Brexit: Boris Issues 21 Day Ultimatum to Barnier

by Louise Mclean

Yesterday talks with the EU held in London finished with yet more disagreement on the main sticking points, chiefly our British territorial waters.  Michel Barnier had recently said there will be no trade deal unless we continue to allow EU fisherman to take our fish. 

At present for example, according to the quotas system, Britain can only take 6% of its cod, while France takes 84%!  There are tuna fish in Scottish waters worth £12,000 each, but Britain is not allowed to catch any at all!  Similar restrictions are in place for Cornish fisherman and the plentiful mackerel in their waters.

I would say our fish should not be up for negotiation at all.  These are our sovereign waters and we have every right to decide what we do with them.

Barnier has also said there will be no access to EU financial markets without Britain agreeing to their fishing demands, their level playing field (EU regulation) and their European Court of Justice oversight of our laws.

Apparently Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to David Frost and Michel Barnier while they were eating a fish dinner on Thursday night to tell Barnier that he had 21 days to agree a trade deal.  This is excellent and would bring us up to a deadline of the end of July.  Boris has also told Angela Merkel that if a trade deal is not agreed, we will leave with no deal at the end of December. 

However, many people are still uncomfortable about the fact that Boris appears to have gone back on his word regarding immigration, when we heard recently that thousands of non-EU immigrants are being housed in empty hotels all over Britain.  If Boris can go back on his election promise to cut immigration, can he maybe go back on his word to 'Get Brexit Done'?  

Of course that slogan is an ambiguous statement and could mean anything or any terms for completing the Brexit negotiations.

Watching Boris' adoration of science in the current Covid19 crisis, his belief in vaccines and nanotechnology to deliver medicines in the body and his demand for masks to be worn, I wonder how easily taken in he is about other things. Not to mention his decision to go ahead with the £100 billion HS2 and desire for Huawei to take over surveillance through its insidious network.

All of these things make many people a little nervous of Boris Johnson's leadership and his ability to backtrack when it suits him, as in his recent decision to possibly withdraw Huawei after all.  He is not a natural leader, which requires very clear decision-making, no backtracking, and he is certainly no Trump!

There are more talks scheduled between Britain and the EU in the next few weeks and these are increasingly becoming excruciating to the British Public, many of whom would like to see them end completely, with an ultimatum that we will leave on World Trade Organisation terms at the end of December.  

Many people feel these talks are becoming a waste of time, since Mr. Barnier refuses to back down on any of his unreasonable demands.  It would concentrate the minds of the Commission and EU 27 member states if we were to walk out of these talks now and let them think hard about what they will lose.

 

Brexit: Endless Squeals from Brussels & Immigration Bill Passes

by Louise Mclean

I have not written a new article since 8th June, simply because I would be repeating everything I had written in the past few articles, which covered the endless demands from Brussels!

As before, there have been endless shrieks and squeals from Brussels about their 'red lines', which they have no right to ask for, i.e. using our fishing territory, keeping our laws in line with theirs and having the European Court of Justice adjudicate over us. They just cannot get used to the idea that Boris Johnson and David Frost are not Theresa May, who handed everything to them on a plate!

Fortunately the 30th June deadline has now passed and Frost and Johnson have been firm  that they will not be asking for any extension to the deadline of 31st December, when we should be fully out of the European Union.  Such a relief at least!

In fact they have been very firm with Michel Barnier and his team, refusing to give in to their demands or budge on giving away any of our sovereignty.

During this last week since 29th June, talks have been resumed in Brussels between the two sides and once again no agreement has been reached.  Yesterday, David Frost's team walked out early before the end of week!

Next week we will have Barnier's team here in London for another week of talks. I seriously do not expect any agreement between them and the best thing we can do is walk away altogether and go straight to WTO rules on 1st January 2021, or preferably before.

Incidentally, a new head of the WTO is due to be appointed and Peter Mandelson thinks he might be eligible.  Let us hope not, as Liam Fox is also on the short list, a committed Brexiteer!

Anyway, the EU is not happy with us and there was a hint that Barnier might quit his role as chief EU Brexit negotiator and mention of him wanting to become President of France!  In addition, Angela Merkel is getting anxious about a 'No Deal'.  She became President of the European Council on 1st July, which Germany will hold for the next six months. 

There has been good news that the Immigration Bill went through Parliament on 30th June and we hope it reduces the numbers coming in but it seems to relate only to free movement from the European Union, rather than the 'refugees' coming in over the English Channel from countries outside the Bloc.  

This is a major problem, as shown by the recent violence in Glasgow, which revealed to us that 100 'asylum seekers' had been housed in a hotel in the city centre.  Apparently empty hotels due to lockdown are being filled with these people all over Britain, according to an ex-CID officer who phoned in to LBC.  He said 'hundreds of thousands' of people were coming in, not just by dinghy but being flown in to military air bases such as one in Norfolk.

Is this because we have agreed to take people from refugee camps? Is it because Theresa May signed us up to the Migration Pact in December 2018 without asking anyone?  No answer to this question has yet been given but judging by a recent statement in Parliament from Chris Philp MP, Minister at the Home Office, who eulogised at length about all the wonderful benefits being given to asylum seekers, it seems we must have agreed to take in large numbers. Watch this and weep!

Trying to find out more online is very difficult because this appears to be hushed up, but on the Wigan Council website it says that numbers coming into the UK in the last 6 months have been exceptionally high! 

This is not what people want and is likely to take a massive toll on Britain's finances just as we come out of lock down and into a possible recession.  I really do feel the British people deserve answers.

Perhaps we can change our laws when we finally leave the straitjacket of EU regulation and clamp down on so many people coming in, as it is making things impossible for the people living here already.

Britain Must Surrender Sovereignty for EU Trade Deal

by Louise Mclean

Last week Germany's Ambassador in Brussels, Michael Clauß, said that the UK must give up some sovereignty in order to have a free trade deal with the European Union.  He said: "The UK cannot have full sovereignty and full access to the EU internal market".

Germany is due to take over from Croatia, the six month rotating presidency of the European Union on 1st July 2020, when there will be two main aims: to get the EU's Covid recovery fund in place and get Brexit talks back on track.

The EU is apparently now reconciled to there being no extension past 31st December, so a trade deal needs to be struck in the next 6 months and the focus will be to have this in place by September or October.

The EU has been appraised of the fact that having an extension would mean the Withdrawal Treaty would need rewriting or new one created in order to extend by a single day, which would be very difficult.

Without a change to UK statute law it would be impossible for Boris to agree to sign a document for extension, as this is currently forbidden under UK law.

Boris Johnson is due to take part in a high level meeting with Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel on 19th June, when presumably more pressure will be put on him to agree to the EU's terms.

Rather ominously, the Daily Telegraph ran an article saying that the 27 member states will refuse to take back illegal immigrants crossing the channel to Britain, unless Britain backs down in the trade talks giving the EU more of what it is demanding.

It should have been easy to persuade them, as currently most EU countries are going through economic recessions after the Covid pandemic, and will not want any more people to house and feed.

To see this report, go to https://youtube.be/aERf_Yvqva0

EU Trade Talks on the Brink

by Louise Mclean

After yet another week of talks with the EU, no significant progress has been made. Watching Michel Barnier deliver his remarks at a press conference today, I felt quite sickened by the inability of the EU to budge one single inch from its position, while trying to give the impression of being totally reasonable and civil.

I think the only reason for any civility is because the EU does not want to lose the £39 billion if we decide to go for No Deal and WTO rules.

They are absolutely intransigent.  Barnier whines that we are not sticking to the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration, those hated documents cooked up by the EU with Theresa May's acquiescence.  She certainly got us into a very difficult position.  If Boris Johnson had been our Prime Minister since the 2016 Referendum, I am sure he would not have negotiated such a terrible agreement. 

Once again the main areas of contention are fisheries, a 'level playing field' and the ECJ.

Why should we allow European fishermen into our waters to take our fish at will?  Why should we maintain a 'level playing field', and continue abiding by their selection of EU rules and regulations that suit them?  Why should we have the European Court of Justice adjudicating over our laws?

If we are genuinely leaving the EU, we should be a free and sovereign country.

The other thing the EU is terrified of, is Britain becoming competitive and more successful than its member states.  This will of course happen when we make our own trade deals with the USA and all the Commonwealth countries, but they hate the idea.

They want us to comply with their State Aid rules, so we can't bail out ailing UK companies that need help (which we couldn't under their laws).

There is another meeting on 19th June with Boris Johnson, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission's President, and Charles Michel of the European Council.  I will bet that every last bit of pressure will be applied to Boris on that day to make him agree to an extension.

So far, Boris and chief negotiator David Frost have been absolutely clear that they will not have an extension to the transition past 31st December.  This is set down in law. Up until that date we have to abide by all EU laws.  Of course they would want it extended by another 2 years, and longer if they could!

The final date for an agreement to an extension is 1st July 2020.  I sincerely hope that Boris does not cave in.

If I were Boris Johnson, I would walk away right now.  There is no possibility of any agreement being made with the EU that will be beneficial to the UK.  So he should walk away and declare that we are leaving on 31st December on WTO rules.  

If the EU want to agree to the GATT 24 regulations, then we would have the next 10 years to negotiate a trade deal with no changes to the current tariff system that is in place already!  What's wrong with that?  But the EU is so impossible to deal with, would they even agree to that excellent solution?  I doubt it.  

Michel Barnier Writes Letter to Remainers for Brexit Extension

by Louise Mclean

Michel Barnier has written a letter to Britain's opposition remainer parties (except Labour) appealing for a two year extension to the Brexit transition period, which is due to come to an end on 31st December this year.  Barnier wrote his letter to the SNP, LibDems, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, Green Party and Alliance Party, after they had written to him on 15th May asking for one.  Barnier's letter is very calm and very reasonable, hiding the fact that he is in fact a ruthless operator.

It has gone largely unreported, except on Twitter, that LibDem MP, Sir Ed Davey, has tabled a Private Members Bill, presented to Parliament on 20th May, which has had its first reading.  This Bill calls for a two year extension and to repeal the prohibition for such an extension, which was put in place last December!  The treacherous remainers in Parliament are at work again! The second reading of this Bill will be on 12th June 2020.

An extension has to be agreed by the Joint Committee, which must also state the financial contribution to be paid by the UK.

The final deadline date to agree an extension of the transition period is 1st July 2020 and it is looming fast!  However, Boris Johnson's spokesman has emphatically said no to any extension and that we will be leaving the EU finally on 31st December.

During talks this year, the EU has been implacable and has been refusing to compromise in its negotiating stance. David Frost, our chief negotiator has said the EU must change its position, if a trade agreement is to be reached. He is frustrated at the way the EU will not drop its various demands and thinks the UK is being treated as 'unworthy' of a decent trade deal, compared to those done with other countries. He said: "We find it perplexing that the EU, instead of seeking to settle rapidly a high quality set of agreements with a close economic partner, is instead insisting on additional, unbalanced and unprecedented provisions in a range of areas, as a precondition for agreement between us."

It is 100% clear that the EU will do anything in its power to keep us in the Bloc, as a vassal state or colony with no powers whatsoever.  That is their goal and they are using the spineless, foolish remain parties to achieve it.  The leaders of those parties are too short sighted to realise that Britain would be liable for billions of pounds, up to £300 billion by some estimates, to help bail out other EU member states due to the financial crash of the pandemic.  The EU is proposing a £670 bailout recovery fund for member states which are currently either in recession or going into one. We simply should not put ourselves in that position by extending the transition after 31st December.

There is also the question of the media witch hunt against Dominic Cummings for apparently breaking lock down rules, despite the fact that Stephen Kinnock, Ian Blackford and Neil Ferguson did the same.   As Cummings is Chief Advisor to Boris Johnson, a fierce Brexiteer and determined to help deliver the will of the people at the last Election, he is fair game for attack.  We are now expecting the same treatment for David Frost, who so far has been very strong in declaring there will be no extension.

Make no mistake, there will be plenty of drama between now and the end of June regarding a push for an extension to the Brexit transition period and I sincerely hope that Boris Johnson, David Frost, Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings all hold firm and refuse one or there will be millions of very angry British people to deal with, myself included!

The next significant meeting to discuss the trade deal with the EU will be held on 1st June.

More Roadblocks to Trade Deal with EU!

by Louise Mclean

At the conclusion of this last week of talks, David Frost issued a statement yesterday which reveals that the EU is still very much at odds with the UK's stance on a trade deal.

The UK has threatened to make public all the threats of the EU during the ongoing negotiations.

After the third negotiating round this year, both sides were downbeat about any progress being achieved and David Frost says that Britain will be publishing all its draft legal texts, so that EU member states and others can read them.

David Frost says the major obstacle is the EU's ideological insistence on creating 'novel and unbalanced proposals' for standards to comply with the EU's 'level playing field'.  David Frost said:  "The major obstacle is the EU's insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the so-called 'level playing field', which would bind this country to EU law or standards, or determine our domestic legal regimes, in a way that is unprecedented in Free Trade Agreements and not envisaged in the Political Declaration". 

The Bloc has demanded that Britain is tied to EU regulation on trade, fisheries, aviation, energy and that the European Court of Justice should oversee legal standards.  This includes products, e.g. pharmaceutical, entering the EU market from Britain.  It also includes tying Britain to EU state aid rules.

In addition, Mr. Frost said that the EU continues to insist on fisheries arrangements and access to UK fishing waters that is incompatible with our future status as an independent coastal state and which would be against the interests of the UK fishing industry. 

Michel Barnier still demands that the UK cannot have the 'best of both worlds', but all Britain wants is a similar Comprehensive Free Trade Deal to the ones the EU completed with Canada and Japan, which never included regulatory alignment!

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen has threatened that the EU will sue Britain for not complying with EU freedom of movement rules.  A statement by the European Commission reads: 'UK national legislation limits the scope of beneficiaries of EU free movement law in the UK, as well as the possibilities for EU citizens and their family members to appeal administrative decisions restricting free movement rights'.

On our side, Michael Gove has been extremely concerned about the rights of Brits living in the EU.  He says that legislation protects European citizens in the UK but no such legislation appears to protect our UK citizens.

Gove says there is widespread disregard for the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement which says people should be allowed to remain in either the UK or EU after the transition but Britons applying for settled status to stay in Spain, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, Austria and the Czech Republic have had problems.

UK citizens have sent alarming claims to the Government about their concerns regarding the application process,  In a letter to EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, Mr. Gove sets out a four point complaint, saying 'we take our Withdrawal Agreement obligations on citizens' rights very seriously'.

The UK has made available grants of £9 million to 57 community organisation to support vulnerable EU citizens but in contrast member states have not yet shared similar information and in some cases there seems to be none.

The next round of talks is due to begin on 1st June, whereupon a decision must be made by 30th June as to whether the transition period should be extended for a further two years past the end of December this year.  Boris Johnson has so far totally ruled out any extension.

As far as the Writer is concerned, it looks like the EU are trying to come up with every possible roadblock to prevent Britain untying itself from its shackles by 31st December 2020 and we should just leave on WTO terms as soon as possible.  I predict that the EU will make a trade deal impossible with its demands.

Barnier Threatening to Walk Out of Brexit Talks?

by Louise Mclean

The current talks between Britain and the EU regarding a trade deal were resumed this week on 20th April.  Officials held over 40 video conferences, looking over draft trade plans, to thrash out the terms of the deal.

Michel Barnier is demanding we allow EU fisherman access to Britain's waters and almost prepared to walk out of the talks altogether if this is not agreed!  However, David Frost, our UK negotiator has once again refused.

Barnier warned:  'The EU will not agree any future economic partnership that does not include a balanced, sustainable and long-term solution on fisheries - that is crystal clear".

Although Mr. Frost has put out Tweets this week to say that the talks were going well, this seems far from the case.  Barnier said this week's talks had made only 'disappointing progress'.  This is because the UK is not backing down on fishing, removing the European Court of Justice's role in our affairs, carrying on following EU rules and regulations, or complying with the EU Convention on Human Rights.

The other big sticking point is Barnier is adamant that 31st December will not be enough time to agree a trade deal and accused British officials of 'running down the clock'.  He said "The UK cannot refuse to extend the position, and at the same time, slow down discussions on important areas". Naturally the EU will want to drag the talks on as long as possible, using Covid19 as the perfect excuse.  

One senior EU official has remarked that the British only want to discuss the areas they have an interest in and have almost ignored others.  He felt that the UK may end negotiations with some things not being agreed at all, whereas the EU want agreement in all areas.  

For example, Britain wants to retain a close security relationship with access to Europol's central intelligence database, although apparently this will not be possible. The EU is demanding Britain accept the ECJ and EUCHR in exchange for criminal justice cooperation.

We could be left out in the cold if we are no longer part of EU intelligence and also removed from the 5 Eyes Alliance because of our involvement with Huawei, which the USA is furious about!

Downing Street has warned that the Prime Minister will leave the EU Single Market & Customs Union with only loose trading relations unless Brussels compromises, with Boris Johnson saying reclaiming our sovereignty is his main priority.

Fortunately Boris is expected to be back at work next Monday 27th April, so we hope to get more leadership on this situation.  He will be holding high levels talks with Ursula von der Leyen to evaluate progress at a later date.

The next talks are scheduled for the weeks of 11th May and 1st June.