What are the actual dangers involved in eliminating all retained EU law come December 31, 2023? The worst thing about Brexit is that it has hardened over time into a dogmatic religion, with lots of bits that are taken on faith and when examined for even ten seconds, make no sense. Take the way the sovereignty issue has developed since 2016. It was barely mentioned during the referendum campaign - in fact, it was never explicitly discussed by any Leave group whatsoever at the time. Oh sure, sovereignty and the need for it in order to accomplish the things set out by Vote Leave and Leave.EU as goals was implicitly required (such as getting the EU courts out of all possible UK affairs, for instance - although as the NI Protocol demonstrates, even that wasn’t really possible in the end). Yet the S-word itself, I can’t find anywhere in the campaign propaganda of the period. Strange, given I’m always told by Brexiteers it was the only reason anyone voted to Leave.
A key reason why I was always convinced of the inevitability of Brexit failure, was the complete lack of business experience within the ERG ranks - rather like a better dressed version of their hard left/Momentum equivalents. A few of them - Rees Mogg, Redwood, Barron - have roles as fund managers/strategists, but as Nick correctly points out, moving global chips around the board is very different to the arduous grind of running a real business.
It seems to me that the central problem of Brexit is this; the people who wanted it don't know how to do it and the people who might be able to figure out how to do it don't want it.
In business that would be a reason to not start a project.
Unfortunately the sunset clause is just the latest occurrence of the Brexiteers' need to rush things.
They rushed into Article 50 invocation without spending time to even prepare a unified UK position on what Brexit should actually mean.
They rushed the Withdrawal Agreement to meet their arbitrary deadline in 2019 and, even worse, rushed its ratification through parliament in a matter of days.
They rushed the Trade and Cooperation Agreement again to meet some arbitrary deadline.
They rushed the end of the transition phase despite the pandemic and war in Ukraine.
If "only fools rush in" what does that say about people who to it repeatedly?
They rushed in all the time because they seemed to be desperately worried that Brexit was about to collapse and they'd never get anything they wanted unless they did it now, now. I mean, it might be that they were right, the country appears to be waking up to the damage Brexit is doing now. But it's fair evidence that the Brexit headbangers never really even convinced themselves that their argument was good .
They know very well that if they pause then people will have time to think.
But haste alone is no longer sufficient to keep the people off balance, which is why they are now resorting to increasingly extremist suggestions like the ridiculous sunset clause discussed in Nick's article.
From this week's blog I conclude that my suspicion about wealthy libertarians driving and controlling Brexit was right. [as expressed in comment on your December 22 blog]
In modern China, law has only one purpose: To prevent the Communist Party (and its leadership) to lose control.
In England law served two purposes after 1066. The first purpose was to bestow all the rights without any duty to Nobility. The second purpose was to ensure that all the duties but none of the rights were placed upon the Commoners.
This basic principle of protecting the rights of rulers and capital, bestowing all duties but withholding those rights at all others is still known as English Law and is used in almost all other English speaking parts of the world. Mainly because it serves governments and the wealthy so well.
No wonder that this way of thinking is so deep ingrained in the UK that it could lead to Brexit; the ultimate triumph of the top over the masses.
That the masses were misled and voted for it does not diminish this conclusion. The gullible but simpleminded public is always misled by any politician who plays into their fears and wishes. {That is the main reason in my mind why almost all nations get such incompetent governments}
The culmination and essence of Brexit in a nut's shell is this quotation of you. [Pasted from parts]
" The sunset clause idiocy has been advanced by very, very, very wealthy individuals that play markets while axing employment rights and have no idea of how actual businesses selling goods or services function. "
I'm convinced, Nick, that you are breaking down the barrier to brexit logic. Never an easy challenge and brings me nicely to my study of neuroscience. There is genius in insanity (so my long suffering wife is convinced, unfortunately, she dispatches the genius in my case.)
Electrical nerve stimulation and, importantly, being able to translate signals into sound and vision. One can almost see the driven brexiteer and how the body’s electrical signalling works at the atomic level and is chemically driven ... a charge is created by an imbalance of ions, and these charged atoms pass through the walls of the neurons (nerve cells), transferring the charge within them.
Understanding the brexit brain is not as complicated as one thinks and barriers such as EU laws become mountains in the middle of the motorway to Sovereignty. Removing the mountain becomes the exit point to all the benefits ... rather like a fog lifting and the sun breaking through. Listening, reading or seeing, you are actually causing voltage fluctuations across billions of neurons and all of a sudden you find yourself with Jacob in Aladdin's cave.
Hooray, it works and my own delusion triumphs . Now retirement as I await the next synapse.
Will what remains of the Tory party actually let this happen? It was interesting listening to Mick Lynch on LBC dismiss this as an issue provided we nationalise the railways. What can sane people do?!
A key reason why I was always convinced of the inevitability of Brexit failure, was the complete lack of business experience within the ERG ranks - rather like a better dressed version of their hard left/Momentum equivalents. A few of them - Rees Mogg, Redwood, Barron - have roles as fund managers/strategists, but as Nick correctly points out, moving global chips around the board is very different to the arduous grind of running a real business.
It seems to me that the central problem of Brexit is this; the people who wanted it don't know how to do it and the people who might be able to figure out how to do it don't want it.
In business that would be a reason to not start a project.
Unfortunately the sunset clause is just the latest occurrence of the Brexiteers' need to rush things.
They rushed into Article 50 invocation without spending time to even prepare a unified UK position on what Brexit should actually mean.
They rushed the Withdrawal Agreement to meet their arbitrary deadline in 2019 and, even worse, rushed its ratification through parliament in a matter of days.
They rushed the Trade and Cooperation Agreement again to meet some arbitrary deadline.
They rushed the end of the transition phase despite the pandemic and war in Ukraine.
If "only fools rush in" what does that say about people who to it repeatedly?
It has basically become their MO
They rushed in all the time because they seemed to be desperately worried that Brexit was about to collapse and they'd never get anything they wanted unless they did it now, now. I mean, it might be that they were right, the country appears to be waking up to the damage Brexit is doing now. But it's fair evidence that the Brexit headbangers never really even convinced themselves that their argument was good .
Indeed!
They know very well that if they pause then people will have time to think.
But haste alone is no longer sufficient to keep the people off balance, which is why they are now resorting to increasingly extremist suggestions like the ridiculous sunset clause discussed in Nick's article.
From this week's blog I conclude that my suspicion about wealthy libertarians driving and controlling Brexit was right. [as expressed in comment on your December 22 blog]
In modern China, law has only one purpose: To prevent the Communist Party (and its leadership) to lose control.
In England law served two purposes after 1066. The first purpose was to bestow all the rights without any duty to Nobility. The second purpose was to ensure that all the duties but none of the rights were placed upon the Commoners.
This basic principle of protecting the rights of rulers and capital, bestowing all duties but withholding those rights at all others is still known as English Law and is used in almost all other English speaking parts of the world. Mainly because it serves governments and the wealthy so well.
No wonder that this way of thinking is so deep ingrained in the UK that it could lead to Brexit; the ultimate triumph of the top over the masses.
That the masses were misled and voted for it does not diminish this conclusion. The gullible but simpleminded public is always misled by any politician who plays into their fears and wishes. {That is the main reason in my mind why almost all nations get such incompetent governments}
The culmination and essence of Brexit in a nut's shell is this quotation of you. [Pasted from parts]
" The sunset clause idiocy has been advanced by very, very, very wealthy individuals that play markets while axing employment rights and have no idea of how actual businesses selling goods or services function. "
Ed
I'm convinced, Nick, that you are breaking down the barrier to brexit logic. Never an easy challenge and brings me nicely to my study of neuroscience. There is genius in insanity (so my long suffering wife is convinced, unfortunately, she dispatches the genius in my case.)
Electrical nerve stimulation and, importantly, being able to translate signals into sound and vision. One can almost see the driven brexiteer and how the body’s electrical signalling works at the atomic level and is chemically driven ... a charge is created by an imbalance of ions, and these charged atoms pass through the walls of the neurons (nerve cells), transferring the charge within them.
Understanding the brexit brain is not as complicated as one thinks and barriers such as EU laws become mountains in the middle of the motorway to Sovereignty. Removing the mountain becomes the exit point to all the benefits ... rather like a fog lifting and the sun breaking through. Listening, reading or seeing, you are actually causing voltage fluctuations across billions of neurons and all of a sudden you find yourself with Jacob in Aladdin's cave.
Hooray, it works and my own delusion triumphs . Now retirement as I await the next synapse.
Happy New Year to my fellow travellers.
Will what remains of the Tory party actually let this happen? It was interesting listening to Mick Lynch on LBC dismiss this as an issue provided we nationalise the railways. What can sane people do?!