Brexit: Now What? Part IV

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You seem to be the only one who believes this is possible, so perhaps you can explain it to me.

As I understood it, one of the major complaints of the Brexit supporters was that the UK needed to be able to control the movement of other EU countries' citizens across her borders, which the EU prevented by its policy of free movement between EU countries.

Which BTW the government has already admitted won't happen, at least not quickly:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ration-continue-2021-reveals-David-Davis.html

The free movement of EU citizens in Britain will continue in all but name until at least 2021, David Davis said yesterday as he set out details of a two-year Brexit transition.

And of course that endpoint assumes they can conjure up workers to fill all those empty posts from the available UK pool.
 
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Well, this could get interesting:

"UK negotiators have been warned that the EU draft withdrawal agreement will stipulate that Northern Ireland will, in effect, remain in the customs union and single market after Brexit to avoid a hard border." The Guardian

I need more coffee before I can even begin to think about the consequences of that.
 
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You may be on to something there.

"No, sir, these are artisan vacuum cleaners!"

Or the idea is to make labour cheaper than automation so that instead of an expensive electric vacuum cleaner you have a Victorian hand-pumped one and an under stairs maid to use it. Rees-Mog leading us forward to the Nineteenth Century!
 
Well, this could get interesting:

"UK negotiators have been warned that the EU draft withdrawal agreement will stipulate that Northern Ireland will, in effect, remain in the customs union and single market after Brexit to avoid a hard border." The Guardian

I need more coffee before I can even begin to think about the consequences of that.

That should hardly be a shock to anyone unless the EU was willing to completely abandon the four freedoms or Ireland was willing to leave the EU (or I suppose there's a united Ireland or an independent NI joins the EU - neither of which would be acceptable to the DUP).

In any case, WTO rules stipulate that the UK and EU would have to be in a customs union for there to be an open border (if there is no hard border between NI and the rest of the UK) and NI and EU in a customs union (if there is a hard border between NI and the rest of the UK).

An open NI/Ireland border is fundamentally incompatible with the UK separating itself from the EU to the extent proposed by the hard-Brexiteers
 
Or the idea is to make labour cheaper than automation so that instead of an expensive electric vacuum cleaner you have a Victorian hand-pumped one and an under stairs maid to use it. Rees-Mog leading us forward to the Nineteenth Century!

Well tbh from his perspective (of maybe the 18th century, possibly earlier), that would represent progress :D
 
An open NI/Ireland border is fundamentally incompatible with the UK separating itself from the EU to the extent proposed by the hard-Brexiteers

I wonder if ceptimus will finally get it?
 
I wonder if ceptimus will finally get it?

No, because his position is that the EU should abandon some or all of the four freedoms in this case and make special provisions for the UK to allow us all of the benefits of EU membership without any of the obligations of EU membership that the UK may find tiresome.

In the same way that the committee of the EU Golf Club could allow the UK to continue to play the course for free and get the members' drink prices in the bar even though the UK no longer wants to pay the subs, be a member or abide by the dress code.
 
That should hardly be a shock to anyone unless the EU was willing to completely abandon the four freedoms or Ireland was willing to leave the EU (or I suppose there's a united Ireland or an independent NI joins the EU - neither of which would be acceptable to the DUP).

In any case, WTO rules stipulate that the UK and EU would have to be in a customs union for there to be an open border (if there is no hard border between NI and the rest of the UK) and NI and EU in a customs union (if there is a hard border between NI and the rest of the UK).
which is equally unacceptable to the extreme Unionists of the DUP. There's a history
After the war, the Irish re-instated their previous provisions allowing free movement but the British declined to do so pending the agreement of a "similar immigration policy" in both countries. Consequently, the British maintained immigration controls between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain until 1952, to the consternation of Northern Ireland's Unionist population.
Note that the Common Travel AreaWP obviously necessitates a "similar immigration policy" the very thing most unacceptable to xenophobe Brexiteers and extreme Unionists, and which isn't possible anyway with the RoI in the EU and the UK outside it. There is no solution to this, except the one Rudyard Kipling hailed the Ulster Unionists for rejecting in 1912. A united independent Ireland.
 
There is no solution to this


Yeah, there is. It's the one that, just by strange fortune, also means the economy doesn't tank, workers rights don't get booted, environmental protections remain in place and we have enough people to pick stuff at harvest time.
 
I have to admit it amuses me when those in favour of Brexit can’t grasp simple concepts like the need for a border with Ireland if the UK leaves the customs union.

It scares me that the people doing the negotiation seem to have the same level of ignorance however.
 
Yeah, there is. It's the one that, just by strange fortune, also means the economy doesn't tank, workers rights don't get booted, environmental protections remain in place and we have enough people to pick stuff at harvest time.

Indeed there's likely more than one, but they're all unacceptable to both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party who both seem to want a hard Brexit - though apparently for different reasons.
 
I have to admit it amuses me when those in favour of Brexit can’t grasp simple concepts like the need for a border with Ireland if the UK leaves the customs union.

It scares me that the people doing the negotiation seem to have the same level of ignorance however.


I think they're so used to being able to lie their way out of situations with impunity, being able to hoodwink the electorate and, usefully, blame Europe for their own shortcomings, it's coming as a bit of a shock to the Worst Cabinet Ever (TM) that when can't lie to their counterparts in Europe and they don't have a backup plan when lying 101 fails.
 
Indeed there's likely more than one, but they're all unacceptable to both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party who both seem to want a hard Brexit - though apparently for different reasons.

They're either mental, stupid, deluded or actively evil.


The whole Irish thing is something that any competent set of politicians should have seen literally years ago. The fact that it all seems to have come as a bit of a shock to them is one of many things that is contributing to my Worst Cabinet Ever(TM) theory.
 
John Redwood saying

"Once out of the EU Customs Union the UK could unilaterally cut all tariffs on products we don't grow for ourselves or could offer to do so in return for some free trade response from those who would benefit. Inside, we can't do this as the others don't agree w/ this strategy."

So it seems he wants the UK outside of the WTO as well as the EU.
 
John Redwood saying

"Once out of the EU Customs Union the UK could unilaterally cut all tariffs on products we don't grow for ourselves or could offer to do so in return for some free trade response from those who would benefit. Inside, we can't do this as the others don't agree w/ this strategy."

So it seems he wants the UK outside of the WTO as well as the EU.
Everyone - all our trading partners - will presumably agree at once with this prospect, and it will easily be achieved, in a very brief period of time.

Or maybe it won't, because it's probably not as simple or straightforward as Redwood seems to believe.
 
Yeah, there is. It's the one that, just by strange fortune, also means the economy doesn't tank, workers rights don't get booted, environmental protections remain in place and we have enough people to pick stuff at harvest time.
Even in the event you postulate, there is no solution. What you have done isn't find a solution, but remove the need to find one - by removing the problem that requires it. That is a good idea, but perhaps it's no longer practicable, unfortunately.
 
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