Parliament should have refused to vote for Article 50 until the final plan was known and embraced. May should have come to Parliament with a 'desired outcome' for Parliament to approve and then use that at the basis for the following two years.
---------- Post added at 08:44 ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
Given that the Withdrawal Agreement itself keeps us in the customs union pro tem, maybe we should simply ditch the political statement. Then there will not be any argument left about the backstop or customs union because that will be a matter for any future trade agreement with the EU.
|
The Withdraw agreement depends on the political statement is my understanding, it's an integral part. The backstop would be needed in any case as that's a essentially a promise that we won't put up borders in N.Ireland by committing ourselves to not bringing about a situation where one would be required. The EU want the backstop to be legally binding rather than our word (and frankly given the mess here who can blame them for that?).
Personally I don't even understand how May's deal actually fixes that problem rather than delay it. Neither side wants customs checks at the border. If you don't want customs checks then you need to have tariff-free access across all physical products and regulatory alignment for them too. That's a customs union. If we're not in the Customs Union with Ireland - and therefore the EU - then you need customs checks. There is not yet any technology that can do this seeminglessly no matter what Boris Johnson says.
So either:
1) We have a Customs Union - Can't do trade deals for products plus winds up Brexit supports
2) We put up some degree of customs checks on the island of Ireland - annoys seemingly everyone breaking the Good Friday Agreement but especially Irish people in N.Ireland
3) We put a border in the Irish Sea and have a stipulation that N.Ireland lives in a different regulatory environment - DUP won't have it, and could concede N.Ireland will join Ireland eventually
If a new election got rid of the DUP in power than I think 3 would have been the option we would have gone for. 2 no one really seems to wants including Americans who've warned against it. 1 is the most likely at this point.