Sir,
A catastrophic legal disaster looms. I was horrified to see from the offer document that it still talks in terms of an agreement under Article 50. It is the wrong offer under the wrong law.
Please remember that there is a terrible trap in the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the effect of which is to kill Brexit stone dead if an Article 50 Agreement comes into effect before the termination of the Article 50 period. This occurs because the UK is released from the Treaties of the EU on that agreement coming into effect but then the ECA 1972 immediately puts them all straight back again!
The least bad way forward is for Boris to revoke that offer and replace it with an offer of an interim free trade agreement under Article XXIV of GATT, as I have advised previously ad nauseam.
Other ways round the trap are few in number. Of these, the best is an urgent amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 deleting the words “on exit day” from Section 1.
The only other way, if there is a deal under Article 50, is to express within it a condition that it comes into effect at the same moment as the Article 50 period expires.
Respectfully, Septimus Octavius
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Sir,
So it has happened – the Return of the Undead Withdrawal Agreement (see the article of that name in Independence Daily on 4th September last). Boris Johnson has offered an amended version of the 599 pages of the Withdrawal Agreement of 25th November 2018 to the European Union for its acceptance.
Apparently only the Protocol on Northern Ireland, known as the Backstop, has been amended. But this Backstop has always been merely a decoy, to attract attention away from the dark heart of this falsely named Withdrawal Agreement.
Articles 164 to 166 of the Withdrawal Agreement set up a Joint Committee to alone interpret and apply the Withdrawal Agreement in the Transition Period of Britain’s departure. This Committee will have sole control over the relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom in the Transition Period, however long that transition period lasts.
Clause 2 of Article 166 says that the decisions of this Joint Committee will be “binding” on the EU & UK. So this unelected Joint Committee will overrule the elected British government. Clause 10 of Annex VIII says that the proceedings of the Joint Committee will be “confidential”. Consequently the Committee’s proceedings will be secret (“confidential” means private, and therefore secret).
Then only these private people on the UK side of the confidential Joint Committee can stand up for Britain against the EU, if they choose to. Article 168 (Exclusivity) says that all disputes between the EU & UK sides on this confidential Committee must go exclusively to the Arbitration Panel set up in Articles 171 to 181. But clause 1 of Article 174 says that where a dispute submitted to arbitration raises a question of EU law, then the Court of Justice of the EU will make a decision binding on the Arbitration Panel.
As the Withdrawal Agreement is a legal document all disputes arising from its interpretation and application can be seen as legal disputes subject to the rule of the Court of Justice of the EU. You can be sure that the CJEU will agree with that. Clause 1 of Article 174 makes the rest of the Articles 167 to 181 in Title III (Dispute Management) redundant.
Article 132 in the 585 pages of the 14th November 2018 Draft Withdrawal Agreement allowed the Joint Committee to extend the transition period to “31st December 20XX”. So the transition period would be extended to the 31st December 2099. That has been the whole purpose of the Withdrawal Agreement from its very first draft.
That “20XX” clause is apparently missing from the 25th November 2018 version of the Withdrawal Agreement, which was approved by the European Council. The “20XX” clause made the intentions of the EU too obvious. But what if the EU side of the Joint Committee proposes to extend the transition period to the 31st December 2099 anyway, and the UK side disputes that? The Court of Justice of the European Union will decide who wins that dispute.
Plainly Boris Johnson and other members of his Cabinet team have not read the Withdrawal Agreement. Neither has Nigel Farage, if he had read it, he would surely have brought its dark heart to public attention.
Respectfully, Ralph Prothero
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Sir,
The EU thinks that sovereigntists have been defeated. But the Eurozone cannot survive much longer – without Fiscal and Political Union – which the German Constitution prevents. Germany has yet to agree to a joint EU treasury, or joint taxes, or debt pooling, or a full banking union with shared deposit insurance. So for now the Eurozone has no effective monetary of fiscal defences worth the name (see this DT article).
The key question is “Will the Germans allow their Constitution to be overridden, as U.K. politicians have done?” Clearly they are not going to do that in time to keep the Eurozone Titanic afloat.
So our EU friends, by all means go ahead with a no-deal Brexit if you dare and see what happens. Make our day. Since fiscal union would eviscerates budgetary powers of the Bundestag and would empty German democracy of meaning – raising the spectre of Weimar – don’t expect the Germans to lie down easily.
Respectfully, Roger Arthur
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Sir,
months ago I wrote to several people suggesting a campaign to boycott German goods from 1st April if Britain wasn’t out of the EU by then. Sir John kindly replied along the lines that he tries to buy British, he had already stopped buying German goods and tries to buy non-EU goods in preference to EU goods whenever possible.
If people need to be reminded that for 40 years Britain has effectively been an economic colony of Germany encourage them to read Sir Paul Lever’s book ‘Berlin Rules’. There has never been a decision made by the EU that went against Germany’s economic interests and every economic decision made by the EU has increased Germany’s economic strength. This is clearly explained by Sir Paul, once an ambassador to Germany and a great admirer of Germany.
17.4 million Britons don’t have to wait for the next election to express their frustration. Please unite and start a boycott of German goods in particular, then French goods, then EU goods. Perhaps Sir John Redwood would endorse the boycott and if he did others would. It is needed now more than ever. Germany would see that a no deal Brexit is better than a prolonged and dramatic drop in sales of cars and white goods in Britain.
Respectfully, Jamila Maxwell
Septimus Octavius, you warn us about the trap whereby Britain is released from its treaties with the EU by the Withdrawal Agreement, only for the European Communities Act 1972 to reinstate them. I’m sure you are right about that. Could you please say where this trap is to be found ? Which Article or Annexe or other place in the document?
Two very good contributions by Roger Arthur and Jamila Maxwell.
Re boycotting EU imports; excellent idea. We specifically need a campaign against German cars (having lived for 30+ years in Stuttgart, the home of Mercedes and Porsche, I know how vulnerable the German car sector now is). Such a campaign must be started right away, but who’s to organise it ? Surely TBP has a great chance now to step up to the plate, providing propaganda materials like car stickers (maybe the Yanks and Japs would help too 🙂
Re the Germans’ unwillingness to allow their Constitution to be overridden, I’m more pessimistic than Roger. I joined the AfD some 5 years ago when the EU banks’ rescue, at the cost of working people in the broadest sense, was pushed through, the German Constitutional Court simply passing the buck to the ECJ. The AfD, Germany’s last hope if you ask me, is stuck at ca. 15% of the vote, despite big successes in the Eastern Laender. That’s too little to stop the EU juggernaut.
I remember vaguely also a court case in Germany re Lisbon Treaty overriding their constitution: this of course was lost, bulldozed over.
”… the AfD …. is stuck at 15%….” And you can bet your bottom dollar that in the next GE (if we should be sold to the EU with May’s surrender treaty and if we were allowed to have a GE thereafter) TBP will also be ”stuck” at some low figure.
Does anyone remember in detail, something niggling at me? Soon after Boris became PM he did something that set the leave date of 31/10, set it ‘in stone’ so to speak. That was before the Benn Act. Someone on here mentioned it but the MSM hardly noticed it.
The way May’s WA has been resurrected, is no way anything like BREXIT
Even Sir John seems to be supporting it, saying it frees our trade, the main point of brexit. But it is an Article 50 Agreement. It is simply a BRINO.
If that really is the best Boris can get – well Nigel is our only hope. My local Tory hopeful has sent out letters assuming Brexit will be 31/10 and digging some dirt against the Labour incumbent saying that is his ONLY opposition. So what is going on?
Have you seen this, about 3.50 onward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DI6oeoAook This shows BoJo was told about a possible way of defeating the Benn Act but chose not to: because he doesn’t want clean Brexit.
Besides the “WA” which is evil enough, there is TMay’s proposed Security Treaty . This, the politicians always assure us, is to “ensure cooperation over fighting terrorism and cross border crime”. What it’s really for is to give the EU totalitarian powers over us. Plus they’re taking control of what’s left of our army. We already have plenty to protest about but you haven’t seen anything yet: e.g, we’ll be taxed out of existence ; (I’m not as optimistic as Roger Arthur here that the German Constitution will stop full EU fiscal integration). and the UN Global Compact for Migration will kick in turning our lives totally upside down . But these totalitarian powers will enable the EU to brutally slap down all protest. I maintain our politicians all know this, they’re all globalists; but they’re keeping quiet about it.
Pauline….I think what you are referring to is the Commencement Order.
Explained here:
https://youtu.be/q3W678l8bok
Yes. Thank you Ken P. Now all I have to do is save it in some way ‘cos my memory is a sieve.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
I have been boycotting EU goods since the beginning of this year wherever possible in favour of British or non eu countries and will continue to do so until we are treated with the respect we are owed. It has become a way of life, not difficult.
There are some good replies here, that I am pleased to see and understand. Not only do I agree with them, but I am angry at not seeing the matter for myself, a whole lot earlier ! ….. From the late 1980s, I did not like the EU, and was certain to vote to leave if given the chance. – Now I hate the very mention of the EU ! ….. We simply MUST get clear of it !
I was on a Democracy Movement stall about 20 years ago, warning about the EU, and had an experience even then of of what deeply evil people Eurocrats were; One Eurocrat (Belgian or similar I think) was pointed out to me in Kingston and saw t we were letting the cat out of the bag. I have never seen such a show of evil rage. He was almost foaming at the mouth with rage. Someone on our stall called him an interfering busybody and told him to come back when he was sober ! It has been very frustrating over the years trying to persuade people how evil the EU is, most are only wakinmg up now it’s almost too late (unless a miracle saves us).