UK govt “offered full compliance” on the northern Irish protocol as a quid-pro-quo to getting the EU to accept equivalence for the city of London in European financial services.
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What’s surprising about this is how little it’s been reported on. Perhaps journalists are worrying about calling this gambit or outcome too early…
The Telegraph did a bit on this but (as usual) put a rather unhelpful top heavy Telegraph spin on it.
Whether you think this tactic good or bad or even if you disagree with the way I’ve phrased this there can be no real doubt now that, for the UK govt, it considers the deal with EU still “up for grabs”.
In other words the Brexit negotiations “are ongoing”.
The interesting question for me is:
Does the EU share this view?
Can the Irish protocol be tweaked as part of a larger deal around equivalence & market issues?
A week ago I would have said definitely no.
Now some of the comment around this makes me not so sure.
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I know a few people a bit nervous about England doing well for “jingoistic/Brexit related” reasons.
Don’t be!
The England team is a wonderful group of lads led by a socially conscious manager.
& a 🏴 Championship win could help align/rejoin in lots of unexpected ways….
The connection between success in sport & jingoism is more complicated than many liberals realise.
There’s a school of thought that winning a sporting event can be quite useful to defuse feelings of unhealthy nationalism as this comes from an unhealthy inferiority complex.
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Next point:
What would you rather have?
Patriotic feeling channelled into Rashford Southgate & co or Brexit?
Some will of course do both, but it’s a lot more difficult to sing the praises of this England team & be rightwing as Tory MPs have found out
Understanding of UK’s position on the Irish protocol is changing in the EU.
The original view was that the UK was “playing hardball” to extract advantages & “appease domestic voter base”.
This view is now considered to have been a false reading of UK govt’s policy…
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Emerging EU view now is that Johnson simply doesn’t want a Northern Ireland that can extract benefits from a compromise status which gives NI advantages over restUK due to a negotiated aligned position with EU.
As this would offer a template of successful EU-UK relationship.
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The debate in EU has been whether UK policy was merely “tactics” playing hardball to extract your extra benefits - or a “strategy” to reach a set final objective.
Turns out neither might be true & instead a permanent awkward dysfunctional status quo may be the real aim.
EU to grant Northern Ireland an extension on chilled meat - the “sausage war” - for 3 months.
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This additional grace period agreed by the EU “assumes” that UK aligns with EU food standards rules during this time.
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This additional grace period also “assumes” (ie stipulates) that the UK works towards ways to undertake processes & actions that will fulfil the northern Irish protocol in a “sustainable way”.
A number of Conservative MPs in southern “LibDem facing” seats have already told Conservative HQ they believe their 2019 election results “won’t be repeated” as the fear of Jeremy Corbyn getting in suppressed LibDem votes at the last election.
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Tory MPs in these areas think Starmer is effectively copying the 1997 election strategy whereby soft Tory areas go LibDem.
While “defusing” the Brexit issue in leave voting trad. labour seats where Tory gains in midland/north are expected to melt as Tory-Brexit reality sets in.
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Also the logic is that the demographic/social change in places like SW London & Buckinghamshire was already going on before Brexit but that Corbyn “suppressed” this vote.
In other words quite a large number of southern leafy seats are “ready to drop” with the right strategy.