I've been sketching out my CMLRev article, the section on future EU-UK relations. May as well share a few thoughts with the interested online public, about what Johnson's extremist stance boils down to:
1) On plus side, UK has finally moved beyond excruciating period when Leave campaign / May Government promised all things to all people, pretending it could ever possibly happen. Now: UK position has greater coherence, more political realism and respects basic EU legal principles
2) But cost of clarity? UK Government is driving headlong towards serious rupture in relations with EU - and true whether there is a deal or whether there is none. Pigheaded stance on transitional extension only exacerbates situation: makes "two regulatory changes" more likely
3) Besides damage inherent in deliberating dislocating and distancing UK from EU, that choice also has various consequences for UK itself. Eg N Ireland - customs tensions grow in proportion to divergence from EU. Eg England/Scotland/Wales - ditto for management of internal trade
4) But most of all: why does UK demand power to diverge from EU standards, many of which are minimum only & do not prevent higher levels of protection? Maybe "taking back control" is just nationalist rhetoric. But more likely Tories plan to dismantle European socio-economic model
5) UK stance also poses challenges for EU. Above all: risk of aggressive competitor on doorstep engaged in deregulation, social dumping; plus constant attempts to split MSs / undermine EU solidarity. Also: more UK drifts away, more difficult it will be to rejoin again in future
6) But current debate on EU-UK trade needs to be viewed within wider geo-political landscape. Tories now fully converted to hard right populism, in cahoots with equally vile allies in US etc. EU and its friends are acting in existential defence, of liberal social market democracy
Often hear: "worst thing about Brexit is how it helps fuel hard right / undermines EU capacity to defend European values and interests"... as if all that were just some incidental sideeffect of UK's messy little cock-up.
Nope. Those have always been its core & conscious purpose
Nope. Those have always been its core & conscious purpose
