Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
True, but fundamentally, states sign treaties with states, not their government du jour. it might be the heads of government that sign the papers but the treaty binds the permanent apparatus of each state, not the politicians presently controlling them. If a state is generally regarded as an upholder of the rule of law then one numpty in charge for a few years is not going to fundamentally alter that perception.
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The trouble is the UK is now coming across consistently as reneging on its promises. There was the original threat to breach the NI treaty in a "specific and limited" manner which went down badly in the EU and US, there was the u-turn in the aid commitment and now this attempt to re-write an agreement.
Trust is easy to lose and harder to gain. If the UK acted in a more trustworthy manner, we may have harnessed our goodwill to renegotiate the NI agreement. Unfortunately, our goodwill tank is currently empty.