‘The Starry-Eyed Chamber’ and the Spartans' surrender

Those once called ‘the Spartans’ have laid down their swords

The ERG back the deal today

Three Brexit Facts4EU.Org articles on a momentous day in UK history – Part Three

We are a moderate voice in the Brexit debate.
Today, however, with the mainstream media seemingly absent on the subject of basic democratic procedures and proper scrutiny, we feel we must speak out. Readers may not agree with all of the contents of our three articles today, but we hope you will all support the need for an alternative voice to be heard.

Yesterday afternoon (Tues 29 Dec 2020) the ‘Star Chamber’ of the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs, gave their written opinion on the ‘trade deal’. Their report ends with:

“Our overall conclusion is that the Agreement preserves the UK’s sovereignty as a matter of law and fully respects the norms of international sovereign-to-sovereign treaties.”

Readers can access the three-page report here.

The ERG announces its surrender

On publication of the report by the ‘Star Chamber’, both the Chairman of the ERG, the Rt Hon Mark Francois MP, and the Vice-Chairman, the Rt Hon David Jones MP, announced that members of the 70-strong European Reform Group of Conservative MPs would be voting for the deal today.

In today’s Daily Telegraph Mark Francois writes:

“Boris Johnson famously promised the country that if he won the 2019 General Election he would “Get Brexit Done.” Now that the Star Chamber has exhaustively scrutinised this Treaty, I can assure you, 1,246 times over in fact, that he has done exactly what it said on the tin.
“From tomorrow night, we will, at last, become a genuinely free country once again and for that he will have both the thanks of a grateful nation - and the overwhelming support in the lobbies of the ERG.”

But hang on a minute…

It transpired yesterday that the ‘Star Chamber’ of legal experts were not asked to scrutinise the UK-EU trade deal as a whole. They were asked to look at only one question: that of sovereignty.

In an announcement yesterday from Martin Howe QC of Lawyers for Britain (and one of the six members of the Star Chamber), this was confirmed.

“This highly condensed opinion deals only with the central question of whether the deal preserves the UK’s legal and practical sovereignty, and not the wider merits and demerits of the deal. Lawyers for Britain are undertaking further work on different aspects of the Agreement, and importantly on regaining the UK’s sovereignty from the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol, which remain in force alongside this new deal. That remains unfinished business.”

[Our emphasis]

The report of the ‘Star Chamber’ itself

As stated, this runs to only three pages. Below we single out two areas which we know are of interest to many people.

On fishing

“This aspect of the Agreement temporarily limits the exercise of the UK’s sovereign rights over its waters that would apply in the absence of the Agreement.”

The report goes on to confirm that even after the end of the 5.5 year transition period:

“the EU may impose tariffs on UK fish exports to the EU, and EU leverage may also include the termination of the energy title and the transitional, less restrictive rules of origin for electric batteries.”

In other words, not only has full UK sovereignty over its waters not been achieved with this deal in the next 5.5 years, but after that the EU will be entitled to impose penalties on areas other than fishing, if the UK tries to exercise its rights.

On Northern Ireland

“The Protocol and other parts of the Withdrawal Agreement currently remain in place whether or not this Agreement is ratified. The Protocol provides for continuing direct jurisdiction of the European Commission within Northern Ireland and binding ECJ jurisdiction. It leads to checks being required between Great Britain and NI.”

So, no sovereignty there.

We recommend reading the full report here.

Observations

This report – limited in its scope by the tight brief given to the ‘Star Chamber’ – is the basis for the support today of 70-odd members of the ERG Conservative MPs in the House of Commons.

By its own admission it does not review the UK-EU ‘trade deal’, only one aspect of it. Despite this, it is being presented as a definitive “yes, you can vote for this deal”.

Today's articles:

PART ONE: Before MPs’ debate, No.10 organises plane with EU deal for Boris to sign
PART TWO: The Government applied 20 trade deals ‘provisionally’ this year – why not for the EU deal?
PART THREE: This article

Finally, we know times are difficult for many people this Christmas - they are for us too. Covid has affected us all, and it has definitely affected the level of donations we receive from members of the public. With no other source of income, we rely on our readers to keep us going.

We are most grateful to readers who have donated in recent days, but we badly need more readers to do the same if we are to continue researching facts, scrutinising, publishing, and lobbying MPs. Quick, secure, and confidential donation links are below this article, or you can use our Donations page here. If you have never donated before, please, please, keep us going with a donation now. Thank you so much.

[ Sources: ERG 'Star Chamber' | Lawyers for Britain ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 30 Dec 2020

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Reader Comments 13

1. Not4EU, London , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 08:45:

"...there will be no loss of ESSENTIAL sovereignty" (my emphasis) FCO1030. The 'warm' legal words given as comfort prior to the betrayal of our country before Heath unlawfully signed up to the EEC. We all know how that finished up.
2020.
"...practical sovereignty ... this is ESSENTIALLY protected...
AS LONG AS a UK government is willing to be robust and to defend with vigour ...is less likely to give rise to a serious, effective constraint on practical UK sovereignty to revise our own laws" (my emphasis).
These words show that our sovereignty is indeed impacted, and only a strong, independent-minded UK Govt (when did we last have one of them?) will be able to stave off a continued & ongoing onslaught against our sovereignty.
Let us not forget that the ERG also 'approved' the appalling WD/PD.
The key recommendation missing from the report is that, as this covers just one solitary aspect of the Treaty, that it should just be provisionally agreed pending a proper review.
The rush to formally sign, what is in effect, a blank agreement with many areas to be completed later by the Committees is folly of the first order. It is also deeply sinister, just like the completely unnecessary WA/PD.
This is as big a fraud about to be perpetrated on the people of this country, by the people elected to act for them, since Heath with entry & Major with Lisbon. As an aside, just why ARE parts of the Lisbon Treaty included. Didn't we vote to leave this?

2. Lance Lucky Baxter , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 10:04:

What was their pupose and what did they acheive... Abritation.. from more lie berals..

3. Richard Horton , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 11:02:

“Surrender monkeys” !

4. Derek Lund , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 14:59:

Facts4EU, I agree wholeheartedly on your point about provisional approval but as for your other comments what did you expect? Unconditional surrender?
Your main gripe (and mine too) is that the WA hasn't gone away. The WA predicament arose when the politicians were in a careless hurry to agree something - anything it seems - and were prepared to believe soothing words from the EU. With hindsight we should have requested another 6 month extension, used the time to get all our ducks in a row and exited WTO. But we didn't and now we have to deal with the situation as it is and not as it should have been.
-
I believe we should take a more Machiavelian view of the Agreement and the purposes it might serve in undermining the EU and ultimately the WA. For instance, although we believe too much was given away on fishing, many EU states - especially Ireland - are now accusing Barnier of a "sell out" and are on the point of quarreling with each other / the EU over their reduced fish quota. Let them get on with it! Or put yourself in the shoes of an EU state with her own currency and already a net financial contributor - let's say Sweden - who will have read our draft agreement and identified the opportunity to cut, paste, edit and make her own break out of the EU.
Remember, the Irish were poised to join the embyonic EU at the same time as the UK, held back when we had to and finally joined on the same day, hanging on our coat tails. It's possible - just - that they will realise that their best interests are served by leaving the EU. No Irish membership = 1 redundant NI protocol.
-
Finally, dog's breakfast though it may be, the supreme advantage of the Agreement is that it can be cancelled by giving 12 monthe notice and for that reason alone I would support it. This ought to suit us perfectly. If facts4EU's projections about the UK's export trade drifting away from Europe are accurate and if the EU's pantomimes become too irksome we can simply cut the cable.

5. Billy Robertson , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 15:21:

Tories have sold us out, the 17 4m that will comeback to haunt this party. Still a vassal colony of the EU. United kingdom no longer a union with Northern Ireland annexed.

6. Ashley Great Britain , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 20:33:

After watching the whole of parliament proceedings today,I am happy enough and optimistic over this deal.Yes i know its no replacement for actually reading the whole document,But i cant interpret that.
I am probably the staunchest Brexiteer you will find,And i will always fight for mine and others freedom.If you asked me 10 years ago if we would ever have a chance of leaving the Eu in any way,I would have said no,never.
Yes i would have preferred a complete cut from the Eu,But would we have ever got that?
There are some great parts to this new trade deal,and worse parts that can hopefully be worked on over time.
On fishing its not what we would have expected or wanted up front.Our fleet is currently not up to catching most of our fish in our EEZ.
We have 15% extra catch in 2021 followed by further raises over 5 years. After this point we "should" regain full control of our waters.
Fishing is a big item for us and i hoped for more,But its a great start.
No more -
ECJ jurisdiction.
Erazmus.
CFP.
CAP.

7. Ashley Great Britain , Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 20:35:

No single market or customs union.
We will have External arbitration over disputes.
British laws in British courts.
No Defence union.
Control over immigration.Points based system.
Free to trade with the world.
No EU court of human rights. (only used as a political tool)
There are more good points but these are the basics.
Of course there is the problems of the existing withdrawal agreement but these can be limited after 1/1/21
Its not a perfect outcome certainly. Over the last two years our extraction from the EU has been close to being all but wiped out.
This really is the best we could have had at this time and I thoroughly commend the PM and the ERG for this success.
At 11 pm tomorrow,finally we have something to celebrate.Truly i never thought we would see the day.
We must stand back and give credit where credit is due.
On the 1st of January we will feel like a whole new country.
Peace,love and respect to Facts4eu and all commentators here.
We got the Remainers in the end!

8. Concerned , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 07:28:

7. Ashley, whilst I agree with you I am very suspicious of the 'deal' going through both houses and signed into law by the Queen in less than 15 hours and mostly unread! I suspect large parts of this have been written ages ago and by the EU, to the EU's benefit. I do not like the N. Ireland outcome, the fishing outcome and several other issues mostly to do with the defense of the realm. I am sure UK Column will have interesting findings on Britain's new status in the world starting 4th January 2021.
I thank everyone at Facts4eu for your superb work over the years.
Ashley I am not so certain "We got the Remainers in the end!" - I rather think it is the other way around, but I hope and pray I have it wrong.

9. William Davison , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:53:

You'll forgive me if I'm somewhat cynical about the E.R.G. . Over here in Northern Ireland we could barely turn on our radios in 2019 without hearing Mark Francois or Andrew Bridgen declaring their undying commitment to The Union, while asserting that they would never agree to the imposition of a border down the Irish Sea. Well, we all know how that turned out, Boris went into a hotel room with Leo Varadkar, broke all the promises he had made and Messrs Francois and Bridgen's assurances proved to be just as worthless.
For those of you who aren't aware of it, the somewhat contrarian and E.U. sceptic Irish blog, gript.ie is worth a look at, particularly the recent article by the economist, Prof Ray Kinsella, in which he gives his view on the Brexit deal, along with his forthright analysis of the current status of the Irish Republic within the E.U..

10. Ashley Great Britain , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 10:04:

8 concerned.
Yes of course its not perfect and i have reservations, But we need to find the good in it and there is alot thats good.
The remainers in paliament yesterday certainly looked and sounded "got at"
It should have been better,we had alot to fight against and still will.
When i look at the beneficial parts of the agreement i do get a warm feeling.
The leave remain argument has been put to bed.

13 comments, page 1 of 2

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