Sean Jones QC Profile picture
Jun 9 17 tweets 4 min read
I see that @iainmartin1 is engaged in a multi-front battle with Remainers this morning. A couple of thoughts ... /1
Iain's position, as I have always understood it, is that on balance he favoured leaving, he does not want to rejoin, and instead he wants to find ways to minimise adverse impacts. Unless I have badly misread him, he is not a Faragist. /2
There are a lot of people who occupy the same territory as Iain. Since Remainers like me want to minimise adverse impacts, someone who wants to focus on pragmatism rather than ideology ought to be the kind of Leaver we are able to engage with even if our world views differ /3
The very first time I met him was when he, @iandunt, @GiselaStuart, @StevePeers and @JolyonMaugham debated whether there was a way to heal the divide. (it was a billablehour.org event) /4
If I could get that team back together now to repeat the debate, I have a feeling things might be *more* heated than they were all those years ago. /5
If you are a Remainer you will no doubt look at Iain's refusal to engage with anyone with an #FBPE hashtag and his willingness to call anyone who wants to rejoin an "extremist" as indicating someone who is some way from wanting constructive engagement. /6
Given my own willingness to get very punchy indeed when debating the issue on Twitter, I do think it's important to do what we can to focus on substance. /7
So, finally, a couple of points on that. First, his line: rejoining is off the table; let's stop debating the 2016 issue; and we must do what we can to improve trading relationships with the EU, is pretty much identical to Labour's current line. /8
I am constantly being told by Remainers that that is all one can reasonably expect of Labour. It's not clear why we would expect more of someone who actually wanted to leave. /9
His position means that he too is sceptical of the merits of a negotiation posture which is essentially "antagonise the EU for votes back home" /10
So there is some common ground with at least some Remainers. Perhaps we should have a day where we try to find out definitively what can be agreed upon (<I'd like to teach the World to sing starts playing in the background>). Just joking, this is Twitter. /11
Second, if I ever sit down to discuss this with him again, what I would be interested in is the real *political* scope for pragmatism. A pragmatist needs, as a first step, to identify the nature, scale and bounds of the problem to be solved. /12
With the consequences of Brexit, that is not an easy task. The Govt, for obvious reasons, is averse to highlighting Brexit problems or Brexit's role in aggravating problems. The opposition parties are treating it as a live rail too. /13
The scope for being honest with ourselves is, I think, narrow. Another way of putting it is that our mutual definitions of extremism are so widely drawn that even looking dispassionately at the state we're in can seem like an extreme act. /14
Secondly, and you'll be pleased to hear finally, assume we are honest about the problems, what then? The same incredibly narrow Overton window of non-extreme Brexit positions means that the range of solutions is similarly narrow. /15
If the pragmatic solution is rejoining the SM (not the EU), that, as
@iainmartin
has commented this morning, is something no political party is willing to sign up to. So pragmatic ultimately means "politically saleable" which leaves precious little room for pragmatism /16
Meanwhile, the Govt seems hell bent on enervating the EU in a way which still further diminishes the scope for pragmatic development of a closer relationship. I'm sorry not to give you a solution-rich happy ending to such a long thread. /end

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More from @seanjonesqc

Jun 5
Working through my grandmother’s papers I found her scrapbook. She has cuttings of the then Princess Elizabeth’s wedding; the court circular announcement of Charles’s birth and a picture of the signatures on the Western European Pact. /1
I have wondered why I’ve found the Jubilee so affecting. It’s possible, of course, that it is because I am in thrall to a dysfunctional archaism; a reflexive licker of the boots of the privileged as some would no doubt see it /2
I think about the people on “The Repair Shop” for whom a broken tin toy has become the focus of their love for a lost parent; an icon of the departed. An abstraction of the Queen plays something of that role for me /3
Read 8 tweets
Jun 4
I’m doing a shift stewarding at the street party and not only do I have a HiViz I have a WHISTLE. I have never felt so important.
I’m now twirling my whistle on its string to show that I am relaxed and confident in my power.
I have been relieved and am bereft.
Read 4 tweets
May 25
"I know that you are moving on shortly to your new role and I could not let that pass without acknowledgement. In ordinary times I'd do that in traditional manner - some warm beer, warm sandwiches and warm words - but these, of course, are not ordinary times ... /1
We've asked people to make some extraordinary sacrifices and to give up freedoms that, as you know only to well, I've been reluctant to restrict and I know that you, like me, will want to honour that by doing our bit. /2
As your invaluable advice has so often stressed, we must be seen to lead and no amount of cheap fizz and M&S sarnies could be worth losing the trust of those we serve. /3
Read 4 tweets
May 5
Are there "lefty" lawyers? Of course. There is a Society of Labour Lawyers (@SocLabLaw). There is a Society of Conservative Lawyer too (@SocConLaw). There are lawyers who write for @NewStatesman and lawyers who write for @spectator. 1/n
"Lefty" and "Righty" lawyers disagree about plenty of things, but on the basics: the Rule of Law; the need for access to justice and independent representation; the need for a functioning court system; they will tend to agree more than disagree. 2/n
However, there are not drugs enough in the world to so addle a lawyer's brain that they would entertain the notion that you could turn up before a judge and win by pointing out that your argument is "left wing" 3/n
Read 5 tweets
Apr 29
Why didn’t he just point out that we held all the cards?
Remember the line for domestic consumption was:

1. We’d rather have no deal than a bad deal;
2. Once the EU understood that they’d fold;
3. That strategy had previously failed only because our negotiators had been Remainers;
4. Now the EU would fold any moment/at the last moment
Then it turned out:

1. The EU did not fold; and
2. We took a “bad” deal.

But the message for home was:
1. Say the EU folded; and
2. say it was a great deal.
Read 4 tweets

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