1. The first thing to say is that the latest documents cannot be seen in isolation. In determining where the UK now stands in its relationship with the EU and its 27 member countries, the documents must be read in conjunction with the Withdrawal Agreement including the Northern Ireland Protocol. We shall come back to this shortly.

2. The second general point is about control - and sovereignty. This lies at the heart of the entire Brexit debate. The majority of voters wanted a return to being a fully free, fully independent, and fully sovereign country once again, after decades of the EU’s inexorable power grabs and insidious advances towards the superstate status its acolytes crave.

3. The third point is a tricky one. Yes, the old cliché that “the devil’s in the detail” applies, naturally, but there’s something else. Something which we have written about many times over the last five years and which has often left us feeling like lone voices in the wilderness. It’s something which is routinely forgotten by almost all Brexit commentators.

The legal text of any agreement with the EU is one thing, but we must never forget that we are dealing with quasi-religious zealots: fanatics for their cause. The technocrats and politicians in the EU Commission and EU Parliament are at heart fundamentalists. Their Old Testament contains the writings of people such as Victor Hugo, Coudenhove-Kalergi, Briand, de Gasperi, Monnet, Schuman and the like. Theirs is an ideology and it’s an ideology founded on principles which seemed important to continental Europeans set against the desecrated post-war landscape of the late 1940s and 1950s.

Their view of ‘Europe’ and the world is still seen through this prism. For many British people this view is unfathomable and indecipherable. It matters because it affects how the EU behaves and how it will treat the UK going forward – regardless of any legal texts.

Observations

Do there appear to be ‘wins’ in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement?

Yes. From our initial review there are some important and positive aspects, not the least of which being zero tariffs and zero quotas, and the ECJ not adjudicating the deal.

However if anyone was expecting the Facts4EU.Org team to be delivering a full verdict on the EU-UK “Trade and Cooperation Agreement” today, then we have to disappoint you.

The UK and EU governments’ Christmas present is a document of 1,246 pages of legal text. On top of that, from the UK Government there are further documents bringing the total to 1,332 pages. In addition there will be even more documents, referred to in the agreement, which have neither been agreed nor yet even drafted.

The average novel runs to nearly 300 pages, so we’re looking at trying to study, analyse, summarise, and report on the equivalent of several novels, all written in legalese. Who wants to spend their Christmas and New Year doing that?

An unholy rush at Christmas

We will get there, but it will take a while. In fact it will take more time than the Government is prepared to give us – or MPs and peers. The vote on this deal is due to take place in the House of Commons on Wednesday – just three days away.

Once again the Government will use protocol-breaking measures to get this deal approved by Parliament in an unholy rush, before anyone has had a chance to scrutinise it properly. Perhaps that was always the intention, although at Christmas time we would prefer to think more charitably. So let’s just call it a shambles.

We continue to call for this deal to be applied only provisionally, to give time for MPs and everyone else to study it before any full ratification. Quite why the ERG – and the Labour and other parties come to that – haven’t insisted on this is beyond us.

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