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Brigid Laffan Profile picture
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Mar 9, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Short thread 1. Not sure that @SteveBarclay & @Theresa_May are fully aware of what they are asking of #EU27 to make one last shove to get the deal over the line. The EU has been here before with David Cameron. Context is everyhing. @BrigidLaffan
2. EU was grappling with the Euro crisis followed by the refugee crisis in summer 2015 when David Cameron came calling for his renegotiation. Despite misgivings, UK’s partners gave him significant concessions & there was unhappiness in other member states. @BrigidLaffan
3. Having got a deal, it sank without trace & had no impact on ref other than as an object of attack. Cameron did not sell it. As we know the Remain campaign was very poor & Leave won. @BrigidLaffan
4. @theresa_may came calling for a WA -got one & got a major concession re. All UK CU. Not good enough-#HMG back calling again with demands that cannot be met. @BrigidLaffan
5. #HMG still demanding what EU will not give, always pushing & as with Cameron no assurance that anything the EU offers will have any impact. Trust in UK has eroded-having been given an exceptional deal as a member state it is still looking for the same on the way out-tropo.

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More from @BrigidLaffan

Brigid Laffan Profile picture
Nov 3, 2021
@DavidGHFrost & @BorisJohnson are gearing up to trigger art 16 NIP. Will cite GFA but this #HMG @FCDOGovUK has struggled to be credible on GFA. Important to understand why. @BrigidLaffan
1. GFA is the product of a large number of politicians, civil servants & civil society within N. Irl, Ireland & GB backed by US political capital & the shelter of joint membership of EU. An agreement worth backing as it was by the people of the island @BrigidLaffan
2. Fast forward to 2016 Brexit ref? Did the Leave campaign take consequences of exit seriously for N. Ireland? No they either ignored the issue or downplayed it-evidence? @BrigidLaffan
Read 20 tweets
Brigid Laffan Profile picture
Oct 20, 2021
As the below piece from @ChathamHouse is called an ‘expert’ piece then its claims are worth taking a look at @BrigidLaffan
1. Let me begin where the article ends which is that law as a major tool of European integration may be coming to an end-inaccurate & not backed by evidence. Legislative programme around Green Deal alone major. @BrigidLaffan
2. Stylised account of ‘integration through law’ which was at its zenith during the single market early years & has not been the driver of EU integration for well over 15 years. Politicisation has happened. @BrigidLaffan
Read 8 tweets
Brigid Laffan Profile picture
Jun 7, 2021
Why Number 10 spin on Northern Ireland must be pushed back. David Frost has taken to writing increasingly strident articles on protocol in recent times @FCDOGovUK need to remind number 10 about the history of GFA if they have not lost all historical memory @BrigidLaffan
1. Writing in @FT claims that ‘overriding priority of protecting GFA’- difficult to accept from @BorisJohnson led Gov. 29 Feb 2016 Johnson said re. Border & Brexit ‘I think the situation would be absolutely unchanged’. He was laying then & also lied to @duponline @BrigidLaffan
2. Brexiteers in general refused to acknowledge the problems that Brexit would cause so Mr. Frost you have a credibility problem. Theresa Villiers who was then Sec of State for N. irl said back then ‘current trade would be unhindered following the vote’ . @BrigidLaffan
Read 8 tweets
Brigid Laffan Profile picture
Jun 2, 2021
Border on the island of Ireland was always going to be a central issue in #Brexit fallout not just because of the complexities of SPS & checks but because #Brexit runs counter to the sovereignty practices that emerged from Good Friday Agreement (GFA) @BrigidLaffan
2. GFA evolved from deep re-examination of political structures that evolved from Irish Nationalism & Unionism. Political identities, citizenship & states were refashioned by commitments & institutions of GFA. #Brexit is the opposite. @BrigidLaffan
3. @Number10 @BorisJohnson @DavidGHFrost cannot grasp novelty/innovation & genius that lies behind design. Absolutist concept of sovereignty is incompatible with GFA & Ireland pays a heavy price for English exceptionalism & crude grasp of complex political orders @BrigidLaffan
Read 4 tweets
Brigid Laffan Profile picture
May 17, 2021
My ttakeaways from @DavidGHFrost engagement with HoC committee today. 1. #HMG has discovered the Good Friday Agreement. Mentioned more often today than by the Leave campaign or his political master @BorisJohnson during ref. @BrigidLaffan
2. Frost says that U.K. 100% behind GFA. Anything that undermines it a problem for London. Impact of Protocol more unsettling & stronger than ‘we thought’ would happen. Wow when the dogs in the street knew the potential damage of Brexit for island of Ireland.@BrigidLaffan
3. When asked if temporary SPS alignment would be considered which really would make a difference-@DavidGHFrost says no. Why because of the search for trade agreements-U.K. must be in control. @BrigidLaffan
Read 7 tweets
Brigid Laffan Profile picture
Apr 30, 2021
2 observations following a number of academic & policy exchanges on Brexit this week.1. Almost all UK commentators-academic, official & political now argue that EU needs to re-think its approach to third country neighbours-few of them were making case when UK a MS @BrigidLaffan
This call is because reality of 3rd country status begins to bite & however desired by hard Brexiteers, it sits uneasily with almost 50 years of membership. 2. Brexit is seen as the ultimate benchmark for EU by many in U.K., most recently by @GoodwinMJ last night. @BrigidLaffan
What kind of benchmark is Brexit? U.K. is 1 medium sized state while EU remains dominant economic power in Europe. All neighbours have to adjust to its presence not the other way around & all European third countries benefit from the public goods supplied by EU. @BrigidLaffan
Read 5 tweets

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