“Brexit will not be ‘done’, it will be burnt to a crisp”

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org editorial, following the can-kicking yesterday

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2020

Joint statements, fudges, missed deadlines and opportunities, and the direction of travel

The number of key events on the Brexit landscape during the last five years is now legion. Aside from the magnificent Referendum victory in 2016, the majority of these events have been resoundingly disappointing to the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union.

Yesterday’s joint statement issued by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is yet another nail in the coffin of freedom, democracy, and sovereignty.

What on earth are you doing, issuing a ‘Joint Statement’, Prime Minister?

Sometimes it’s the small things which are missed by the commentariat which then turn out to have held significance. One such is the fact that once again yesterday the Prime Minister chose to issue a ‘Joint Statement’ with the EU’s unelected Commission President.


© Cabinet Office

“We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics.

“Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days.

“And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.

“We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.”

The rest of the world might be forgiven – reading the joint statement – for believing that the UK is not in fact engaged in a titanic and adversarial struggle with a domineering, bullying, ideological technocracy, but is instead having a friendly little squabble over relatively minor issues.

If the Prime Minister considers it appropriate to issue a joint statement with an organisation which only ten days ago ratcheted up its already unreasonable demands to levels which no country in the world could ever accept, we do not. Brexit is about freedom, independence, and sovereignty. Yet it seems that we are still speaking as one with the EU.

Yes, some will argue that this is a trivial point. “What does it matter?” they will ask. It matters because the Prime Minister is not speaking for himself and for the interests of the United Kingdom, but is instead lip-synching with the mouthpiece of the EU.

The UK Prime Minister is not even allowed to speak to the German Chancellor or French President

Mr Johnson is not even dealing with his equal. German Ursula von der Leyen was parachuted into her role at the last minute, days after the deadline for choosing a Commission President, and hers was the only name presented to the MEPs of the EU Parliament for them to rubber stamp. She was previously the least-popular minister in Angela Merkel’s cabinet. That is democracy in the style of Soviet Russia and North Korea.

Imagine if the voters of Uxbridge and South Ruislip had been presented with a ballot paper several days after the General Election of 12 December last year with only one name on the ballot paper – that of Mr Johnson? There would quite rightly have been uproar. This, however, passes for normal in Brussels and Strasbourg.

The real decision-maker in the EU is the German Chancellor, followed at a distance by the French President.

They both refused three times to speak to the British Prime Minister in the days leading up to the supposed final ‘deadline’ of Sunday 13 December 2020.

In effect they called his bluff and Mr Johnson capitulated.

We are now heading for a fudged, ‘Bit of Brexit’ deal at year end

It is the Brexit Facts4EU.Org opinion that the outcome of the last four years of talks, (not “almost a year of negotiations”, as Mr Johnson and Frau von der Leyen put it in their joint statement), will be a fudged deal. It cannot conceivably represent Brexit, if Brexit means a fully free, fully independent, and fully sovereign United Kingdom. It will be “A Bit of Brexit”.

There are not three major sticking points, there are dozens. The holy trinity which is repeatedly cited of ‘level playing field’, governance, and fishing are only a part of the panoply of profound problems with the constitutional, economic and societal demands being placed on the UK by the EU.

Absolutely no sign of rescinding the EU’s appalling ‘Withdrawal Agreement’

Some of the most egregious and outrageous demands from the EU have already been signed up to by the Prime Minister, in the form of the Withdrawal Agreement (including the N.I. Protocol) and Political Declaration.

To give but one example, Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of the Cabinet Office, was forced to admit the following in the House of Commons on Wednesday last week:-

“It is there in the Withdrawal Agreement and in the Protocol that we accept the acquis in a specific number of areas in Northern Ireland. That is part of the withdrawal agreement…”

The ‘acquis’ is the EU’s body of laws, directives, and regulations. Mr Gove didn't say so, but these will also apply to businesses in England, Scotland and Wales in respect of state aid provisions.

With or without a trade deal, the partition of the UK and the imposition of the supremacy of the European Court of Justice is guaranteed in the WA, unless it is specifically repudiated.

Observations

This Brexit will not be ‘done’, it will be burnt to a crisp

The Prime Minister led his party to victory in the December 2019 general election in no small part due to his pledge to “Get Brexit Done”. He described his marginally renegotiated Withdrawal Agreement as “oven ready”.

After more than nine months of so-called UK-EU trade talks, it is now clear that the ‘trade’ deal is going to be left in the oven so long that it will be burnt to a crisp. Blackened and charred, only some morcels will be left of what we might perhaps be able to call “a bit of Brexit”.

We urge the PM to reconsider, and we ask all readers who desire a fully free, fully independent, and fully sovereign United Kingdom to write to him if you agree. The means to do this are in our Saturday article here.

Finally, please help to keep us going in these critical times. With Covid measures affecting the ability of many people to make donations, our funding is at an sustainably low level. Please make a donation now – small or large – and you will receive a warm and friendly email from a member of our team. Quick, secure, and confidential donation links are below, or you can use our donations page. https://facts4eu.org/help-us Thank you so much.

[ Sources: No.10 | Hansard ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 14 Dec 2020

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