Share this page!

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
Twitter logo
9 Mar, 5 tweets, 2 min read
+UPDATE+

Biden govt “unnerved” by Boris Johnson’s new “Global Britain” defence plans.

New UK defence review suggests an aggressive move for UK autonomy in Asia and less resources to defend UK’s immediate continental threats such as Russia.
2/
New US administration reported to be perturbed by a UK move that could antagonise China - where UK may not have the power/resources to deal with the consequences and that a move away from common European defence could lead to a more EU autonomous military structure.
3/
Very interesting article on this in today’s @FT as well.

This has created quite the stir in US circles.

ft.com/content/4a0022…
4/
A lot of scratching heads going on in international military & diplomatic circles over UK plans.

One theory doing the rounds is that this is UK govts attempt at punishment and/or leverage against Europeans for not letting UK get the Brexit Boris Johnson wanted.
5/
This is now a serious headache for the Biden administration which sees an allied strong prosperous Europe as a vital safe component in its western alliance strategy.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @nicktolhurst

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
9 Mar
+UPDATE+

Talk in Whitehall that the UK govt is planning a “reorganisation” of Civil servants in the Northern Ireland Office as too many are perceived as too “neutralist”.
2/
Recruitment into the Northern Ireland Office was generally handled deliberately in a more sensitive way and with an emphasis on neutrality & a “making things work” attitude and less on unionism.
3/
This interesting in this context.

Read 5 tweets
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
9 Mar
+UPDATE+

UK govt sitting on report that it’s replacement for the Erasmus scheme - The Turing Scheme - won’t work as envisaged and will cost vastly more than estimated.
2/
One of the problems highlighted is that as govt only intends to fund UK students this doesn’t create the synergies & goodwill of Erasmus which depends on reciprocity.

Foreign unis won’t have incentive to cooperate - merely to charge UK students/govt as much fees as they can.
3/
Secondly, because of this bureaucratic costs with the UK scheme is likely to be far higher than Erasmus - “like a thousand ad hoc schemes” - with all the hassle & administration deadweight costs associated with such fragmented ventures.
Read 10 tweets
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
9 Mar
+UPDATE+

A number of Conservative MPs are reported to have admitted privately that they are “unclear” on Boris Johnson’s actual Brexit negotiating strategy or aims....

...apart from escalating a row with the EU as it “works well with the press”.
2/
While such a strategy as a tactic leaves the UK govt plenty of room for manoeuvre...

...it’s nots really clear this is an efficient way to speed up negotiations or builds up the required levels of trust with the EU to optimise future negotiation outcomes.
3/
Also leaves open the door for misunderstanding on EUs side.

Can the EU be relied upon to treat all UK govt communication & even actions as “principally aimed for domestic consumption”, that should be ignored even as it makes the EUs work more complex & difficult to manage?
Read 4 tweets
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
6 Mar
There’s a lot of talk about Boris playing Northern Ireland for leverage but UK’s actions are actually aimed at the Irish Republic.

An attempt is being made to degrade Ireland’s position in the EU single market so that the rest of the EU will have to impose checks on Irish goods.
2/
The aim is to get the Irish govt in a weakened position that it will agree to one of the sub-optimal intra-Irish border solutions rather than be effectively forced out of the EU common trade area.
3/
This explains why the reaction from Irish govt was a step higher than previously.

It’s now no longer about Boris feeding some meat to unionists. It’s about ratcheting up the pressure on Ireland.

Not a coincidence this strategy timed exactly after Frost took over from Gove.
Read 6 tweets
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
5 Mar
Greens on verge of becoming ruling party in one of Germany’s biggest & most important provinces?
2/
The Greens have ruled in coalition and have been a major force in BW for some years..but inching towards 40% is a new chapter this would make them the established “Volkspartei” in BW.

A view in the near future for other countries....?
3/
When I lived in BW in the 90s the greens were already strong but I never ever imagined they could get more votes than the CDU & SPD.....COMBINED.

This is incredible.
Read 4 tweets
Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 Profile picture
4 Mar
+UPDATE+

The “Loyalist Council” of Northern Irish paramilitaries officially withdraws support for the Good Friday Agreement.

This marks the 1st time the paramilitary representatives have publicly withdrawn backing for the peace deal since it was agreed over 2 decades ago.
2/
It is understood that a communication sent to Boris Johnson has confirmed the “loyalist” paramilitaries will withdraw their backing for the Good Friday Agreement until the UK govt ditches or destroys the Northern Irish protocol agreed with the EU last year.
3/
This is a significant ratcheting up of pressure from “loyalists” and follows decision by DUP/loyalist groups to stop construction of all permanent customs infrastructure that could serve Northern Ireland’s trade with the rest of the UK - even tho this required by Brexit deal.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @nicktolhurst has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @nicktolhurst!

Read all threads by @nicktolhurst