14th October 2021
We are told that the United Kingdom government has provided its proposals to the European Union for changes to the Northern Irish Protocol.
We can assume this to be true – else the European Union would say that they have not received such proposals.
(It is sad we cannot trust the word of the government on this without express or implicit corroboration.)
But these proposals do not appear to have been made public.
This cannot be explained by the usual ‘cards close to the chest’ excuse – as the European Union know what those proposals say.
So there must be another reason.
And the only possible reason appears to be is that the United Kingdom government does not want the people of the United Kingdom – or the press of the United Kingdom – to know what is in those proposals.
Just think about this.
Brexit was supposed to be about the United Kingdom people ‘taking back control’ from the European Union.
But now the United Kingdom government is allowing the European Union to be privy to proposals on what happens with one part of the United Kingdom – and not the people who live and work there.
It is an extraordinary situation, if you think about it.
This is the reality of ‘taking back control’.
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Not really surprising though. The proposals are probably so at variance with the rhetoric that they would be laughed at.
Do you mean corroboration??
Whoops! It has been a stressful day.
Do we believe what the Government says they have done? “In writing” spells disaster.
So – “Taking back control” falls into the same category as “Levelling up” i.e. another meaningless slogan. To be honest, I have always been opposed to Brexit on the grounds that I have come to the conclusion that Democracy in the UK does not exist by any normal definition, and I felt that the EU was a balancing force against the more extreme political thoughts in the UK. Now we can see the way things are going, and it’s not pretty for the citizens of the U.K.
Too damn’ right.
Exactly why I voted to remain.
Isn’t this just par for the course? E.g Parliament is afforded less scrutiny of and say on on trade agreements than when we were in the EU. And this is because voting to ‘take back control’ has turned out to be giving much more control to an evermore overweening executive, one which has amply demonstrated its trustworthiness (lack of).
Presumably the European Union could publish the details?
Good point. There must be such a groundswell of bad will towards the UK by now that they probably will.
A Command Paper outlining issues and suggested improvements to the NIP were made by the UK government in July 2021.
So far as I’ve read, the EUs first formal response to the UK’s proposals in the Command Paper were made yesterday.
Maybe we are all being subject to a conspiracy theory.
A command paper. Yeah.
It was never about ‘us’ – it was always about ‘them’. And I don’t mean the EU.
Mmm….perhaps they were les specific as to just who would be taking back control. I’d suggest that arranging for a small clique of people to be privy to what’s going of whilst excluding everyone else will be a fine example of what they mean by “taking back control”.
Sadly, I fear that very few people in the U.K. care about this issue. If it doesn’t make it to the front pages hardly anyone will even hear of it.
Seems to be the principle for government at the moment. Grand but meaningless proclamations for thé plebs, as little action as can be taken to maintain the status quo for the rich and powerful.
Sadly I agree. It will take serious shocks to the system to get through; control of the media makes that difficult if not impossible.
The UK *government* is more sovereign.
The UK *people* are far less sovereign.
Ah, but ‘Taking back control’ clearly meant them taking back control, not us.
That’s always been the plan. Since the post war blip when Labour got the whip hand and created the welfare state, the conservatives have wanted a return to what they see as the rightful order if things.
Given the craven subservience of a large section of the UK electorate, they’re not far from achieving their aim.
This comment of mine is likely to be considered off topic but I believe there’s an inner meaning for the moderator to evaluate. Thank you.
Now, reading of the many and varied events of Brexit and being somewhat sceptical about a political feud, even if only occasional, as the origin of it all, the myth of Europa came to my mind.
This myth tells us of a feminine figure abducted from Anatolia by Jove, disguised as a white bull, and taken to the isle of Crete where she married king Asterion giving birth to three children and to the European epic deeds. The figure of Europa, feminine, I like to think be the metaphor of a welcoming mother, accepting the fact that our Continent – like herself – is the refuge of the migrant peoples that built it, those peoples compassionately described by Horace: «coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt» (Epistulae, I, 11, 27).
The British Isles (Britannia), were never reached by Europa, I fear. For this reason it seems to me that the European ideals, aspirations, hopes, vision of our ultimate destiny are viewed by the British as “other” to them, since they, generally speaking, do not share the classical culture of continental Europeans.
The expedient of hiding information from the British public re the government’s proposals to ease the NIP problems seems to me yet another evidence of the British top officials’ arrogant ivory tower isolationism, of their contempt of their own people, they too considered as “other” from themselves.
I think you have a very good point. Now I live on the South Coast (having left London) I am amazed (and depressed) by a general feeling along here that “they,” the French and other marauding others are only kept back by the brave and noble English fighting them off on the beaches.
‘It is an extraordinary situation, if you think about it.’
The significant word is ‘think’ and I have yet to meet a Leave voter who has spent so much as a picosecond on that activity.