Lord Frost in his Lisbon speech, philosophically titled Observations on The Present State of the Nation, says UK-EU relations are "fractious" and that resolving the Northern Ireland Protocol is a "prerequisite" for them improving
Frost says going for what some people dubbed a "hard Brexit" - i.e leaving the Single Market and Customs Union - was "essential" because only that form of Brexit would give the UK the freedom "to experiment and act"
Frost says too often the debate about Brexit is "technocratic" and focused on trade, rather than democracy
Frost says while there have been criticisms of the UK's approach to the last few years, the EU "doesn't always" look like a body that wants to work together constructively, citing vaccines & shellfish. The EU looks like it doesn't want the UK to succeed, he adds. Goodness.
Frost says the Northern Ireland Protocol is "not working," has "completely lost consent" in one community in NI, and is threatening the Good Friday Agreement, not protecting it
Frost says the UK will be "really ready" to discuss the EU proposals being unveiled by European Commission VP Sefcovic tomorrow. "We'll consider them seriously, fully and positively"
But he says the Commission is being "a bit too quick" to rule out changes to governance (ECJ)
It'd cost the EU "very little" to put a new Protocol in place, Frost says. He warns Brussels it would be a "historical misjudgement" to refuse fundamental changes and that doing so would be the EU putting its processes over stability in NI. Punchy even by Frost's standards, this.
Labour's @JennyChapman, Frost's opposite number in the Lords, says rather than approaching his speech with "maturity and the spirit of cooperation," he "has effectively asked to rip up the agreement he negotiated – and the Prime Minister signed – just two years ago"
Lord Frost says based on what he's heard of the EU proposals being presented tomorrow he fears they "may not do the job on the first round"
Those remarks do suggest he'll be up for negotiating the EU's suggestions rather than rejecting them outright
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New: I’m told the Home Office has changed the visa scheme so it no longer ends on Xmas Eve. Driver visas will last the full 3 months from the day work starts, industry told today. @politicshome reported this wk industry concern that the scheme would be <three months in practice.
The government believes EU workers will begin arriving in early November, as @politicshome reported. A Home Office plan shown to industry figures today says ministers expect lorry drivers to be in the UK until the end of February, and poultry workers until the end of January
EU poultry workers are expected to be here until December 31, not the end of January. The slide shown to industry earlier was wrong and has been corrected.
Ministers could decide as soon as today to deploy soldiers to drive tankers
There are reports of cars tailgating lorries on the motorway amid panic buying
Meanwhile, industry was this morning still waiting for details of how the visa scheme would work politicshome.com/news/article/m…
However, industry leaders are confident that panic buying will subside in the next few days
They have also expressed doubt over how impactful bringing in the army would be, with low numbers of soldiers actually qualified to drive tankers
Downing St confirms Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Stephen Barclay, who inherited the supply chain brief from Michael Gove, will chair a meeting of ministers this afternoon to discuss the fuel crisis
Supply chain disruption "is going to get worse," he tells @ifgevents, with Xmas & new Brexit checks coming down the line
Just in time supply chains as the UK has known them are "over" and food shortages will now be "permanent"
The Food & Drink Federation's Ian Wright says he's been led to believe the government might announce a further delay to EU import checks as soon as this afternoon...
Filling in for the ace @Alain_Tolhurst on this week’s Saturday read...
I interviewed DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who insisted he was not scared about the next Assembly election but warned it’d be “critical” for unionism. “It’s an election we must win.” politicshome.com/news/article/j…
Donaldson, who replaced Edwin Poots last month, told me the DUP would not consider supporting the UK government's move to implement Irish language legislation until/unless it delivered "meaningful" changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol
With the DUP languishing in recent polls, Donaldson said the party must be more "inclusive" and a "broad umbrella under which unionists can shelter," to get back on track