The Windsor Framework: Peace with the EU at last?

This week we are returning to the longest running story on this blog and one of the main reasons it didn't get paused at one time

Brexit. There, you read that word so you owe me a fiver for the swear box!

 

You can't square a circle without cutting off part of the sides but in trying to keep some sort of trade on the Island of Ireland between the Republic and Northern Ireland when leaving the EU puts up a customs border between the North which together with Great Britain forms the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic which is a part of the EU Bloc.

Toss in the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement with everything about no borders on the Island of Ireland and the head spins.

It seems fair to say that when on the mainland we talked about leaving the EU, collectively we seemed to forget all about Northern Ireland and the economic and political complexities as if we read Great Britain for any reference to the UK.

The attempt to deal with that mess, not being able to have a customs land border on the Island of Ireland but any restrictions on trade from Great Britain was then read from an Unionist point of view as a "sell out", a loss of place within the Union.

It has lead to a good deal of animosity between the UK Government and the EU.

At the more economic level, the agreement we did get made getting everyday stuff into Northern Ireland like foodstuffs and medicines difficult because of extensive checking and paperwork (something the EU seemed to gold plate) while sending anything back required VAT paperwork.

The Windsor Framework does simplifying things by recognizing there are two types of trade, Great Britain destined for Northern Ireland alone and that destined to the Republic, the former having minimal checks even if Northern Ireland has to accept a tiny amount of EU rules and the other the full checks but with increasing use of shared information to help speed things up.

It's not take back all (land) control as simply on the Island of Ireland so long as the Republic remains in the EU, it's simply not possible because of the interconnectedness of the economies and peoples lives.

It is a pragmatic attempt to make it the best we can, which was something I felt was needed at the start but got lost in the Brexiters vs Remainers battle in Parliament and then the purists Brexiters vs pragmatists battle within the Conservative party.

Don't expect the Democratic Unionists to start being reasonable and take their place in the N.I Assembly as they'll find something to be offended with until the cows come home and really that issue of refusing to take part in the power sharing executive needs to be discussed with the Republic, then the Northern Ireland political parties to the point of a constitutional meeting where an amendment to cover what to do in such cases can be discussed and a motion tabled.

Just stalling governance over everything by such stunts is irresponsible when there is much that needs action only the N.I. Assembly can deal with.

Twelve Months on That Boarding School Girl 2020 edition

One reason this blog continues to exist is the need to have a space for more middle or even grown up things at times having deliberated at times the need to keep it going with having the littles one.

We normally publish a kind of review but as I have said before this year has been in such a state of flux it's been no sooner than I had a planned and at least partially written blog ready then it's been all change so it's different than the planned one.

The year had began on the face it fairly normally with a music review and a piece on Brexit although we were getting noises of an infection in China in the news and some talk of it taking hold on continental Europe by February.

By little more than a month we all saw what will in future be seen as an historical announcement on Tv that informed us that things were going to be very different thanks to Covid which while being found in China we'd assumed was likely to stay around there but that wasn't to be.

That was going on as unexpectedly I was returned for a couple of weeks to the world around which my old job revolved and while doing a little investigating on foot the  best route to get there and having done that a bit of shopping in the City centre I was taken quite ill within a couple of hours for a few weeks with symptoms' that in hindsight did match Covid.

I wrote across the year about the need to draw from the lessons of our pasts as we all struggled with coping with restrictions which varied sometimes quite rapidly with fluctuating emotions and how the virus affected the things we wanted to mark such as VE day and so on.

It continues to be a struggle as I write this as Staffordshire with Stoke On Trent and the Black Country being in Tier 4 restrictions as of yesterday with non essential shops such as hairdressers and clothes stores shut.

That said there is cause for hope as at long last the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine that is less fussy about how it stored, being able to use a standard fridge has been approved for use with plans starting January 4th next week to really ramp up mass vaccination as the only way out of restrictions is to immunize people even if some infection control measure will be needed for a period such as mask wearing and social distancing.

School returns for most English primaries will be as planned from next week but because of concerns around older children and staff at English high schools, most will be returning from January 18th with exceptions for exam year group children and vulnerable children all with testing.

Online schooling just did not deliver for a significant number so realistically schools need to kept open as far as possible apart from the welfare issues of children unable to have contact with peers.

We marked on January 31st the signing of the act that would have the United Kingdom leave the European Union regardless of any agreement being reached or not.

That time is up, a agreement on trade and goods has been made voted and signed on Wednesday, not perfect by any means but one that removes tariffs, makes trade as easy as can be expected while restoring our nation's soveignity to the satisfaction of both the EU and ourselves.

Brexit can be seen as like marmite as an issue but the will of the people not least the the feeling resetting the entire post war settlement was needed here in the Midlands needed to prevail as much as some of you disagreed with it strongly.

That argument is over with, things changed this morning and everyone needs to work towards making our future that still includes being a part of Europe with travel, trade and other relations but on terms we have decided and not belonging to an economic and political institution that believed in ever closer union work.

Our day of leaving

If you're British you will have sharply polarized views on upon seeing this: you may of voted for leaving (that's most of us in this district) or may not but we are past the point of talking about the referendum, the bitter impass of the three and a half years in Parliament before last Month's General Election.

Whatever you think, come 11PM tonight we will have left the European Union. Period.
We're on a different journey now, a feeling you may feel elated over or fearful, one some of us can remember from 1973 when we joined the Mk1 EU we knew as the Common Market wondering just how it was going to work out.

I sympathize with those who are fearful although with everything that those who favoured however reluctantly leaving  being called obnoxious and toxic names while everything was done to prevent that result from being enacted I can understand a sense of "at last" too.

Point is we need to now get on with making the best of our being out of the EU and we're best starting by dropping all those insults and working together, accepting the result is now to be implemented  and working toward that common aim, being prepared to be pragmatic to achieve something that will work for us all even if it may not quite everything we might personally of wanted. Give and take in other words not grandstanding and throwing the toys about.

Let's move on and make the most of where we are.

Twelve months on That Boarding School Girl

Hello there.

It is the new year so I think we might as well start by saying Happy New Year folks as this blog continues entering its first edition in a new year in a new decade which does take me back to both 2010 and the year 2000 itself with its predictions of computerized system meltdowns.

Last year was a chaotic beeping mess politically which we did keep some track of here as much as that stuff messes my head up because of how a career in politics lead to a nervous breakdown of which the main issue last year was and to a point remains a single six letter word - BREXIT - and the schism that exists between not just people say in families but between areas of country that favoured it such as here in North Staffordshire where almost to a man and woman we favour it being the "Brexit Capital" of the UK and London plus Scotland who very much don't.

The good news of sorts is whatever your personal politics is, we have a Government with a 80 member majority that has passed the withdraw bill so actually after what seemed like an eternal merry-go-round we are leaving with some measures in place until years end while the second piece of leaving - the trade relations with the EU and the means of getting new deals done is resolved which may take a bit longer than a year.
You may not agree it but at least we're going in a direction now.

Many things contributed to the  political revolution here where there in the whole of Staffordshire with the Black Country, there only three Labour MP's now:
The feeling Labour had done nothing to tackle our problems nationally for decades in exchange for votes while Independant-Conservative coalition local authorities were doing more plus the wish list of freebies including free internet for all that had us puzzling over how we the people were going to pay for it.
Then there was the character and connections of one Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's leader that couldn't hear the noise and sense the anger of its position on Brexit on our streets but was more focused on radicals who took to social media than everyday Labour supporters plus antisemitism issues in and out the party being main ones.
Politics in the Midlands is always a two horse race. 

I did get away for assorted littles events doing some photography which in view of all the above was probably  very good thing really as it  was driving me  mad.

The high street remains a concern where we lost the travel concern Thomas Cook although some shops and staff were transformed to Hays Travel, Poundland shut up shop and HMV almost went but was rescued by Canada's Sunrise Records who want to bring in more Vinyl and a shopping as an experience feel.

If that was the backdrop of the year covered only when I felt up to it, one thing this blog did go on for was reviewing cds specifically Super Audio cds of albums and artists I like aided by cheap and often two album on one cd  inexpensive discs that offered better sound quality and often vintage Quadraphonic surround sound mixes that had been out of print for over a quarter century now newly restored by the likes of the Guess Who and Pink Floyd.

I also restored a few choice lps by artists that I regarded as Iconic which in the late 80's and early 90's had been replaced thing lp would just fade away from the collection rather than coming back with new younger fans buying titles rather than downloading them which at one time seemed to be fate of all current popular music.
Despite some issues with artwork quality, the two lp Rhythm Nation 1814 album by Janet Jackson proved to be better than the cheapened "better put it out briefly" original single lp doing justice to her vision.

I did talk a little more on here about the littles community and life although this isn't a littles blog as such because in such a turbulent year  with three elections, Age Regression proved to be very needed  and its associated activities like colouring and playing with plushies really helped with emotional mess.

More Brexit Chaos

The whole after Britain leaves the European Union thing rumbles on with negotiations continuing this week well into the night as the two teams try to find an acceptable outcome to the conundrum that is leaving with an agreement where various groups in the UK Parliament are at odds with what they want (if anything-The liberals don't want and won't vote for leaving at all cos they know better than the electorate apparently...) .
The Irish Republic is more concerned about it's trade, the impact on leaving on its economy and the Northern Irish Belfast Accords  (aka the Peace agreement) even if it seems to mean different things to different people.
The Democratic Unionist party feels the Irish Republic is trying to push out out of the orbit of London and more of than of Dublin and Brussels which it alleges goes against the said Belfast Accords in different interpretation.

 On Thursday Morning we were very close to agreement between the UK and EU being signed off for a special Parliamentary Session on Saturday but the DUP have thrown a spanner into works with a late in the day "Not acceptable for now" statement . How kind of them.
This may change or given this is Brexit the discourse that never ceases, it may not so I'll just take two paracetamol and go bed. This is thing does my head in.

A Eton and Shrewsbury Mess

There's only one set of things that have been on everyones minds this week and it's also pointless even trying to say "this will happen" cos things are in such a state of disarray that frankly no one knows what might happen and where we'll end up.
It's around that thing we have been unable to escape in the last three years that have seen two general elections, three prime ministers and a european union election - yes Brexit.
Let's start with proroguing parliament,  a measure applied from last week by the Prime Minister and given approval for by the Head of State (The Queen) that really wound some people up saying to pause parliament is undemocratic.
First thing to say is often it is paused typically whenever a Prime Minister wishes to bring in new measures and is more often than not before the Opening of Parliament by the Queen. 
There is no legal restriction on the number of times in any term it may be nor if the number of days. Boris Johnson wanted 23 days in part for his own legislative program apart from resolving the conundrum that is Brexit and John Major got more in controversial circumstances in the 1990's.
A appeal against it in Scotland was rejected because it was found to be Lawful and all was was a matter of Political Judgement not reserved for legal interpretation.
We can say he is therefore entitled to do it.
Part of the significance around the timing is as things stood come October 31st, we would be leaving the EU with or without a deal and it is the idea of leaving without that is exercising Members of Parliament to the point the passed a law preventing it.
Let's back track a little here.
No Prime Minister said they wanted to leave without an agreement which for the avoidance of doubt is undertaking agreed by the United Kingdom AND the EU BEFORE we start trade negotiations covering tariffs, customs arrangements, plus the major issue of the Northern/Southern Irish border.
You are simply are not allowed to start those negotiations UNTIL you have agreed to leave with the EU or have left by any other means making it necessary.
The EU is insistent on the so called Irish Backstop that has Northern Ireland subject to EU customs rules to keep trade flowing without restrictions and borders with the Irish Republic unless THEY felt other workable arrangements could replace it no ifs, buts or maybes AND entirely their own call.
The UK Parliament voted three times down an agreement between then Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU that included just that because it disagreed totally with it (and treated one part of the UK Northern Ireland on leaving as if it hadn't).
In a two week period the Speaker very controversially allowed MP's themselves time to discuss and put forward alternative proposal that they did and to which MP's also rejected.
The reason we faced NO DEAL was because-actually Parliament CANNOT agree a deal itself that the EU can also agree to.
This week the same MP's decided with 27 member majority not to allow leaving without a deal  even though they themselves can't agree one having had three years to do so a point likened by the Prime Minister as to going round and round like a circus which in that respect regardless of my view is true - we are while saying they haven't been give enough time to discuss Brexit.
I could hold my head in my hands and darm well scream my beeping head off when I hear that as as far as I can that's pretty much most of what Parliament has being done in that time - debating it.
Plus the extra time has to be agreed by the EU (and they don't have to).
The trouble with agreeing the custom union is we HAVE to use EU Customs Agreements with NO say in them and no ability to make our own either so it would not be in the EU but still subject to them. Not really an exit from the EU which the voters wanted.
The problem is they can't agree a beeping thing by way of this agreement before leaving so realistically all you can do is either leave without and get a trade deal in double quick time honouring the referendum AND the european parliament votes OR apply to rejoin the EU.
Reapplying it should be remembered isn't automatically the route to restore the UK to where it was with our opt-outs and exemptions and may even involve agreeing to further measures to bind is in more such as a guaranteed period where will will not be allowed to leave, working toward the adoption of the Euro and so on. 
That would tie the hands of any incoming Prime Minister.
It's most unlikely you'd be told what an agreement would be BEFORE you decided to rejoin either  which is the converse of the Pro Remain argument against leaving which isn't an improvement on the uncertainty and fear that some people have.
Both leaving without an agreement or reapplying BOTH have risks and within sections of the community potential losers and winners and unless the EU were to set out terms for both first I honest don't think another referendum would really help.
I honestly feel getting involved in the the EU with the unwillingness of Mp's to insist on a referendum at the point of the Maastricht agreement and Lisbon Treaty failed to test the voters enthusiasm  for "ever closer union"  and I say that as someone who was favourable to the then Common Market and who with some reluctance concluded what increasingly not acceptable within the relationship was not amenable to change from within.
It was the inability of David Cameron to do that around 2015/6 that set all this off and he did tell the EU as much.
We also face the situation that the Prime Minister isn't being allowed to go the country either because a piece of legislation only passed in 2011 by David Cameron and Nick Clegg then leader of the Liberal Democratic Party only allows for breaking a fixed four year term IF you can get 66% of the Mp's to agree and they're not.
Labour are refusing UNTIL No leaving with No Deal is blocked.
That figure is a extremely high bar, almost without precedent which allows the opposition to determine in the kind of mess we are in now not allow the ball in this stand off to be put back to the people to determine by either returning the Governing party with a majority for its program or or the opposition and their alternative.   
It needs an amendment to a simple majority of Mp's in a free vote to do the job it is meant to. 

Having typed this I'll cuddle up to my plushies - beeping grown up messes! 
 

Crunch time at Brexit

With a week on the clock, you cannot escape the at times hourly updates around "Brexit" as the tensions are ramped up several fold.

 I don't know anyone who isn't on edge over how the process that has taken 1,002 days seems to of achieved nothing, not one thing parliament has actually agreed on to take our leaving forward but only said what it is they don't wish to see.
In that respect Prime Minister May's frank comments in Wednesday's televised address to the nation make sense to me as much as they have annoyed the heck out of Members of Parliament.
However we voted in June 2016, most of us expected that vote to be respected and for M.P.'s to work toward a plan for leaving by agreement with the EU and then move toward settling questions around retaining good trading relations while being able to exercise our rights having left to make fresh agreements with other non EU countries.
This simply has not happened but moreover we are stuck in a major constitutional crisis about how parliamentary business is supposed to be run, a speaker who it is regarded is being partial in his decisions and a week to get an agreement passed unless an extension on the leaving date is granted that will come with terms from the EU.
If that isn't enough there is an implied threat the Prime Minister might even resign which would plunge the majority Conservatives into a leadership campaign that would take over three weeks and still leave the winner with the conundrum that is Brexit to deal with just the same.
It appears overnight EU leaders have agreed a delay to of a fortnight if Parliament doesn't agree to a deal and up to April 22nd if they do
I suspect many of us have had enough.

Politicians and the B word

I've been reluctant to say much about Brexit for the last six months or so simply because it's been so unpredictable that had I of typed something up then within six hours it all would of changed again and in some ways that uncertainty has been a real drag around it whatever you might think about leaving or the many ways people have suggested we could.
Equally I know pretty much from "insider" emails at least one national political party has amongst it own supports made no bones about preventing the referundum result and the election of government with a mandate to achieve it from doing just that.
Their take seems to be one of "We the politicians know best" and yet it was those Mp's who give us that question to decide.
Indeed a quote from former Labour Prime Minister Blair suggested that as elected politicians spend more time in the commons, then they should do what they think rather than what it is we, the voters instruct them, in elections and the like.
Is it so so surprising that  public dissatisfaction with politicians is as high as it is when they feel actually they don't spoke for them nor act on what it is they bring to the attention of those who are elected?
The other thing is very few politicians have  worked in everyday fields or even those was past member of all parties have such as doctors, teachers, engineering and agriculture but instead have spent their time from 4 1/2 to 24 in Education and then chasing doing political research positions.
How much does that person really know about the world of work, commerce, education and healthcare in its widest sense?
That's why I can't buy this notion of Mp's being uniquely qualified about those things around brexit that have proven so difficult and regardless of how you voted damn taxing such as how imports and exports work, the way the single market works (and why the EU sees moving people in the same light as moving goods) and that chunks of it go on the basis a resumption of full sovereignty political count for at least as much as the economics and they also include medium to long term potential advantages and disadvantages as well as the short term.
It's taken over forty years for trading patterns to change from where we were before 1973 and those changes bought advantages as well as disadvantages so it seems upon leaving it may take time for those to change and as before it will be swings and roundabouts.
It is possible to grow many fruits and vegetables here but as things were there was little commercial interest as the supermarkets source cheap supplies from Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands but if they were to be potentially more expensive then we may see more UK produce being grown and stocked on the shelves.
Sometimes I think because some are so used to life as it is now with the EU, they don't see how life can continue without it as I'm sure no one who voted to leave simply wanted to disengage with the people in Europe so much as they had issues with how the EU was run.
We'll see if talking with the EU about the 'backstop' really achieves anything or this will run and run to the eleventh hour before being finally resolved.

Welcome to the madhouse

With  the total chaos around running the country looming since yesterday's events in the House of Commons and the deteriorating situation on the streets as companies struggle to prepare for something they don't actual know and tensions are mounting with threats and abuse being traded by and at people on both sides of the infamous B word argument (we've past civilized debate with M.P.'s even invoking hanging images of opponents) this one point I am tossing the towel in.
If what we have going on is supposed to the mark of an well educated civilized society that can debate maturely topics then something is very much wrong and so I'll leave the so-called adults to it cos frankly we had better debates at school on the most contentious issues without the refusal to listen and sheer personal abuse being tossed out.
Where even the person in charge of debate ignores advice by making deeply controversial decisions leading to near riotous scenes that have no element of custom and practice one can just give up.

 I'm staying with reading my books, annuals and hugging my plushies as the planet isn't sensible enough to see what we can that there has to be give and take to make a deal we can live with because not having one won't solve a thing.
Sometimes you just have to do something because nothing is far worse.

****I've had enough*****
 

More B word blues

It's so up in the air if I were to type my best guess on outcomes, it most probably change before or just after being published.

 If Brexit was that ball, the bowling pins represent politics  presently here as it plows into them with no clear indication of which will be knocked over in what in some respects seems at times to had been a two year game of ten pin bowling  playing out.
Form what I have read of the draft leaving agreement  there are bit that are a bit better than I had expected such as it's not just the UK and the EU having teams to look at progress in dealing the notorious complications of the R.O.I/EU border and that of Northern Ireland but there is some mention of an independent team  to adjudicate where there may be disagreements on what constitutes progress.
That element of independent arbitration had been something of concern all along in this process as effectively the EU looked as judge and jury and with the parallel of this being a divorce, such an arrangement would of been in it.
That's something I give a cautious welcome to although its composition needs more work on and I can't see how you can square full sovereignty as trading nation and there being in effect no border with the EU as guaranteeing it means acceptance of the EU's  terms and as they politically can't be imposed on just Northern Ireland, one's bound to say what have we gained by accepting something that still constrains our relations with countries outside of it.
To make a brexit work you need to be able to set up new trading arrangements to come into effect immediately after leaving which implies you need to negotiate them while in the  so-called transition period where if I understand this right until we leave that transition period we are barred from doing under this agreement.
That's my second concern in all this-it seems perverse to say you have to leave before you can set up new arrangements outside the EU  in the way in which we had to say we are leaving to talk about how we might leave.
It's better to explore how first, decide then if you wish to leave and then set up the deals needed ready for the point you have left. European political logic escapes me I'm afraid.
All of this depends on a number of variables such as what happens if the Conservative Party decides to bring a no confidence measure in on Prime Minister May - could she survive one? All ready a number of ministers have resigned and the preferred replaced for the Brexit Minister is refusing to take it.
As of when this was typed the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland regards the agreement as a breach of trust between the Prime Minister and them to whom she relies on for support given the lack of a real majority in the House of Commons.
It is quite possible apart from not voting for the Budget, they vote against this agreement too which would making passing it extremely difficult given the opposition parties have made plain their own disagreements with it.
So we may have a situation where this isn't approved in the House of Commons, the government may be pushed into a General Election AND with a new leader which may not resolve how the nation dividing issue of Brexit can be resolved.
In the mean time the clock is ticking and and the EU is waiting...

Oh brother... 

Brexit and that darn border issue that won't go away

No, I'm not about to do a "Blue Peter Reports" from bit as apart from anything else they'd never have have anything political on the show which given it's for children is quite right although sometimes I'd watch some of the current affairs shows in my mid teens just cos I was curious to what the grown ups were talking about.

 The last time I said anything about the long discourse that is Brexit I made reference to what this map shows, the Island of Ireland which really is the biggest sticking point in this process.
The problem starts when you look at this map.
The Green portion is what is now called Northern Ireland but what was when I was younger referred to as Ulster which is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Orange portion,The Republic of Ireland aka "Southern Ireland" that since 1922 has been a self governing country in its own right.
For all our bloody history there has been good arrangements made between both halves and between the U.K. and the Republic when it comes to being able to trade and for citizens of each to have good common political, economic and social rights from day one of the partition of the Island of Ireland.
Even during the so-called Troubles mature heads on both sides went to great pains to co-operate.
One we appear to have forgotten and is directly relevant is the UK and Ireland collectively joined the Common Market in 1973 which was formally taught to me as junior child at the time in school and the whole joining marked although it's fair to say I'm not a fan of what is now the European Union.
Part of that was about co-operation about the exchange of goods and services across that border transformed to what was the Common Market and it played a part in the "Good Friday" Peace accords that delivered relative political calm and saw Sinn Fein the Pan-Irish Republican party give up support of terrorism on the streets of Northern Ireland.
Thus this stumbling block around the common Republic/EU border and that of Northern Ireland and UK is a major problem.
There is movement  of good and services between both parts of the island which pre 1973 had been agreed although there was a need for checking of paperwork and border posts moreover in this talks it appears to had been agreed such a system  - a "hard border" - has been explicitly rejected from being a part of it.
The Irish Republic is strongly opposed it.
This would be fine other than the rejection of any long term staying within the EU Customs Union on the part of the UK Government that makes such activity practically seamless coupled with the opposition of the Northern Irish DUP party and many others to any "except for Northern Ireland" deal that would also put a customs barrier between one part of the UK and the mainland.
I have to repeat my caution I cannot see any way of squaring this without actually having a Hard  Border admittedly one where every effort was made to make it as simple as possible with standardized forms and with  arrangements such as shared passport/visa checking on trains.
It isn't that one wants it but it seems to be the most honest thing to just accept it, making it the best we can out of realism as only that seems to meet the needs to ensure customs are  handled correctly for  each party and to provide a realistic trading situation.
It is what it is given we decided to leave and have started that process.
Offering any kind of an extra year of staying in with extra payments to the EU doesn't really solve this enigma apart from uniting the governing party against the Prime Minister which makes the political situation much worse providing less of the stability not just the process needs but business too.

Climbing a summit to fall

One thing you simply cannot get away from in this country is leaving the EU which we voted for in 2016, that god awful contracted word for it "Brexit" and everything that has happened since of which some indication was the "B" word has in a good many place been put on the do not discuss at the dinner party list because otherwise civil people get within inches of being at blows over it.
Yes for those fortunate not to live here, is just how things are and indeed I've had pot shots taken to me at a certain music forum from Anti-Brexiteers who read politics into anything in the mutually antagonistic atmosphere.
Friday saw the announcement of a meeting at the Prime Ministers country residence, Chequers, for the whole cabinet discuss progress to date on talks about leaving with the EU Commissioners and to put together some mutually agreed ideas  to the next meeting with them.
Let's say some of the language used was very colourful before it was agreed by all present as Cabinet policy that members whatever misgivings privately all are expect to endorse.
You may of thought this would leader to greater unity within the cabinet of late but it has lead to the resignations of the Brexit secretary himself and the Foreign Secretary plus vice leaders of the Conservative Party.
The problem is what has been suggested looks more like staying in much of the EU on different terms including having no say on measures that would continue to affect us afterward than anything that would imply independence such as being able to have your  own trade terms, tariffs, be able to pass measures independently regarding goods and services in the House of Parliament and being subject to the rulings of the European Council of Justice.
In theory we are told we could diverge from this but in accepting a common rule book legislators would be loathe to contradict the author of that book-the EU.
We know the EU rightly or from my own point of view wrongly sees the free movement of all goods and services as one indivisible entry and yet this Cabinet policy sees being able to persuade the EU to allow us to just choice goods.
This frankly is ridiculous given politics is at the core the art of the possible, what it is  two sides may give way on to reach an agreement and they see this as non-negotiable.
It seems as I said earlier in the year it would be impossible to avoid friction on the Island of Ireland between the Irish Republic and The UK and between both the Republic and Northern Ireland AND have economic and financial sovereignty which are one the main constituents of a independent sovereign state.
You cannot as far I can see it actually have a Brexit - a leaving of the EU law, rules and regulation - unless you are prepared for that which is what a good many of the leave side  accepted at the start because it was never about foreigners living here being more it about taking full control and responsibility of our destiny as one fully  independent state co-operating as an equal with others as needed and not being a part of Euro political state.
That is why here at the heart of that movement in the Midlands feelings are running very high on what is being proposed because to them it is nothing less than the rejection of what was voted for and to which opinion if anything is hardening on.

Domestic political reflections

As I've been reflecting on other events elsewhere and dealing with some ahem 'drama' this week I though I'd set out some reflections around contemporary current affairs that have been grabbing the headlines across this year.

I think I'll begin by saying my thoughts around the use of intelligence and resourcing in tackling terrorism expressed in the aftermath of the Arianda Grande concert in May that had an impact on people in this local authority area seem to be been born out in the report into the incident. While there is talk of more police officers being deployed, it seems little real change in resourcing the surveillance side with the need to cherry pick who to closely follow  being finely balance hasn't been tackled.

The Irish Question or as my History teacher put it the 'English Question' is never far beneath the surface from the 'colonization' by Scots, the start of calls for 'Home Rule' during the Victorian era  through the Easter Rising and bloody Civil War, 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland and the 1995 'Peace Process'.

Feeling, symbolism and fear in Irish Politics counts for as half as much to either side  in Northern Ireland, itself the neutral name given to what I grew up as 'Ulster' so the issue of the co-alignment of Irish, United Kingdom and European Union boundaries was always going to be an issue in the UK's departing the EU.

"Two's company, three's a crowd" is an expression that lends itself  how that border causes issues for and between each because prior to joining  the the Common Market in 1973, the UK approach was one of special deals for the Irish Republic ("Eire") to take account of the close ties between the peoples of the British Isles notwithstanding political differences.

One of big things of the UK's leaving is the questions of the Single Market and the Customs Union because the UK and Irish Republic do trade and share some facilities such as hospitals, universities so border communities are rightly concerned about such matters.

On the other hand the customs side, taxation, declarations and  so on  they are very much EU wide matters and so ensuring checks are made in the event of the UK being completely matter in terms of lost revenue and common standards matter to them as much as to border communities the shared trade continues.

This was the idea behind in effect placing the boundary on the Isle of Ireland to eliminate the need to have manned boarder posts and associated paperwork.

The problem area with it is two-fold, one being it may solve the issue of trade with the Island of Ireland but places one in the North Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain  which counts for a higher proportion of trade between themselves than the Republic and the UK.

The second is what scuppered this weeks attempt to move on the the whole Brexit negotiations to trade, which is from a Unionist Northern Irish point of view you're not treating  the whole UK the same way and they felt it was the start of an erosion of their British Identity.

To those pro Brexit voters the terms of staying in the Single Market and Customs union - no regular ability to control migration levels year on year from the EU, the ability to set ones own tax rates and negotiation fully independently ones own trade agreements free from the EU after leaving - would be heavily compromised by acceptance across the whole of the UK. They hold effectively it nullifies the very reason they wished to leave.
It remains to be seen if there really is a solution that meets everyone's needs to this question before we are able to get around to talking about trading relations before the year is out. 

The UK and the EU: Article 50 signed

First off thanks for the increased viewing of posts recently on this blog which is appreciated as with the changing nature of my life it's not always easy to slot in a post here although perhaps inspiration is more at hand in national life.

Wednesday was a very important in the history of our Country here in Great Britain because it was the day a letter was delivered by hand to the President of the European Commission both signalling our intention to leave it and the European Union as well setting out our intentions and expectations regarding negotiation around leaving terms and expectations.
These cover things such as trading arrangements, the rights of each others citizens in the UK and the EU, any monies owed upon leaving or rebates and security which in view of last Wednesdays events are extremely important.
That Associated Press picture  is our Prime Minister signing it at No.10 Downing Street where I did spend and afternoon and evening at by request of a serving Prime Minister so is something I do recognize!
However the negotiations go, we are past the point of the question of leave or stay raised at and shortly after last June's referendum  however some might like to believe otherwise because we are actually leaving.
This does not mean we've ceased to be a member subject to its rules and laws because until a date is agreed for leaving and following any 'implementation period' where old arrangements expire, new ones come into affect and any 'ad hoc' temporary measures introduced as needed, we are still legally in membership.
The 'Great Repeal Bill' so-called is just a rolling up of exclusively EU law formally into British law to avoid a legal black hole whereupon afterwards Parliament (both Houses of) can alter, revise, revoke or replace as a Sovereign body as it can any other Law (and is in part its purpose) but not before leaving.