We may at last have a protocol deal, but we are no further away from Brexit’s poisonous legacy
D ither, dawdle and delay: the deal has been waiting there “on the cusp”, but at last the patient European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived to sign. What’s been the hold-up? In Brussels they feared that every passing day allowed Brexit fantasists to further rally their troops. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak prevaricated in fear of his headbangers and the Democratic Unionist party held him to ransom by paralysing the government at Stormont.
But before everyone plunges deep into Northern Irish politics, the details of the protocol and this deal’s diplomatically subtle wording, remember this: all the deal does is prevent Brexit turning into the trade war that Boris Johnson built into his hand-grenade protocol bill. Slight easements on the Irish sea border and better relations with our neighbours still leave Britain and its great Brexit calamity much where it was, but at least no worse off.
Sunak has no choice but to stand up to the insatiable impossibilists of Brexit, but Theresa Villiers, a former Northern Ireland secretary, is right that it’s “crucial” that parliament gets a vote on the deal. Would it pass?Sunak shouldn’t shun relying on Labour votes if that’s what it takes, though the Tory rebels may be overclaiming the size of their army as they mark out their red lines. When Mark Francois, the chair of the European Research Group (ERG), said “we’re not stupid”, sniggers had to be stifled; but when he called for EU law to be “expunged” from Northern Ireland, when Jacob Rees-Mogg said DUP agreement was essential and when the DUP’s Sammy Wilson demanded the deal met its seven tests, it was not stupid, but dangerous. Those tests block anything the EU could ever agree to.But wait and see: the EU’s refusal to budge
Read more on theguardian.com
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