Brexit divorce agreement

March 2024 Forums General discussion Brexit divorce agreement

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  • #85913

    https://ec.europa.eu/commission/files/joint-report-negotiators-european-union-and-united-kingdom-government-progress-during-phase-1-negotiations-under-article-50-teu-united-kingdoms-orderly-withdrawal-european-union_en

    This is, I think, the key paragraph:

    Quote:
    49. The United Kingdom remains committed to protecting North-South cooperation and to its guarantee of avoiding a hard border. Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements. The United Kingdom's intention is to achieve these objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. Should this not be possible, the United Kingdom will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland. In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.

    50. In the absence of agreed solutions, as set out in the previous paragraph, the United Kingdom will ensure that no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, unless, consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland. In all circumstances, the United Kingdom will continue to ensure the same unfettered access for Northern Ireland's businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market.

    This is key.  If we can't get a frictionless EU/UK agreement,the UK has guaranteed to shadow the EU regulations to allow an all Ireland economy.  That is effectively committing to a Norway option (though, I think the reality is the UK is seeking Canada+).

    #130895
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster
    Quote:
    “I will speak as a Marxist. Communist Manifesto: when he says that the communists are being blamed or accused of wanting to take nationality, ethnicity, national pride away from the majority. And he says ‘you cannot take away from them that which they don’t have’. There is a very good leftist, Marxist argument in favour of the transnationality which the single market, and indeed the European Union, is putting forward….“My great fear is that the fragmentation of this already highly undemocratic EU is not going to bring us more national democracy, or improve our circumstances economically, but that the opposite will happen which will only aid the ultra-nationalists and those who invest in division.” ”

     Yanis Varoufakis http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yanis-varoufakis-s-marxist-argument-staying-eu-tony-blair-a8189151.htmlBut his critic offers a standard state-capitalist response that the EU makes re-nationalisation problematic 

    #130896
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Apparenly what the City, Big Business and some of the Cabinet are hoping for is something called "Bino" ,i.e. Brexit In Name Only, i.e just leave the institutions but stay in the single market and customs union, which would still be respecting the letter of the referendum result (though to respect the spirit you'd have to kick out all the Poles, Lithuanians, and Pakistanis too).

    #130897
    Ike Pettigrew
    Participant

    It seems to me in that quote that Marx is neatly side-stepping the point, but at the same time he is not denying the importance of identity.  Identity cannot be bought and sold, even under capitalism – despite the best efforts of both capitalists and socialists.

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