Keith Hart on Wed, 6 Mar 2019 17:37:58 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime> From here to Brexeternity


From James Blitz, Financial Times, 6th March 2019

If Theresa May’s deal is passed by the House of Commons next week, the UK will enter a new era called “Brexeternity”, says former Labour minister Denis MacShane, who in an article for the LSE website coined the term to describe the years ahead in which Brexit just goes on dominating British politics and public life.

Many Britons seem to assume that once the UK is out of the EU — whether via a deal or no deal — that will mark the end of the tortuous Brexit story. A widespread assumption is that Brexit will be over and the country can go back to focusing on the issues that really matter to people — above all, the lack of public funding for police, schools, social care and local government that make the headlines every day.

But there are good reasons for thinking it won’t turn out like that. Mrs May’s Brexit deal finalises the EU-UK divorce settlement. But the future trade relationship, as set out in the Political Declaration, is a tabula rasa on to which no firm commitments have been carved by either side.

Britain’s departure — if it happens — will simply mark the start of yet more years of negotiation between the EU and UK covering every sector of the economy, and yet more debate in Westminster and Whitehall about what kind of Brexit people want. example, paragraph four says that “the future relationship will be based on the integrity of the Single Market and the Customs Union and the indivisibility of the four freedoms.” But it simultaneously commits to “the ending of free movement of people” between the UK and Europe and vice versa. MacShane asks: “Where is the negotiating guru who can reconcile upholding and ending free movement in the same agreement?”

Or take paragraph 17. Both sides “agree to develop an ambitious economic partnership, respecting the integrity of the Union’s Single Market and the Customs Union.” But they go on to recognize “the development of an independent trade policy by the United Kingdom beyond this economic partnership”. How will this circle be squared by hitherto undiscovered geniuses in Whitehall and Brussels? It is impossible to say.

First, as they prepare to vote next Tuesday, MPs ought to ask themselves once more whether it really is in the UK’s interests to sign up to a “Blind Brexit” with an unknown destination.

Second, the hard Conservative Brexiters of the European Research Group are pretty comfortable with the ambiguity. There are growing signs that the ERG is looking to back the deal. But as Nick Kent writes on the InFacts blog: “This apparent Damascene conversion to May’s deal hides a clever calculation: once the UK is out of the EU, Brexit will be a reality but everything else will be up for grabs”.

Brexit Day will quickly be followed by Mrs May’s departure from office. In the subsequent Tory leadership contest, the ERG will want to install a prime minister who can drive the UK towards the hardest possible Brexit. If the PM pulls it off, business — and much of the country — will breathe a sigh of relief that a decision has finally been reached. But many Britons will be aghast to discover that getting Mrs May’s deal across the line is only the beginning.

A massive dereliction of duty on the part of the opposition. 
Sack Corbyn. (KH).


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