Quote:
Originally Posted by jonbxx
You have to wonder what is the UK Governments end game here... By breaking or threatening to break agreements made by the Government itself less than 4 months ago is not a good look internationally. Dominic Raab is currently criticising China for not honouring their treaties regarding Hong Kong while at home, there seems to be a will to break our treaty with the EU.
I can see three possible reasons for the approach being taken;
- Theatrics for political reasons - the EU don't like the taste of British steel and we quietly roll back later
- The treaty does not get signed off by the EU Parliament making the EU to blame for 'no deal'
- The EU makes good on its' threat to launch a legal dispute making the EU bullies
As ever, there is a strange situation where we are Great Britain and don't you forget it, while simultaneously being bullied by the EU
My biggest concern is that it seems that actions taken which look good in the pages of The Telegraph, Mail and Express may not look so good internationally. Or, to put it on a closer to home example, you know that a plumber ripped off your neighbour, would you hire him? |
Spot on post.
---------- Post added at 12:23 ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonbxx
Thanks for the compliments!
On your last comment, I would ask 'how so'? I agree that there will be differences of course but principle stands. I see in the COVID thread that you discuss risk assessment. With an international treaty, you would look at the risks and threats of the other party not complying with the treaty and embed corresponding mechanisms to account for this.
The robustness of those provisions would reflect the risk of one or both parties breaking the treaty and the consequences of that break and could vary from 'let's have a little chat' to ending the treaty immediately.
There's little trust between nation states which is why treaties exist in the first place. If treaties can be freely broken without consequence, this has a major impact on that trust
|
I would also add that breaking treaties has global ramifications. How can the UK complain about China breaking treaties in Hong Kong if we are breaking treaties ourselves. We don't have much of a leg to stand on.
I've said all along that the UK should have taken advantage of the EU's generous offer to extend the Withdrawal Agreement by another year. Instead, BoJo preferred to leave knowing that the systems were not in place but that the negative effects of Brexit would be neatly hidden by the pandemic.