The Brexit Pantomime!

by Louise Mclean

From 1st January to 31st December we have been going through a transition phase of leaving the European Union, continuing to abide by all their rules and regulations until that final date, when we are supposed to have agreed a trade deal. Since at least March 2020, the UK Brexit negotiators have been talking to the EU, looking for an agreement.  Here we are, nine months' later and that trade deal has not yet been signed.

For the last few months and at least since the end of June 2020, when the deal was supposed to be agreed, four main sticking points have remained.  These are the 'level playing field' (to continue being bound by EU law), sharing our fishing waters with other European countries, disputes being adjudicated by the European Court of Justice and the issue of State Aid, which may give our country the competitive edge over European states.

Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator, has been over to London numerous times and probably thousands of hours of discussions have taken place.  Lord David Frost, Britain's Brexit negotiator has been over to Brussels and now Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister seems to have taken over.

'Oh no you won't!'  'Oh yes we will!'  On and on it goes.  The British Press has been telling us repeatedly for at least two months that the outcome will be a No Deal Brexit.  Then we hear Boris is absolutely dead set on having a deal.  After that we are told that Boris will cave in to the EU's demands and we will have Brexit in Name Only (BRINO).  Then again we hear that Boris will leave with no deal.  

Recently we read that there may even be an extension past 31st December for the transition period. Every day there is chopping and changing and it is enough to drive the public mad with frustration.  After all, we have been waiting for four and a half years already!

Boris Johnson was elected on 12th December 2019 with his promise to 'Get Brexit Done'.  Here we are over a year later, and there is no sign whatsoever that this has been finalised.  Brexiteers are urging Boris to walk away with No Deal.  If he did this, the EU would come running and everything could be sorted out afterwards.  

The sheer number of deadlines that Boris Johnson proclaimed, which have come and gone, is truly astonishing!  The 30th June was the first important one, Then came 31st July, 15th September, 15th October, 15th November and 30th November!  Now we hear that a deal will be secured in 10 days and Parliament may have to sit on Christmas Eve!  

If we had a decisive leader like Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, we would have been out a long time ago.

Unfortunately by constantly changing his mind and by running over to Brussels recently just when he was looking strong, Boris makes it patently clear that he wants a deal, which then makes it easier for the EU to eventually make him back down on his 'red lines', which are the above four areas of contention.

Today Monsieur Barnier has said there are now only two main issues to be agreed and that is sharing our territorial fishing waters and basically stopping us becoming more competitive than EU markets. Does that mean the other two areas have already been agreed?  We do not know.

Recently member states have started to intervene in the negotiations making their own demands and the situation seems extremely difficult, if not impossible.  The fact is that the issue at stake is that Britain is supposed to become a sovereign country making her own laws, which is what we voted for on 23rd June 2016, so the whole thing has become absurd, in that it doesn't matter what EU states want, when we are trying to break free of their control.

We were told repeatedly in the past that our two hundred mile fishing waters were not important and yet right now this has become one of the main sticking points, as countries such as France and Holland take our fish on a regular basis. Today we learn that Monsieur Barnier has threatened us with economic trade sanctions if we lock out European fishermen from our waters!  Only yesterday we were reading that Boris Johnson planned to bring in the Royal Navy to stop foreign fishermen!

It does not seem possible that a trade deal will be agreed in seventeen days by 31st December, since our Parliament must approve it, the EU 27 member states must also rubber stamp it and it must be debated in the European Parliament.  A further extension is therefore likely, something that will infuriate all Brexiteers, as there has been plenty of time this year to come to an agreement.

The whole thing is becoming ridiculous.  The EU is waiting for us to back down and we are waiting for them to do likewise.  Boris Johnson does not seem to realise that the EU is intransigent and will never back down, unless......we left with No Deal.  Only then would they perhaps compromise.  In the meantime, Brexiteers are getting thoroughly fed up with this never ending pantomime!