1. The latest iteration of Brexit not being “done”: a farce in the Commons
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill passed its second reading this week. For those unaware of what this piece of legislation is and looks to achieve, it is about giving the UK government the explicit ability to break an international treaty. And not just any international treaty, but one the Tories ran pretty much the entirety of their last general election around signing, something they said would “get Brexit done”. Yet here we are, two and a half years later, watching the very same government still tinkering with Brexit. It’s enough to make you think they weren’t entirely honest about it all.
There were some truly ridiculous moments in the Commons as the bill was debated. Theresa May stood up and gave an impassioned speech about how wrongheaded the bill is, stating that it’s almost certainly illegal under international law, will not achieve Britain’s aims and further, will almost certainly diminish the UK in the eyes of the rest of the world. And then, after all of that, she didn’t even vote against the bill. It was like her premiership in miniature.
But the most embarrassing moments came from our current Foreign Secretary. She was pelted with questions about the latest under-considered piece of legislation around our relationship with the European Union that is being shoved through the Commons with as little scrutiny as can be managed, fielding every one of them so ineptly it became a style unto itself. When asked a decent set of questions from Hilary Benn about the whole legitimacy of the bill, Truss said, “The reason I am putting this bill forward is because I’m a patriot and a democrat.” "The protocol was not set in stone forevermore on signing," she said at another point. No, Liz, only one off advisory referendums are forevermore in Brexitland, we get it.
The fact that no Tory voted against the NI Protocol Bill, even those like May who argued vociferously against it, will long be a stain on their party.
Here’s what I think this unfortunate episode exposes about the pro-Brexit mindset. Remainers are always told we must “accept the result” and “move on”. In other words, digest and internalise the notion that Brexit is the new status quo and go along with the good and the bad that comes with that. Even if Brexit was going incredibly smoothly, there are sinister overtones on display here. Opposition to the status quo is crucial in a democracy - when a Labour government wins a general election, no one sane would think to say this proves that conservatism is now verboten and that anyone who argues in favour of conservative principles is being undemocratic. The idea that referendums are somehow different to general elections in some unspecified but pro-referendum manner only exposes the innate problems referendums present and why we might want to consider those issues a lot more seriously, particularly in light of what looks like an upcoming second Scottish independence referendum.
Yet this push to have Remainers “move on” from Brexit makes even less sense than that given the government is still constantly moving the goalposts on our relationship with Europe. For instance, someone who was passionately against Brexit may be willing to set aside their grievances and accept that it’s done and not worth grumbling about any longer - but might have a lot more difficulty doing so when the government is in the midst of trying to unpick the “oven ready deal” that was the thing that would “get Brexit done” in the first place. In that instance, it is perfectly sensible to voice one’s upset around what’s going on. The parallel would be imagining if Labour won the 2019 general election and then witnessing someone who didn’t want a Corbyn-led government but who is willing to give it a chance, only for them to find out that the government is about to do all sorts of things that run contrary to the manifesto they stood upon, at which point their desire to simply “roll with it” might become greatly diminished. I realise that all I’m doing here is describing the basics of how liberal democracy works, but the rhetoric around Brexit is so thick, that’s what you have to now do.
2. The Home Office gets dragged into court….by the government’s own Brexit watchdog
A classic of a type this story, the sort of thing that I think will end up being specific to the early 20s: a tale that makes the government look ridiculous that simply doesn’t get the proper airtime due to the fact that the B-word is involved. This week, the government’s own Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA), a body set up post-Brexit to ensure the terms of the agreement between the UK and the EU around EU citizens who had been in the UK already and ensuring their rights are maintained according to the terms of agreement, decided to take the Home Office to court. It seems the government is being unduly harsh on EU citizens in the UK, at least according to the IMA.
It’s this government in a nutshell - leave the European Union, set up organisations to monitor and often do the work required now that extra sovereignty has been obtained, then watch as the new organisation has to chastise the government and even take them to court over these matters eventually. I find it one of the strangest things about Brexit that when we were in the EU, every UK government stuck to the letter of the law, never putting one foot out of place on anything regulatory from Brussels - yet now that we’re out of the EU, the government often feels just fine about trashing UK law, even legislation this government created itself.
The gist of the case is that the system as it stands is too harsh on EU citizens and that more safeguards need to be provided to ensure that individuals retain their rights. Individual rights is one of those things the Tories used to think we’re pretty important but they seem less keen on them now. Sad that, but it seems to have been one of the many casualties of Brexit.
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I’ll be back again next week with the worst of Brexit.
Meanwhile, in the land bound by Protocol, trade isn't as bad as some misbegots make out...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQe-TVEfh2O7jeQNNP0SfLaBcYE3UfS93YrrKtkkF45l7Oa89OvPuVUMh229oBSAI-BpLqjMCXxXmEC/pub