The dilemma of our age goes on: will this government do the stupidest thing imaginable and trigger Article 16? A look to ‘22 As we already know, Liz Truss wasted no time upon inheriting the Brexit brief from Frost to state that the UK government would trigger Article 16 of the NI Protocol if the EU doesn’t give in to their ridiculous demands. The question to consider now is whether or not Truss or indeed, anyone within this government is actually serious about doing something so idiotic, or whether this is just posturing ahead of a presumed leadership contest.
I came here by clicking a link from Chris Grey's blog. Thanks for the effort, I look forward to reading more. As a Canadian, (expat Brit), I was against Brexit from the getgo, and got into many arguments over the years. Unfortunately for the UK, my gloomy prognostications have been proved correct. EU membership is roughly analogous to Canadian federalism, and it was clear that Brexit would be far from easy or beneficial to the UK. Our flirt with chaos, with all the same potential for disaster, came with the Quebec Referendum, but fortunately common sense triumphed (barely). The UK exported approx 6 times the amount per capita to the EU than the EU sold to the UK (2019 figures). How did anyone think that cutting yourself off from your customers would hurt them more than you? The EU exporters have a much larger collective economy so can absorb domestically a relatively small loss of a market. On the other hand, the UK with one tenth the market must absorb six times the loss. So the SM/CU was the only sane way to go, but that negated the main premise of Brexit, the Burkian view of sovereignty, since the concomitant requirement for alignment in standards means the UK does not make the rules. What a mess. Thanks again for your articles, looking forward to reading more.
Another expat Canadian here, thanks also to Chris Grey. I've escaped the UK to the Isle of Man (because of my wife, not the taxes) but that's not far enough away to escape the idiocies of either Brexit or the UK's Covid "policies". I even lived in (South) Shropshire and can only hope that what happened in Owen Paterson's riding will befall the other Salop Tory MPs. Look forward to more analysis of the Brexit shambles as it unfolds to the detriment of us all.
you are brilliant sir, you and chris grey the best of friday mornings, and my fav anti brexit bloggers :)
I came here by clicking a link from Chris Grey's blog. Thanks for the effort, I look forward to reading more. As a Canadian, (expat Brit), I was against Brexit from the getgo, and got into many arguments over the years. Unfortunately for the UK, my gloomy prognostications have been proved correct. EU membership is roughly analogous to Canadian federalism, and it was clear that Brexit would be far from easy or beneficial to the UK. Our flirt with chaos, with all the same potential for disaster, came with the Quebec Referendum, but fortunately common sense triumphed (barely). The UK exported approx 6 times the amount per capita to the EU than the EU sold to the UK (2019 figures). How did anyone think that cutting yourself off from your customers would hurt them more than you? The EU exporters have a much larger collective economy so can absorb domestically a relatively small loss of a market. On the other hand, the UK with one tenth the market must absorb six times the loss. So the SM/CU was the only sane way to go, but that negated the main premise of Brexit, the Burkian view of sovereignty, since the concomitant requirement for alignment in standards means the UK does not make the rules. What a mess. Thanks again for your articles, looking forward to reading more.
Another expat Canadian here, thanks also to Chris Grey. I've escaped the UK to the Isle of Man (because of my wife, not the taxes) but that's not far enough away to escape the idiocies of either Brexit or the UK's Covid "policies". I even lived in (South) Shropshire and can only hope that what happened in Owen Paterson's riding will befall the other Salop Tory MPs. Look forward to more analysis of the Brexit shambles as it unfolds to the detriment of us all.