No. 85 – Boris Makes a Last Desperate Concession!
Dear James,
Your man is in a corner and it’s a corner of his own making. That Domesday clock in his office is ticking ever louder. Twenty days and thirteen hours until Brexit ‘Do or Die'. So in his talks with Varadka last Thursday he made a last desperate concession. There will be No Border in Ireland!
However, it is clear that if Boris wants to have the freedom to do his own deals around the world, then there must, somewhere, be a border between the UK and Ireland. Variations in tariffs between Northern Ireland and the Republic will mean that goods cannot flow between them without such checks. Until, now he has been talking about ‘alternative arrangements’ based upon some so far impossible ‘technical solution’. The EU have consistently put the kybosh on that one. But Boris needs a deal. It is his only way out of the Benn Act. All the bluster about leaving on October 31st ‘come what may’, ‘Do or Die’ has been slowly dropped as he has realised that any Prime Minister must obey the law! What took him so long?
The problem with no border in Ireland of course is ‘Where on earth do you put the border if it’s not in Ireland?' The answer, of course, is in the Irish Sea. But then he is back to square one - the DUP and its 10 MPs who will never accept the separation of Northern Ireland from the Mainland. And manacled to them are the European Research Group – the ERG – that core of Unionist Tories who started all this nonsense so many years ago. They have said quite clearly that they will follow the lead of the DUP. If the DUP says Yes, they will say Yes. If they say, ‘No’, then ‘No’ it is. So far, all they have done is to promise flexibility. Oh boy, is that a word loaded with meaning!
Boris is no doubt leaning heavily on the DUP this weekend. He must be wondering how he can bridge the great gulf between ‘no border in Ireland’ and the DUP’s demand to stay with the Mainland. Johnson said, “I can certainly tell you that under no circumstances will we see anything that damages the ability of the whole of the United Kingdom to take full advantage of Brexit”. Weasel words again. Especially the last four. That sounds to me like the sound of ‘betrayal’ just around the corner. He’s probably telling the DUP to ‘get in line’ otherwise we shall lose Brexit for ever. And he’s right. This is his last chance.
But even if Boris can fix the border issue there is still the question of Consent. Until now the British have been demanding that the DUP have a veto over any border deal which, of course, has been anathema to the EU. The EU has always demanded an ‘Irish Backstop’ i.e. an agreement that in no circumstances will there ever be a border between north and south. It seems that Boris has offered to make that consent dependent on a cross-party agreement in Northern Ireland. But for the EU that still does not guarantee that there will never be a border between the two nations. An all-Northern Ireland body could still block that one.
So where does Boris go now? He is clearly wriggling. He long ago hitched his wagon to the Devil’s pact of the DUP and the ERG and I am afraid this will be his undoing James. There will be no election until the no-deal threat is finally out of the way and when it or a second referendum does come, hopefully the whole nation will bring us back to our senses.
Next week we have what has become known recently as Super-Saturday. Parliament will be sitting on that day for only the fourth time since the Second World War. Outside the streets will be thronged by hundreds of thousands of people who have had enough of your Tory Party Civil War and the damage it has done and is doing to our nation. There will be a lot of common sense on the streets of London next Saturday. Hopefully it will be reflected in parliament that day.
Why not join us? Or, at least, vote the right way in parliament.
Vote for a Second Referendum!
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent.