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
3. In @FT David Frost speaks of the ‘disastrous’ backstop yet this would have created fewer frictions than current arrangement. And David Frost refuses to sign up to an SPS arrangement because of his absolutist approach to sovereignty & prospect of a US trade deal. @BrigidLaffan
4. Then Frost turns to his favourite topic-dissing the EU. Some gems in @FT article are need for EU to display ‘common sense’-code for turning a blind eye to its laws & processes & a new accusation ‘legal purism’. Treaties, laws & institutions are scaffolding of EU @BrigidLaffan
5. & next comes display of arrogance ‘The EU needs a new playbook for dealing with neighbours’ -Just because U.K. has left, EU must change to suit the departed state @BrigidLaffan
6. EU member states take on extensive obligations under law when they join-it is voluntary-a state May decide not to join or leave but what third countries can’t do is dictate to EU how to run its affairs. @BrigidLaffan
7. So @DavidGHFrost man up & take responsibility for the choices your Government made passed by your sovereign Parliament but don’t tell me or anyone on island of Ireland that a single Brexiteer was in your words ‘putting the GFA first’ - au contraire
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