[Britse politiek] #117: Brinkmanship.

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Op vrijdag 13 november 2020 16:24 schreef bedachtzaam het volgende:
[ twitter ]

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One might reasonably ask why on earth did Boris Johnson ever sign the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) last year. Many Brexiteers firmly believe that the WA is an atrocious document that runs fundamentally counter to UK interests. History will not be kind to those in Theresa May’s administration who negotiated it.

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Brussels, Dublin and their Remainer allies in the UK and the US have chosen instead to weaponise the Irish border issue as a negotiating tactic to force through the WA and a profoundly disturbing interpretation of the Irish Protocol. This really is dangerous, not only because it – as Nobel prize winner Lord Trimble has so eloquently pointed out – drives a coach and horses through the GFA; but also because it threatens raise inter-communal tensions.

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Op vrijdag 13 november 2020 18:52 schreef Szura het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]
Wat zou er allemaal in de doos zitten?

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Op vrijdag 13 november 2020 23:43 schreef Hexagon het volgende:

[..]

Is gewoon een verhuisdoos.

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PM accused Dominic Cummings of briefing against him, sources claim

Boris Johnson accused Dominic Cummings of briefing against him and Carrie Symonds, his fiancee, during a tense 45-minute showdown before the adviser’s departure, according to sources.

The prime minister’s senior adviser left Downing Street with his belongings in a cardboard box on Friday evening. Lee Cain, Downing Street’s director of communications, was also told to leave.

Johnson held a meeting with Cummings and Cain to discuss their “general behaviour” where he is understood to have accused his aides of briefing against him and his partner. The prime minister also accused the pair of destabilising the government in the midst of Brexit negotiations ahead of a crucial phase in talks in Brussels next week, the Financial Times reported.

Government sources have denied the fractious talks took place. Cummings told the Telegraph that claims the prime minister had accused him of briefing against him as “an invention” and said: “We had a laugh together.”

However, the tenor of Cummings’ dramatic ousting by Johnson will raise fears that the adviser may not display the discretion expected of a former aide.

A government insider told the FT: “I won’t be surprised if there’s an explosive stunt between now and Christmas.” A colleague of Cummings said: “It’s not Dom’s style just to quietly drift away.”

Conservative officials said Cummings and Cain would continue to be employed by No 10 until mid-December but were expected to work from home. Cummings’ “work from home” project is expected to focus on Covid-19 mass testing for the next six weeks.

Cummings’ theatrical exit on Friday through the No 10 black door, having formally resigned on Thursday, came despite his office being at 70 Whitehall.

Downing Street said that Cummings’ departure would not impact Brexit talks. The prime minister’s official spokesman, James Slack, insisted suggestions the government could compromise on key principles in the wake of Cummings’s decision to leave were “simply false”.

Cummings was widely perceived as the mastermind behind the victorious Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum.

Sources told the Daily Telegraph that Cummings told allies that the prime minister was “indecisive” and that he and Cain had to rely on Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, for leadership.

Johnson’s allies accused Cummings of “trying to blame everyone but himself”.

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EU unlikely to give UK more time to adjust after Brexit transition ends, Ireland's FM tells Euronews

It is unlikely the European Union will grant the UK a grace period in January to help business adjust to the new post-Brexit trading regime, Ireland's foreign affairs minister has told Euronews.

The EU and UK are in the final stages of negotiations on a possible post-Brexit trade deal, although differences remain.

Either way, significant disruption to trade is expected from January 1 when the UK ceases to be a member of the EU single market and customs union. While the UK left the EU at the end of January, an 11-month transition period was instigated to preserve the status quo. That ends at 23h GMT on December 31.

Trade experts say an initial grace period of around three to six months may be necessary to allow businesses to get used to the changes.

However, Ireland's foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, says such flexibilities are “very difficult” for Brussels to allow.

“No, I don't think that's likely, you know, I think that the law changes as regards to trade at the end of the year”, he told Euronews.

"They [the UK] seem to be suggesting that they're looking for accommodation in terms of being given flexibility for a certain period of time to get things done.

“Britain is a third country and will be trading as a third country and they hopefully will be able to manage that new relationship on the basis of an agreement that can be done in the next in the next week or so.”

Last week, the UK’s National Audit Office said preparations to manage the UK border at the end of the transition period “remain very challenging”.

Preparedness planning for business has been “significantly affected by the ongoing negotiations and wider political context, and by the impact of COVID-19" the report said.

Anton Spisak, a trade expert with the Tony Blair Institute, said the audit report is “quite striking”, and whether or not British exporters will be able to manage the new system from January 1 depends on whether the UK has sufficient systems and preparedness in place.

Earlier in the year, the UK government rejected calls by Brussels to extend the transition period until after 2021 in order to mitigate from the extremely difficult conditions brought about by the pandemic.

The legal deadline for such an extension to be granted expired in early July. And officials in Brussels say it won’t be possible to return to the matter.

However, there may be "a legal way around this by including a grace period for implementation into the future relationship", according to Spisak.

“I think those flexibilities are very difficult for the EU to actually facilitate,” said Coveney.

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Op dinsdag 10 november 2020 20:25 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
It's a big club, and you ain't in it.

https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/

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'Chumocracy': how Covid revealed the new shape of the Tory establishment

Appointments made and contracts awarded during the pandemic have uncovered a web of connections

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EU vote on Brexit deal could be delayed until 28 December

A European parliament vote to seal a Brexit trade deal could be delayed until 28 December, three days before the end of the transition period, under an emergency EU plan.

With less than seven weeks to go before the UK leaves the single market and customs union, the negotiations remain troubled, with the talks on fishing rights in UK waters not progressing significantly since the summer.

The negotiations were “not in a good place” on fishing rights, Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said as the two sides re-engaged in the discussions.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is understood to want to be able to report positive news to the bloc’s 27 heads of state and government at a videoconference summit on Thursday.

But the timeline for a deal has repeatedly slipped, with agreement now more likely to be found next week or even later, putting in jeopardy a scheduled European parliament vote on the deal on 16 December.

MEPs have said they need six weeks for the deal to be translated, scrutinised and passed through committees and the final full plenary vote.

Sources in the European parliament said there had been discussions about holding an extraordinary sitting of the chamber after Christmas – on 28 December – as a senior EU diplomat conceded that Brussels might need to be “creative” to get the agreement ratified.

The parliament’s vote is likely to take place in Brussels rather than Strasbourg due to measures in place to control the spread of Covid-19, although the French government has been lobbying for a return of MEPs to Strasbourg.

“We really are in the last week to 10 days of this,” Coveney said. “If there is not a major breakthrough over the next week to 10 days then I think we really are in trouble and the focus will shift to preparing for a no trade deal and all the disruption that that brings.”

“I think the British government understand only too well what’s required for a deal this week, the real question is whether the political appetite is there to do it. I think we will [get a deal], that’s been my prediction for a while, but I won’t be shocked if it all falls apart.”

The outstanding issues remain the level of access to UK waters provided to EU fishing fleets, fair competition rules for business – including rules on domestic subsidies – and the mechanism in the final treaty for resolving future disputes.

The UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, tweeted on Sunday that there had been “some progress in a positive direction in recent days”. But he insisted that his negotiating position on the most contentious issues would not soften in light of the departure of Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, the former campaign director for Vote Leave.

It is understood that common ground is being found on the shape of a deal for how both sides will regulate domestic subsidies. But there is no agreement on a mechanism for maintaining similar baseline environmental, labour and social standards in the years to come. The UK insists it will not tie itself to the Brussels rulebook.
Brexit: what happens to the UK on 31 December, deal or no deal?
Read more

Coveney particularly emphasised the danger posed by the issue of fishing rights to blow up the negotiations, despite its comparatively small economic value.

“It’s a lot more emotive, and a lot more political, quite frankly,” he said. “What the British government has promised to their fishing industry, versus Michel Barnier’s negotiating mandate from the EU is a very, very wide gap.”

He continued: “It’s not good … the negotiations are not in a good place when it comes to fishing. There hasn’t really been any success in closing the gap between the positions of either side and until we find a way of doing that there isn’t going to be an agreement, so we’re in the same place in fishing, as we were in mid-summer.

“Neither side really has budged from their position. There’s been minor concessions discussed on both sides but really it hasn’t moved anywhere.”