaptable amongst us.
You say “Peace was the bigger prize”. This may not be the thinking of the Chicago School types that are pulling the strings. Shock and chaos are their tools to recreate and reconstruct economies. Examples are the South American countries, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc. Disaster capitalism, ultimately to the financial benefit of private contractors and corporations. Natural disasters or Pandemics are other opportunities to be taken advantage of. Naomi Klein documents it well in her book:-The Shock Doctrine. Is there any more logical explanation to Johnson’s actions?
As far as I can tell the UK has never used the degrees of flexibility that exist within the EUs state aid rules and has always interpreted them in the narrowest possible way. The state aid question is, therefore, a straw man argument. It looks lik a smokescreen designed to give cover for the blame game which is under way.
You are right
Let’s face it: most people in GB believe the EU does everything last minute. It is one of the most widespread anti- EU tropes spread widely. Also promoted by yourself and Larry Elliot.
So Johnson makes absolute sense to Brexiters, Lexiters and Liberals.
This is not a trope
It is an observable fact
And one where there is no evidence of any desire to do so this time
An explanation for Boris’s behaviour could be that he intends to quit as soon as no deal is delivered and he won’t need to deal with the consequences. Economic carnage and the end of the UK.
Doing a Cameron
One of my all time great books is 1066 and all that which divided historical events into “good” and “bad” things. For the current administration the EU and all its manifestations is a “bad” thing, which needs to be rooted out wherever and whenever it appears like bindweed. Stupid yes, Shallow yes. Years of anti-EU propaganda has led us to this.
Yes
One comment I might make – and not aimed at you but a general one, is that many in Northern Irish Politics on both sides of the argument have never had the criticism they deserve, and have been welcomed with open arms by those who should not have touched them with the proverbial barge pole.
Many said the same of Nelson Mandela
Thanks Richard for your elucidation of the GFA issue. I wrote to my MP Robert Buckland, Minister of Justice yesterday mainly about the legal and international law implications.If he replies then I can put these specific Irish questions to him. As a Welshman he may not be so imbued with Johnsonian English nationalism as the rest of the Tories.
Isn’t it just a question of state aid for the rich in a crony capitalist paradise being the prize upon which they have set their eyes?
The British are about to find out that following a buccaneer is ultimately not very clubbable.
I can’t understand why you’re all missing the point of the Johnson premiership: It’s about creating sensational material for THE book.
A world beating advance delivery fee
A world beating English language first print run
A world beating number of languages in print
A world beating book signing tour
A world beating royalty income
A world beating author, and sod the United Kingdom.
A world-beating pile of remaindered copies
Shortly thereafter to be filling up the shelves in charity shops in your local high street…
Clive James wrote a poem which began, I think
“The book of my enemy has been remaindered, and I am glad.”
🙂
Apparently the Treasury Solicitor has resigned. This is an enormous alarm bell that the Government is determined to do something their own lawyers think is unlawful.
This government is doing irreparable harm to the body politic in the UK, just like Trump in the US but without the robust checks and balances that they have in the US.
As David Allan Green has said today, constitutional law is meant to be boring
When it isn’t something is wrong
“And what really annoys is me is that I literally have no idea what this destruction is for”
So true – for what purpose? An end of term game of rugger teachers vs pupils then all go home for summer?
Meanwhile Tory MPs will continue to hold their noses and keep their heads down. The Irish border question, was to me, the most important reason to remain in the EU. It takes a long time to make peace and very little to snuff it out.
And, after all this is done, we will still have to get back around the negotiating table and work out a deal or series of deals that will bring us back to significantly less than we had before. For me, a major inconvenience; for those in Ireland the prospect of escalating tensions, reopening of old arguments and another 20+ years to try to get back to being good neighbours.
The trolls would no doubt dispute the knowledge of the head of the UK government’s legal department, Sir Jonathan Jones, who has resigned over this issue, the FT reports today. It’s apparently the last straw in a dispute between Sir Jonathan and the Attourney General, Suella Braverman, who was appointed last February, her predecessor Geoffrey Cox having been sacked by Boris Johnson for being too pernickety about following international law. Government by trolls?
Yes
The GFA is indeed not explicit on some matters that were taken as read on both sides, EU membership being one. But it is clear and explicit in the commitment to an all-island economy and to not implement border controls on the island of Ireland. These have rightly been found to be obstacles to dividing the island of Ireland into two customs jurisdictions with insuperable practical difficulties. The Withdrawal Agreement was a compromise by both the EU & UK. The UK govt threatening to renege on was astonishing to many, but not to many Irish people, long accustomed to the UK’s history of bad faith in its dealings with Ireland.
See eg, http://www.progressivepulse.org/brexit/will-the-uk-go-rogue-on-northern-ireland
Many British still think they can do what they like when it comes to Ireland, because “it is only Ireland” (and Ireland is small). Mrs May was explicit about when speaking to Barnier
“Ireland is a small and not very important country”
Meaning, its interests should be sacrificed for the commercial advantage of the EU & UK together. This, of course, is to overlook the point of the EU.
This kind of behaviour, and what we have seen since, does the English (and it is mainly the English) no favours. They tell themselves that they are good and righteous and that the evil EU is using Ireland against them, while actively destroying any reputation all capital they have, oblivious to how their current conduct looks and past conduct is remembered. This tweet from Ian Fraser today speaks to this dissonance
@Ian_Fraser: The British are dangerously blind to how they’re perceived abroad, and it’s largely because most of us are so clueless about the realities of empire. Superb talk by @DalrympleWill, in conversation with @OfficialJassa @UKPHA https://t.co/u9xnlOPq9w
I agree
Ten same attitude is shown to the Scots and Scotland
To me it is very simple.
BREXIT is the prize in Boris’ mind.
Any future political survival for him will be based on or part based on him delivering it to those who wanted it or just wanted it over.
As for the GFA, he is simply refusing in his mind to be bound or inhibited by it in any way.
He is simply choosing to ignore it. It’s what you do when you have power and are confident of retaining it.
It’s the law which gives Boris his authority. If he abandons it, perforce he abandons his position. You can’t break the law and be PM, or be in the cabinet or even government, come to think of it. Perhaps Boris should be made to understand deliberate departure from the law of the land, arguably several lands in this case, is tantamount to resignation.
…………….and its not just the BREXIT voters – its the ERG who could snuff Boris out as soon as he is no longer useful to them.
The “GFA was built on a foundation of the customs union and single market that Johnson is now threatening.”
I propose that nobody drafting the GFA gave a moment’s thought to the customs union/single market or considered it relevant to anything. Nobody then considered it was serious politics for Britain to consider leaving the EU; even Thatcher did not go there. The trolls are just being trolls; they would be guilty of sophistry if the proposition was to be taken seriously, but it is just base, crude, feral trolling. Of course, this is Britain today, it may be organised: cui bono?
Agreed
Let me offer an interpretation of Boris Johnson. I see him as the public school boy who was bullied by his peers and now is taking his revenge. Destruction is the whole point.