Anyone who thinks that Starmer is doing nothing at the moment should read his piece in todayâs Sunday Telegraph. Itâs behind a paywall, so I wonât paste the whole thing here, but he has turned the tables on the Conservatives in a quite delicious manner.
âGet on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the Governmentâs mantra.â
The fact that Bozo and his cabinet of clowns seem incapable of doing either will soon be pushed more forcefully, one would imagine.
l[quote=âcynicaloldgit, post:22, topic:351, full:trueâ]
Anyone who thinks that Starmer is doing nothing at the moment should read his piece in todayâs Sunday Telegraph. Itâs behind a paywall, so I wonât paste the whole thing here, but he has turned the tables on the Conservatives in a quite delicious manner.
âGet on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the Governmentâs mantra.â
The fact that Bozo and his cabinet of clowns seem incapable of doing either will soon be pushed more forcefully, one would imagine.
[/quote]
Iâve liked the way Starmer has gone about things to be honest. It is a calm and consideted dismantling of Boris and his cronies. I would be interested to know why he hadnât highlighted the contract debacles behind testing and PPE or Dido Hardings appointment.
I still think his biggest battle is pulling the Labour party together.
Starmer is self isolating after a member of his household developed COVID like symptoms. They are awaiting test results.
This whole thing is just bizarre
UK creates border in the Irish sea. EU asks the UK what their food standards will be post 31/1/21. UK will not provide any guarantees.
Itâs just stupid that the government did not expect the UK to adhere to EU standards for things crossing the border.
Theyâve already confirmed that the UK will be applying EU food standards after 1.1.21
But , but , but - the US FTA? No such deal with EU food standards.
square pegs - round holes
And I sense mistrust on the EU side to believe anything this government is announcing by now.
Have they?
Come 1/1/21 the UK can operate any rules it wants. The UK can switch overnight if they like.
No, it canât. It has to give notice through the WTO. Just like every other listed 3rd country.
Ok so why wont the UK tell the EU what our rules / standards will be?
No idea?
Lack of planning?
God bless America?
Well, unless they decide to ignore that too.
Why would they? For the immediate future theyâre going to be following EU rules. No other 3rd country is required to lock in or guarantee that their regulations wonât change in the future.
In which case there will be consequences, just like with all breaches by any other contracting countries.
and indeed, the likelihood of ignoring the WTO is fairly small. But is extremely jarring to see how lightly the current government takes their word and the law.
Then somethings not right. If the UK says itâs going to follow EU rules, why are the EU asking? Why is this a sticking point?
There is something that doesnât add up in my mind. Part of me thinks that the UK has just realised the implications of sticking a border in the Irish Sea. They couldnât be that dumb could they?
Which came first? The EU threat not to list the UK without unprecedented guarantees about future regulatory standards (thereby threatening food trade between NI and GB), or UK saying it needed to vary the NI/IE protocol to maintain integrity of UK? It seems that the second would very much be in response to the first. Not the other way around. I havenât looked at the detail though.
Something doesnât add up. UK government definitely capable of messing up though but equally this moral high ground often assumed to be occupied by the EU is without much foundation. Barnier has been challenged to explain exactly what the problem is and so far he hasnât.
Very fair point and interpretation. I can certainly see the EU deciding to make life difficult under the threat of the withdrawal agreement being breached. And who would blame them?
On the perception of moral high ground, it depends who you ask I guess.
personally I am really disturbed by the prospect of the internal market bill being agreed. The implications to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are quite scary and a pretty enormous step backwards IMO. Iâm certain it will alienate people in those countries further from England but there is absolutely nothing they could do about it.