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Robert Peston @Peston
, 4 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
So we now have the DUP, Labour and Tory Brexiter MPs (I am sure ERG will join in) all demanding that the Attorney General's full legal advice on the implications of the various backstop ideas must be published. Of course they have to do this. And the prime minister will...
...have to concede. But they all know this is a silly game. Because they know what the advice will say. And even if they don't (and I naively think they are bright enough to work it out), a moments reflection would tell them that (unlike the legal advice relating...
...to the war in Iraq) the legal advice is a fig leaf, an exercise in misdirection, a canard. The choices about how to keep open the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic are political, not legal. Which I assume in his heart @michaelgove, who started...
...this push for legal transparency, must know.
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.@Femi_Sorry and @Anna_Soubry are the UK I love. The rest are not my country. This is nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with decency
What has happened to us? I make a comment that no one deserves to be abused by an angry mob and about the importance of treating each other with respect. And the typical response here is I am showing pro-Remain bias. This is nuts and worrying.
What happened in the words of @Anna_Soubry: “police refused to intervene and when asked (unknown by a BBC producer) refused to escort me back to HoC. The thugs tried to block the entrance and we had to ask the police to let us in. Utterly appalling. What sane person...
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I put to senior government source whether attached is official NHS advice. This was the reply: “No. This is not an official NHS publication. People should trust advice from official NHS sources. We are confident that if everyone does what they need to do, medicine...
”supplies will be uninterrupted, and patients will get their prescriptions in the usual way”. That said, I understand why anyone with chronic or acute illness will be anxious. If @theresa_may really wants no-deal Brexit to be seen as preferable to a referendum, which...
...apparently she does, then providing credible reassurance to the most vulnerable must surely be top priority.
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For the civil service Brexit is becoming very real indeed. Officials at the Department for International Development, which isn't much affected by Brexit in a direct sense, were told this morning that up to 600 of their number - out of just 3000 - may have to be redeployed to...
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06/01/2019 - 78 years ago today, the longest-serving #UnitedStates #President, #Franklin D. #Roosevelt (#FDR) addressed the 77th #Congress with his "#Four #Freedoms" speech with the intent to shift #US #foreign #policy from that of #neutrality to #interventionist.
#FDR promoted the idea that the people of the world, in all nations, shared entitlement to four freedoms: that of the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want and the freedom from fear.
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So, the Attorney General's full legal advice seems to have a number of implications for the UK. With my "I am not a lawyer hat" at a jaunty angle, here goes...
1) The backstop will include a defacto border in the Irish sea (see marked section).
gov.uk/government/pub…
Goods from GB will require additional checks as they cross into the EU. This will lead to queues at ports and other concerns applicable to a no deal scenario. In other words, Just-In-Time may survive during transition, but highly likely backstop will kill it. *Firms will leave*
The mechanism of the customs arrangement and the movement of goods between the UK and the EU is described as "single, coherent". This is *not* the same as frictionless. In other words, there will be new red tape, but it will be the same red tape UK-wide.
Read 13 tweets
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It's going to be a massive day in parliament. Your amuse-bouche, in which govt might be found in contempt of parliament, is kicking off now parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/83…
Starmer: "It's no longer for the govt to judge. It is for parliament, which is a higher authority."
Near silence in Chamber while Starmer is speaking.
Read 215 tweets
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BREAK: Downing Street will not publish full Brexit legal advice, will only give MPs "full, reasoned position statement" ahead of vote.
Sets up a massive showdown with the House of Commons which passed a binding motion which called for "any legal advice in full" to be handed over.
Downing Street said it would honour a commitment made by David Lidington to give MPs a "full, reasoned position statement".
Crucially that is not what the motion which was passed demanded.
Looks like MPs will be given a summary of legal advice, not the actual legal advice.
Pretty clear from this exchange that Number 10 has no intention of complying with the binding vote of the Commons on providing MPs with full Brexit legal advice before the meaningful vote.
Read 7 tweets
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Your 1st priority is to the Country. #Brexit in any form harms it.
@Labour4EU know it...Unions know it..Momentum too. theguardian.com/business/2018/…
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The Ref validity is long gone...past its Use By date.
Lies, Illegalities & Rights to be Removed w/o CONSENT.

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I was told on Thursday that Davis was looking unconvinced at the prospect of selling this deal in EU capitals - as he would have had too. That having been humiliated by PM bypassing Dexeu, it was “utter humiliation” to have had Chequers Brexit plan developed by PM’s adviser...
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