Paterson was a linguist and businessman working across Europe. Whereas it was the EU's treatment of Greece that pushed Davis to support Leave, for Paterson it was the treatment of former Communist countries
Bonus first Johnson sighting there. A very honest answer on the impact of Cameron@s Bloomberg speech (remember Paterson was in the Cabinet then
and why as SoS he never through Brexit would cause a problem with the Irish border
He has some interesting stories of negotiations on agriculture in Brussels (including encounters with the "very good" Irish Ag Minister who went on to greater things @simoncoveney
and those experiences confirmed his view of the need to "take back control"
Paterson disputes @ShippersUnbound account of the setup of Vote Leave.. his version
But a bit later he stepped back.. but he saw the way the mood was going
he has a lot of people in his sights when setting out how the Establishment tried to frustrate the referendum result
Paterson chaired the alternative arrangements working group.. and hates the NI Protocol
His view on the weaponisation of NI - and on Ireland
As someone who speaks German and goes to Germany often, Paterson is interesting on the non-meeting of minds between UK eurosceptics and Germany
Paterson's worries if Parliament had frustrated #brexit
Interesting insight into why he voted for the protocol first time round in the Johnson withdrawal agreement.
we asked about the source of his euroscepticism. Not his early employment at Tate and Lyle as some assume. He reminded he was Whip on the Maastricht bill. Described himself as a "civilised eurosceptic" (not a "bastard" TM John Major
DD was very critical of the Cameron pledge to take the Conservatives out of the EPP (the root of many of his difficulties with Angela Merkel as others have pointed out)
we assume the "Europe" side of Frost's team transfer to @FCDOGovUK - its a long time since the FCO had serious heft on Europe. That will provide some continuity
But managing the relationship is entwined with lots of domestic issues, way away from FCDO's normal areas of interest. It also requires managing relations with devolveds. Hmm
A bit in Budget 2020. Nothing in Budget 2021 or his party conference speech .. but the impacts on revenues from fossil fuels can't be ignored and the system could do a much better job promoting pro-net zero actions
first we need to see the long-awaited review on who pays. but he needs to go further and set out how he will adapt the tax system to support the transition to a #netzero economy.
.@jnpowell1 has written an important article in @FT (£ - I assume) about Johnson govt casual disregard for Northern Ireland ft.com/content/bb92d1…
Lots of blame attached to Frost and Johnson. But I think he could cast his net wider. As @UKandEU#Brexitwitnessarchive shows there was hardly any consideration of the consequences of a Leave vote in the decision to hold a referendum.
really interesting from @so_says_sally (and not just cos she quotes me) .. my experience a decade ago from @DefraGovUK was that it was really hard to get @DHSCgovuk out of its health service silo and interested in wider policy
so its great news they are now interested in air quality (they weren't then); we tried to interest DH as was in fuel poverty (hypothermia kills) - no interest. So I think there is scope for depts realising benefits where there are real synergies
the problems for a line dept come where their cross-cutting priority cuts across a departmental priority and they need to persuade it to go in another direction..
the new Levelling Up taskforce under Andy Haldane is interesting for govt structure nerds (and an interesting contrast to govt structures for #netzero) @CommonsBEIS
Haldane is perm sec for 6 months (levelling up will take longer than that .. but first focus will be on working out what this means...) reporting jointly to Michael Gove and the PM.
The people working for him will be (I understand) a joint team from @cabinetofficeuk and the new DLUHC. not cleat how they relate to the delivery unit (but until we know what LU is...they can't do that much)