At least the hard Brexiters like Tice are now being honest about what it was they wanted in the first place. The whole point of Brexit was divergence from EU rules and regulations and divergence from tax laws. Unlocking the 'opportunities of Brexit' means opting out of all sorts of regulations and legislation that make things better and safer for the masses in order to ensure a relatively small number of businesses and individuals can widen their profit margins. Anyone who voted for Brexit who does not have a fortune he or she can off-shore just went along for the ride not realising they're not in on it.
Yep, it was a bid by the traditional ruling class for more wealth and power. They successfully co-opted sections of the working class through nationalism but the working class got zero gain. Let them eat sovereignty.
Red and green lanes for goods to enter Northern Ireland from Britain, meaning at least a dotted line border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland enjoying the benefits of both worlds by having access to the EU. Sunak's great solution is to basically restore to Northern Ireland a chunk of the benefits the whole UK used to enjoy. [Incredibly Slow Handclap] Meanwhile, the mega-Brexiters are now applauding something they fiercely opposed when it was previously suggested. Absolute dunderbrains the lot of them! It's absolutely hilarious watching them all lie to themselves so earnestly.
Yes, but you're missing the fact that this opportunity for Northern Ireland wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Brexit. The opportunity to gain unrestricted access to EU markets is only possible if you're outside of the EU. This is a pure win for Brexit.
The Windsor Framework looks to have solved a lot of the problems with the Irish sea border (and yes, it is still a border). In addition it has totally isolated Johnson and the ERG loons. Any talk of a Johnson come back is now dead in the water. I suspect he may even leave politics soon and squeeze every penny he can out of the public speaking circuit. The only obstacle now is the DUP. If they were sensible they would accept the new agreement and go back into Stormont to work on improving the border arrangements and the lives of the people of NI. The problem is that the DUP are rarely sensible and I fear that they will refuse to accept the agreement and will up the rhetoric, risking peace in NI. I hope I am wrong.
But for the Imaginary Sovereignty Fetishists who also cherish the union, surely it'll annoy them that Northern Ireland has better trading conditions but less sovereignty than the rest of the UK? Although I see most of them, both here and on social media, are moving further into no man's land in the Culture War. There they all are, in their battle uniform of underpants and bayonet, fretting about non-gendered toilets in public places and Trump and so on.
They have too. Any scrutiny of any of the various deals will cause an Emperor's New Clothes moment of such magnitude they'll be laughed out of high office (cf de Pfeffel). Let them fight over non-existent enemies. As an aside, a whisper reached my ears of what the chemical and bio-pharma representatives said at that Brexit meeting earlier this month to our government: REACH and Horizon access or we're off...
Northern Ireland really has it all though and it will once again be able to enjoy the same food as the rest of the UK.
Yesterday Oakeshott had her brain handed to her in a jar by Jacqui Smith on the BBC. Today Oakeshott leaks thousands of Hancock's WhatsApp messages from the lockdown period to the Telegraph. Covid is always a handy cover for Brexit. Ukraine a handy cover for both Brexit and Covid. The news cycle moves on and they hope everyone forgets that the new NI arrangement is an absolute farce.
Brexit is the biggest bore of all time. I voted leave on the basis that both Cameron and Corbin were for remain, which made the opportunity to vote against both of them at the same time irresistible. I sincerely wish the nation had voted to remain if for no other reason that it could have spared us the last seven years of rancour, bickering and general prating about. Brexit has been a disaster
Yes, I think that was true of many people. Nobody on the left would have felt comfortable voting for a Tory inspired, Cameron led, Brexit. And Corbyn's endorsement of Remain, as insipid as it was, would have turned off many Tory voters I'm sure. Also the Remain campaign in general was negative, boring and completely uninspiring.
Corbyn himself was pretty much on the fence publicly and Labour's position under him was fairly non-committal either way but he was widely acknowledged to be a long-term eurosceptic, so you probably voted on the wrong basis. Some interesting stuff here about his stance on the EU: https://www.markpack.org.uk/153744/jeremy-corbyn-brexit/ But if Corbyn was for Remain you'd also think that the ensuing chaos, which is both debilitating and mind-numbingly boring, would be a lesson that the old 'a plague on both their houses' idea is at least a little self-defeating. The only thing worse than boring politics is boring politics that is also damaging. Britain is a smaller, less powerful, more divided, more unequal place than it was in 2015. We can debate the true extent to which Brexit contributed to all these things but contribute it did.
Brexit always has been, first and foremost, an issue for the Tory Party. At the 2010 General Election, the EU was something like the 14th most important issue as rated by voters. Then Cameron came under increasing pressure within his own party from the ‘B’Stard’ wing, externally from UKIP and from eurosceptic headline after headline in the Tory Press. Being cocky, he thought he would see them off and won the Election on a promise of a referendum. Boris, the opportunist, seized upon it as did a whole new cohort of UKIP entryists and Brexit was a winner. After May faltered, the Tory Nationalists won a sweeping victory and routed the pro-European, traditional Tories. For nearly ten years then, Brexit has been the gift that keeps on giving for the Tories. They have maintained power and gained personal riches for them and their chums. The problem is, other than for lining their own pockets, the Brexiteers never worked out what Brexit was for or what it could do. It’s come apart as soon as it came into contact with reality, because it’s essentially an attempt to defy gravity on behalf of post-colonial delusion. That’s how you can end up with the astonishing spectacle of the PM, apparently a Brexiteer, selling his deal to Northern Ireland on the basis of how fab being part of the Single Market is.
So Johnson emerges and says he'll struggle to vote for Rishi's Windsor deal. Doesn't say he won't though, which suggests he's playing both sides as always.
Yes, I imagine he has two letters ready to go. Just needs to decide which "firmly held opinion" serves him best now.
Looks like the long-suspected presence of Russian money and influence behind Brexit is starting to be confirmed. Anyone who voted for Brexit as a matter of sovereignty was absolutely played.
He’s screwed, because it’s either a better outcome than his deal was and it’ll kill him to admit it or obviously sour grapes if he slags it off.
Given Sunak’s recent statements, you do wonder why this hasn’t received more publicity, though you don’t have to wonder for very long.
