£40billion Brexit divorce bill means we’ll effectively become a non-voting EU colony
Our country is preparing to hand over a huge amount of money for absolutely nothing in return
IT’S a deal! That’s the word from the Brexit talks.
If yesterday’s papers are right the UK government will soon be rewarded with a Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge.
A deal – to end the misery and tedium of these negotiations.
A deal – to allow us to take back control of our money and our borders and our laws.
A deal – and at long last we will leave the EU, and fulfil the mandate of the June 2016 referendum.
Won’t we?
Alas, my friends, we will not.
If this is indeed the deal that is to be placed before Cabinet on Tuesday, it is an absolute stinker.
It means we are proposing to hand over an amazing £40billion for absolutely nothing in return.
Even after we leave – according to this so called deal – we will remain in a nonsensical “implementation period” in which we will be effectively non-voting members of the EU.
For the first time in a thousand years we will have to accept foreign made laws – with no power to change or make those laws.
We will be a vassal state – a colony – for at least 18 months, and probably more.
From social policy to the environment, from agriculture to industrial standards to immigration – when Brussels says Jump, the British answer will be, How high? And what happens if and when that national humiliation comes to an end? We will be told that the Prime Minister has listened to the arguments.
We will be told that she has “pivoted” towards a Canada style free trade deal, and abandoned her previous “Chequers” approach.
What nonsense. This political declaration about the future trade relationship is worthless.
I am afraid with Brussels you have to read the small print, and we are about to be trapped. We will be told that the UK government has triumphed, because we have avoided the risk of checks and customs controls between Britain and Northern Ireland.
We will be told that we have protected “our precious union”.
But we have done that by agreeing that the whole of the UK will remain in the EU’s customs union, and in alignment with the EU’s rulebook on goods and agriculture and much else besides. We have agreed to remain in vassalage forever. We have gone along with the claptrap that this is essential – as the only way to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
We should never have accepted this argument. It was and is in flagrant contravention of the facts.
No one – not the Irish, not the British, not the EU Commission – wants a hard border in Northern Ireland, and no one would impose one.
The whole rigmarole is designed by the EU – and those in the UK who want us to remain in the EU in all but name – in order to frustrate any future bid for independence.
It means that if ever we really wanted to do a Canada style free trade deal with Brussels, the EU would be able to say, well, that is very interesting, but if you want to have a Canada style deal you need to make sure that you solve the problem of the Irish border.
They will argue that we can’t have different rules operating in Northern Ireland and Ireland unless we have checks at the border.
And they will argue – as they have for the last year – that since no one will countenance checks on the border at Northern Ireland, that part of the United Kingdom will have to remain in the EU customs union and single market.
So we are being asked to choose between the break up of the Union – at least for economic purposes – or the subjugation of the whole country.
We are choosing wholesale subjection. We need to stop before it is too late. There is a good and viable alternative. It is to junk the so-called backstop agreements that keep the UK in the customs union, and go for a proper SuperCanada free trade deal.
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Brexit was meant to be about taking back control.
Under this plan – we surrender control to Brussels.
As soon as MPs understand what is really at stake, I have no doubt that they will throw this deal out.
If we accept this appalling deal, we must realise it is forever – not just for Christmas.