It’s exactly two months since (most of) the UK actually left the EU

Facts4EU.Org looks at the two EU-UK deals to see how they are working out

Boris, is it now time to show the EU some ‘tough love’?

The UK’s future relationship with its closest neighbours is an essential policy area for Boris Johnson’s Government. Today marks two months since the UK finally left the European Union on 31 December 2020 and it therefore seems appropriate to recall the two agreements which most define and impact the relationship.

Despite high hopes being expressed by the Government and by some pro-Brexit commentators and politicians about the EU Withdrawal Agreement signed in January last year, and the subsequent UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed on 30 December, both of these deals are now in trouble. Regular readers will know how many times we warned about both of these agreements, and about the EU’s vitriolic and vengeful approach to the United Kingdom since the British people voted to leave its sclerotic regime.

The EU Withdrawal Agreement and its disastrous and predictable impact on our United Kingdom

The EU Withdrawal Agreement – despite being renegotiated by Lord Frost – still contains the Northern Ireland Protocol. Whilst this is slightly better than the appalling ‘Backstop’ negotiated by Theresa May and Ollie Robbins, it is still wholly unacceptable on many levels.

Our position has been entirely vindicated by the devastating impact this is now having on Northern Ireland’s people and businesses. Not only are British businesses finding it almost impossible to supply their customers in Northern Ireland in a commercially viable way, but the Unionist community finally seems to have woken up to the fact that the EU is using the Northern Ireland Protocol to annex part of the UK and cut it off.

The EU is using the Protocol in every conceivable way to punish the UK, as we knew they would, and Facts4EU.Org continues to advocate its revocation. On 29 January the EU even tried to use it to deny vaccines to Northern Ireland, before having to backtrack at high speed. By invoking Article 16, the EU set a precedent and the legal justification for rescinding and voiding the agreement is now unquestioned in quarters which had previously accepted it.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement is no better

On New Year’s Eve, the day before the new UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into force, we wrote the following:

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary – first published on New Year’s Eve 2020

On this last day as a colony of the EU, however, it is perhaps a good moment to reflect on the real challenges we face as a result of the EU’s Withdrawal Agreement (which remains in place) and the wholly unprecedented impositions placed on the UK by the ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ – now an international treaty.

As we have pointed out many times, those who inhabit the Brussels corridors are ideological extremists working for their vision of an EU superstate, subsuming all individual European nations into one and governed by technocrats from the centre.

For the EU it’s not enough that tomorrow:

It rules a sovereign part of the United Kingdom: Northern Ireland
Its access to the UK’s sovereign territorial waters will continue as part of this deal
The UK has granted access to the EU’s financial firms whilst the EU has not reciprocated
The EU has locked in its massive surplus in goods trade, whilst offering nothing for UK services (80% of our economy)
The UK must stick to EU standards on the environment, climate change, carbon pricing, human rights, social rights, labour rights, tax transparency, and State aid

No, none of these things will be enough. Not for the EU.

For them, the United Kingdom must not succeed as a free, independent, and sovereign country. To allow this to happen would be to allow the peoples of other European countries to see a brighter future outside the EU, and to have hope. All hope must be extinguished.

Two months have passed since we wrote that – where are we now?

As ever, we stand by what we wrote two months ago. The United Kingdom did not leave the EU as one country, as the Prime Minister claimed, and the ‘trade agreement’ excludes 80% of the British economy.

It is now accepted, even by those who backed the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, that serious problems have arisen, as we predicted.

Northern Ireland has indeed been cut off and is under the rule of law of the foreign powers in Brussels
Not only do EU boats continue to have full access to UK waters, but the EU is refusing UK shellfish
The EU still refuses to grant the same equivalence to UK financial firms as it does to those of other countries
EU lorries continue to pour into the UK with EU goods - the EU’s massive trade surplus looks safe
Meanwhile British truckers have their ham sandwiches confiscated when they arrive in EU ports
Environment, climate change, carbon pricing, human rights, social rights, labour rights, tax transparency, and state aid – the EU has yet to act as the UK has changed nothing – but it will

Observations

So it’s two months since the United Kingdom allegedly became free although, as we have shown, part of its territory has been annexed by the EU in terms of the majority of its legal framework and trading rules.

Prior to 01 January 2021, for the preceding 11 months both the EU establishment and the UK Government maintained the fiction that the UK had left on 31 January 2020. This was not true, of course. From 01 February last year the UK was in the EU’s ‘Transition Period’ and was subject to all EU laws. It had to accept full free movement from the EU, it had to keep paying for all existing and new EU projects, but it had no UK representation in Brussels and no vote on anything at all. This was ‘colony status UK’, which Facts4EU.Org was the first to label as such.

We now live in a world where Northern Ireland has effectively remained behind as a quasi-colony of the EU.

In 1982 the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher knew that her government could not survive the loss of the Falkland Islands to Argentina. She, herself, would have to resign if that territory were not restored to British sovereignty.

The actions of the Argentinian junta did of course involve violence when it invaded the Falklands.

In 2020 the EU took material control of a sovereign part of the territory of the United Kingdom and did not need to use military force to do so. In the last two months the world has already seen the EU wield its power with no regard to the Belfast Agreement, nor to the people of Northern Ireland, and the EU continues to be as disruptive as possible.

Time for some ‘tough love’

There are some welcome signs that the Government is starting to toughen its position in relation to the EU. Replacing Michael Gove with Lord Frost as the minister representing the UK in the two EU-UK committees dealing with the WA and TCA is a good start.

For the Facts4EU.Org team, it is an excellent sign that officials in Brussels are bemoaning this move and are already suggesting that they hope the UK will not become more aggressive in its stance.

More aggressive? We wish. However we’ll settle for ‘more assertive’. Frosty, let them at least hear the lion roar.

If you would like us to see this job through in the coming months so that we don’t “win the war but lose the peace”, please, please donate today. We badly need your support if we are going to keep going in 2021. 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 this year, 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: The Withdrawal Agreement | the Trade and Cooperation Agreement | numerous other sources from previous Facts4EU.Org reports ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 01 Mar Feb 2021

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Reader Comments 4

1. Melvyn Thomas , Monday, March 01, 2021, 09:03:

Basically the EU has carried on as though we are naughty children who will be brought back into line if they ignore whatever we say. HM government, grow a backbone!

2. Michael Burnhill , Monday, March 01, 2021, 09:18:

Until the EU signs the deal we can't alter vat levels or make many other changes that will start the Brexit process of making Britain a far more competitive country trading with the world! That's why Johnson needs to put his foot down and tell the EU to sign or accept WTO rules until they do!

3. kb , Monday, March 01, 2021, 15:16:

The problem we've got is that much of our food is imported from the EU. If this is slowed down or tariffs imposed (i.e. WTO rules) the supermarket shelves will be bare. Panic buying will ensue and prices will increase (many people don't realise import tariffs are ultimately paid by the consumer). If we don't source goods from elsewhere we are are trouble and the EU knows this. There is no sign that we are doing this, why not?
On another topic, we were told that, with Brexit, something could be done about Amazon and other corporations avoiding UK taxation by basing themselves in Ireland, Netherlands or other EU countries. Since Brexit, I have heard nothing further about this, perhaps this is something else that F4EU could investigate?

4. Christine , Tuesday, March 02, 2021, 10:14:

The EU (just like rejoiners) are basically sulking ever since the Brexit vote, which makes any grown-up conversation difficult if not impossible.

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