Brexit Plan: EU Stands Firm

It can come as no surprise to anyone that the Boris plan is hitting the EU buffers, because it offends against all the principles that underpin the EU as a political as well as trading union. It offends against the good Friday Agreement because an all Ireland economy and social order, now enjoyed, will be fractured. Almost everybody in NI, except the leadership of the DUP, opposes it.  And it will not work anyway.

The government knew all this  from the very beginning.

So, either:

Boris allowed the ERG to drive its shape so as to neuter their power, then to agree with the EU a version much closer to May. The opposition parties would  be offered the chance to vote it through in time for an orderly departure or bear the responsibility for a crash out, reversing the political tables. The snag in that scenario is that the combined and rather disjointed opposition probably would allow it through, but with an amendment attached requiring a confirmatory referendum of the terms, with Remain as an option. That would likely result in the end of the Brexit project. And at the following general election a Tory wipe out.

Or:

Boris and his government are hell bent on a crash Brexit, the offer was never intended to be taken seriously, but provides a backdrop of EU intransigence, to allow a No Deal exit on October 31st.

But what about the Benn Act?

This is where it gets into the hidden agenda conspiracy stuff. Something, everyone agrees, is going on behind the scenes which gives the government a chirpy confidence.  I believe this is the fact that EU Law trumps UK law, ie the Benn Act. Article 50 is EU Law and  states that on leaving, a State can do so without a deal for the future or a Withdrawal Agreement. The government’s lawyers clearly believe it would be very difficult for the UK Supreme Court to rule against that and if it did, irony of ironies, Boris could appeal to the hated ECJ.

It’s not over yet and many fear it never will be.

But then again, like the Berlin Wall, the end could be quite sudden.