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Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
The PM has again repeated his assertion that there will never be a hard border in Ireland because of “technologies”.

This is getting a little silly. As I revealed in April the Home Office itself has privately said those systems won’t be ready until *2030*. Never mind 31st Oct.
Moreover, if the PM is so convinced that his own civil servants and experts are wrong and the tech will work sooner then he should have no problem signing up to the backstop because it will never be needed.
Think how long most major govt IT/infrastructure projects take. Years and years- consider Universal Credit, nine years in the making, still not fully rolled out, still beset with issues. This is even more complex than that. The chances it’ll happen by October are precisely zero.
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More from @lewis_goodall see all

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Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
As someone who has spent far too much of his life searching for something to eat in small British towns in the evening on weekdays, all I can say is: thank God for Indian restaurants.
In this case, the good people of the Ginger Leaf of Builth Wells are my saviours but the roll call of honour is a long one.
They are generally fantastic. And crucially, *open*
Read 4 tweets
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Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Odd comments from the PM in Scotland:

"We've got to be clear that the backstop is no good. It's dead. It's got to go. The Withdrawal Agreement is dead. It's got to go. But there is scope to do a new deal."

It took May 550 days to negotiate the WA. A new one won't emerge in 90.
Not least when the British government's position is they won't even start negotiations unless the EU backs down on the backstop wholesale before they even start...
On the Withdrawal Agreement, the PM says: "There's no point coming out of the EU if you're going to be run by the EU and that was the result of the backstop."

To be clear, that's the Withdrawal Agreement Boris Johnson voted for.
Read 7 tweets
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Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
The new prime minister is putting the country on “a warfooting” and assembles a “war cabinet” for a conflict with Europe.

No you didn’t travel back in time. The year is 2019. Yet political elites seem determined to reenact 1940 at every possible opportunity.
And who are we supposed to be on a warfooting with, exactly? Ourselves?
Political elites over the next few months are going to invoke the Blitz, 1940 and the Second World War repeatedly, appealing to a deep sense of national pride and defiance.

Beware of it. If we go for no deal it's a political choice. No-one (unlike WW2) forced it on them.
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

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Jonathan Lis
@jonlis1
Hard to know where to start with this garbage. Whole point of backstop is it’s an insurance policy in case trade negotiations break down. That’s why it has to be agreed now. If Johnson is so sure of alternative arrangements then he should be only too happy to accept it.
He’s right that a backstop, with its customs union with no say, damages democracy. So would a return to a hard border in Ireland, with its economic chaos & risk of violence. So would a no-deal, which was endorsed by nobody in 2016 and just a third of people in European elections.
But above all, never stop asking this: if Johnson despises backstop so much, why did he remain as Foreign Secretary in the government which negotiated it for seven whole months after it was agreed? It was crystal clear what it involved. Did he not understand it or just not care?
Read 3 tweets
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Katy Hayward
@hayward_katy
Karen Wheeler (formerly of UK govt #Border Delivery group) made some interesting points at @ifgevents #IfGBrexit today.*
Here's a v.brief summary.
1/5
*[so did @AllieRenison and @Lorand_Bartels too, you won't be surprised to hear]
She said UK govt has been trying to guide UK businesses in prep for #NoDeal but particularly difficult for NI.
'Cos v. unclear how IRL wd deal with border.

Without knowing arrangements on the other side, it is extremely difficult for cross-border traders to prepare/comply.

2/5
This leaves NI businesses at a heavy disadvantage in a No Deal, being only prepared for the UK side of trade.

Worsened, she noted, by high number of small businesses in cross-border trade.

Unilateral policy of the UK for land border in a No Deal thus 'somewhat difficult'.

3/5
Read 5 tweets
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OpDeathEaters
@OpDeathEaters
Educational thread on how deatheaters in the UK government used their positions to participate in and/or cover up child rape, mutilation, torture, murder, obstruction of justice, and the paedosadist industry. Info collected circa 2014-2017 #OpDeathEaters
Remember the objective and keep forward. #OpDeathEaters
#Kincora: The man who wants to lift the lid off one of the darkest secrets in Ulster's past. Whistleblower Colin Wallace has vowed to reveal all to the Historical and Institutional Abuse Inquiry. #OpDeathEaters shar.es/1o3iHy
Read 167 tweets
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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
PM sets out 3 Brexit “tests” ahead of Cabinet Customs crunch:
1. protect Union/ no hard border with Ireland
2. “As little friction as possible” in trade for “integrated supply chains” ie car
3. “Must not constrain” free trade deals with other countries

facebook.com/notes/theresa-…
She says these negotiating objectives show - “I have tried to balance the legitimate concerns of those on both sides of the debate” and that
- this path will deliver “the Brexit people voted for”
- but it is “incredibly complex” and
- “there will have to be compromises”
“As little friction as possible” is new language from the PM - seems to acknowledge that the new arrangements outside the Customs Union and SM will not be frictionless, and previous “as frictionless as possible” didn’t make much sense - it’s either frictionless or it has friction
Read 5 tweets
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Faisal Islam
@faisalislam
PM’s Big Brexit speech in London at 130pm... she will set “five tests” of the Brexit deal
1. Respect the referendum
2. An agreement that endures
3. Protect jobs and security
4. Consistent with open outward-looking European democracy
5. Strengthen the union
These are a pretty high level non-specific five tests, - for example in these headline self-imposed “tests” of the deal - there isn’t a reference to eg no hard border in Ireland - though that will feature elsewhere in speech...
“Five Tests” and British policy on the EU has history of course - Gordon Brown’s on euro membership designed on a napkin by a pre-Gangnam @edballs - were far more specific detailed and “economicky”
Read 4 tweets
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Hassan Hassan حَسَنْ
@hxhassan
Follow this thread for highlights from the (sure to be remarkable) speech by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the Trump administration’s Syria strategy:
"The nature of the Assad regime, like that of its sponsor Iran, is malignant. It has promoted state terror. It has empowered groups that kill American soldiers, such as al-Qaeda in Iraq"
"The story of Syria has been one of humanitarian catastrophe. Up to half a million Syrians have died. Over 5.4m Syrians are refugees, and 6.1m are internally displaced persons as a result of conflict between regime and opposition forces. Whole cities have been destroyed."
Read 51 tweets

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