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Nick Gutteridge @nick_gutteridge
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
'In Dublin, Leo Varadkar told Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald that the party should take up its seats in Westminster and back the Withdrawal Agreement.' - Press Association. 😬
Speaking in the Irish parliament today, Mr Varadkar also said: 'I don't believe stirring up tensions in Northern Ireland or turning this issue into one of orange versus green is helpful at all at this time.'
The last time Mr Varadkar urged Sinn Fein to take up their Westminster seats, which was only a few weeks ago (on that occasion he didn't actively tell them to do so to vote for the Brexit deal), the party's leader Mary Lou McDonald was unimpressed. thesun.ie/news/3462789/s…
There's a good explainer here from @thejournal_ie on why Sinn Fein MPs abstain, the internal debate about this issue in Ireland and how ending the policy might not make much difference to UK parliamentary arithmetic anyway. thejournal.ie/sinn-fein-abst…
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Commission no deal planning only pledges to 'avoid full interruption of air traffic between the EU and the UK' and will 'only ensure basic connectivity'. Not terribly encouraging wording for those with holiday plans in Europe after March.
Also in the document is confirmation Gibraltar will be carved out of any measures to mitigate a no deal scenario. Will go down like a cup of cold sick on the Rock and in London.
'Every consignment' of live animals and animal products exported from the UK to the EU will have to be checked at its external borders if there's a no deal. That's a lot of checks...
Read 6 tweets
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Dutch PM Mark Rutte tells me: 'This idea in UK Parliament they’ll get stuck in backstop for 30/40/50 years is absolutely not necessary. Nobody in his right mind would want the backstop.' Adds he's 'confident May now has all the arguments necessary to get it through parliament'.
Rutte denies suggestions May was too vague during talks with EU leaders last night: 'She was very clear, very open about what she wants from us and we put it on paper' [in the EU27 summit conclusions].
Rutte also suggested to me PM may need to forgo festive R&R: 'She'll no doubt during Xmas think about how to create that next stage of a new relationship and what the UK can do to really get kickstarting the whole discussion, of which part will be how to prevent the backstop.'
Read 3 tweets
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Breaking: ECJ upholds the opinion of its Advocate General and rules Britain can unilaterally cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50. Huge implications for the weeks ahead.
Wrong screenshot! That'll teach me to have so much ECJ kicking around on my desktop.
ECJ adds revocation of Article 50 would 'have effect that UK remains in EU under terms that are unchanged as regards its status as Member State'. Removes big anti 2nd referendum argument that EU would make UK pay heavy price for staying. But EU27 probably won't be best thrilled.
Read 4 tweets

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Ahem. Sorry to intrude on today's Westminster drama but....

A faction of the Tory Party is trying to unseat @theresa_may over the the Irish backstop #Brexit

But here is why it isn't going away. Whatever happens. Deal or no deal. 1/Thread
@theresa_may First, the simple politics.

The ERG hates the backstop. They want a unilateral exit clause - but the more they talk about that, the more the EU and Irish are going to cling to the need for a backstop that guarantees no return to a hard border. /2
@theresa_may But let us say, for sake of argument, that the ERG gets its way.

The brave new PM (Raab, Boris, DD or whoever) rides into Brussels with an ultimatum: it's the deal-minus-backstop, or No deal.

And against all the odds and predictions of smart alecs like me, the EU caves... /3
Read 20 tweets
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The Suffocation of Democracy

By: Christopher R. Browning

THREAD✔
1/
As a historian specializing in the #Holocaust, #Nazi Germany, and #Europe in the era of the world wars, I have been repeatedly asked about the degree to which the current situation in the United States resembles the interwar period and the rise of #fascism in Europe.
2/
I would note several troubling similarities and one important but equally troubling difference.

In the 1920s, the US pursued #isolationism in foreign #policy and rejected participation in international organizations like the League of Nations.
3/
Read 109 tweets
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Christ, I've never seen a people so ignorant.
I'm going to have to get this straight because I know I'm cross about something.
When I see people squawking about "no deal" it looks as though nothing has registered with them for the last two years.
The only thing you're negotiating is a withdrawal agreement from the European Union. It's not a trade agreement, it's the dissolution of one. That's what these negotiations are about.
Read 8 tweets
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On a night shift with some time here. Given the interest in the @gavinsblog tweet about the other archive piece I tweeted, there may be interest in an archive thread on housing. T'is turning an 7,000 word research document into a tweet thread. Here goes. IRISH HOUSING HISTORY:
1/ This'll include various archive links, if you know of any others please send them my way. I keep them all in a Google Doc. Anyway, the first modern housing crisis in Ireland was in the 60s...
2/ Prior to that it was vacancy rather than availability that was the issue. That changed when Leamass implemented TK Whitaker's' 1958 'Economic Development' plan. You can see Whitaker talk about the plan here: rte.ie/archives/2014/…
Read 71 tweets
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This!
As @theresa_may tells @HouseofCommons it's 'highly likely' Moscow ordered the attack on former Russian spy in Salisbury & most MPs show support to HMG to take strong action against Russia together with West & EU...
Remember this from @Nigel_Farage?
theguardian.com/politics/2014/…
What's the common point between:
- Farage: theguardian.com/politics/2014/…
- Le Pen: ft.com/content/010eec…
- Germany's AfD: time.com/4955503/german…
- Holland's Geert Wilders: forbes.com/sites/melikkay…
- Italy's Lega Nord: ft.com/content/0d33d2…
- Hungary's Orban: thedailybeast.com/how-putins-usi…
European far-right parties & their populist leaders love the idea they are the real & only patriots. Usually great orators, they focus on negative emotions: fear, resentment, nostalgia of a time that never was. But ask them about their relationship with Russia and they go silent!
Read 42 tweets

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