|
Re: Brexit-Transitional Period Ends 31/12/20
Today’s Times editorial
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/t...75b75ca97c5216
Quote:
If the government believes the EU has acted in bad faith sufficient to justify breaking international law, it should provide compelling evidence
If the government wants the benefit of the doubt, it would help if it could get its story straight. Since the news that it planned to renege on key aspects of the Brexit withdrawal agreement first emerged, its explanations as to what it is doing and why it is doing it have been constantly shifting. Downing Street initially briefed journalists that the new bill would not breach international law, only for Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, to confirm that it would. The government first suggested that the EU was acting in bad faith in negotiations over the implementation of the Northern Irish protocol, but now says the bad faith relates to the wider trade negotiations, which could have consequences for Northern Ireland. Meanwhile Boris Johnson, who in January had hailed the withdrawal agreement as “fantastic” and good for Britain, now claims that it was negotiated in haste and is being used by the EU to break up Britain and destroy Northern Ireland’s peace process.
It is important that the government gets its story straight because the stakes could hardly be higher. It claims the clauses in the internal market bill that will allow ministers to override the legal obligations in the withdrawal agreement are an insurance policy in the event of no trade deal but insist they do still want a deal. Yet many fear that by lobbing this hand grenade into the negotiations, the government has made a deal far less likely. Last week the EU set a deadline of the end of the month for the government to withdraw the offending clauses if trade negotiations were to continue. The government may hope that the decision by EU foreign ministers to discuss Brexit at their summit next week could lead to a softening of the bloc’s position but it is just as likely to entrench it...
... If Mr Johnson believes that the EU is acting in bad faith sufficient to justify breaking international law, damaging Britain’s global standing and potentially torpedoing an EU trade deal, he should present his evidence. He needs to explain why ministers believe they must break the law rather than rely on the dispute resolution process in the withdrawal agreement. If the government believes the EU is making unreasonable demands in areas such as phytosanitary checks and state aid rules, it should set out what exactly it is that the UK wants to do that the EU is blocking. What the government cannot do is expect the public automatically to take its side in a blame game over a deal that there is evidence to suggest it never had any intention of honouring. If it wants the benefit of the doubt it needs to earn it.
|
Full readable article in link above.
---------- Post added at 09:48 ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
|
Thank you - I stand corrected
__________________
Thank you for calling the Abyss.
If you have called to scream, please press 1 to be transferred to the Void, or press 2 to begin your stare.
If my post is in bold and this colour, it's a Moderator Request.
|