UK Politics Thread

[Jimbuna]

Boris Johnson has said he is determined to "get on" with his job, in his first Commons appearance since surviving a confidence vote in his leadership.

Amid testy exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions, Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle told Mr Johnson he was loathed and should resign.

But the prime minister said his political career had "barely begun".

GOD HELP US!!

[Jimbuna]

Turn on the sound and have a ganders at this https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1534099297750466561

[mapuc]

Found this article via a Danish article

Boris Johnson has been warned he faces up to a year of Conservative civil war as angry MPs push to remove him despite his narrow victory in a no-confidence vote.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/no...rebels-1673976

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Boris Johnson will set out ideas to boost home ownership in England - including allowing benefits to cover mortgage payments - in a speech aimed at re-launching his leadership.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61739816

Time to re-mortgage the house me thinks

[Jimbuna]

The government's first flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda can go ahead on Tuesday, appeal court judges say.

It supports a previous decision by the High Court that it was in the "public interest" for the government to carry out its policies.

Under the scheme, some of those entering the UK illegally will be flown to Rwanda to apply for asylum there.

Campaigners were trying to stop the flight before a full hearing on whether the policy is lawful next month.

The charity Detention Action and the PCS union that represents some Border Force staff, who were among the groups who brought the case, said they were "disappointed" by the decision.

The court earlier heard 11 people were expected to fly to the landlocked east African country on Tuesday evening.

However, charity Care4Calais, which was among those appealing against the High Court decision, said only eight people were now due to fly.

The numbers drastically reduced after legal challenges relating to modern slavery and human rights claims, a Home Office source told the BBC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61789982

[Jimbuna]

The UK government has published plans to get rid of parts of the post-Brexit deal it signed with the EU in 2020.

It wants to change the Northern Ireland Protocol to make it easier for some goods to flow from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

But the EU opposes the move, saying that going back on the deal breaches international law.

The UK government disputes this, arguing that the changes will mean the United Kingdom stays together.

The alterations are set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, to be debated and voted on by Parliament.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61790248

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The UK government has published plans to get rid of parts of the post-Brexit deal it signed with the EU in 2020.

[Skybird]

Neue Zürcher Zeitung:


The gross domestic product of Northern Ireland amounted to 48.5 billion pounds in 2020, meaning that the British part of the island contributed just 2.2 percent to the economic output of the United Kingdom. Measured against the gross domestic product of the EU, Northern Ireland disappears in the per mille range. Nevertheless, both the British government in London and the EU Commission in Brussels believe that the exchange of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is significant enough to be the subject of a political dispute that could lead to a full-blown trade conflict with sanctions and counter-sanctions.

This cannot be explained with reasonable arguments. Especially since both parties truly have greater economic concerns. The UK is on the brink of recession. On top of that, annual inflation is running at 10 percent, which is rapidly melting disposable incomes. The EU is hardly doing better, with flat economic growth and inflation around 8 percent.

The Confederation of British Industry, the U.K.'s leading business association, complained Monday that large companies are becoming less willing to invest. The association's chairman warned the government against adding to uncertainty with unilateral measures to amend the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol agreed with the EU in 2019. Instead of political grandstanding, he said, the government should negotiate with the EU to improve the protocol.

But just the opposite was performed in London on Monday night. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss introduced a bill that would abolish or amend key elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol, without EU consent. The bill is an affront.

The action is all the more astonishing because the Northern Ireland Protocol was negotiated by Prime Minister Johnson himself. It served his political goal of promising the citizens an "oven-ready," hard exit from the EU and having himself confirmed in office in return. No sooner had this goal been achieved than the rowing back began.

And not without reason: the protocol is a highly contradictory agreement that in effect recognizes Northern Ireland as still part of the EU's internal market and at the same time as part of the kingdom that has left it. Its sole purpose is to avoid having to rebuild the invisible border between Northern Ireland and Ireland - a universally accepted prerequisite for peace.

With good will on both sides, this absurdity could work. Northern Ireland's low economic importance would have to make the hermaphroditic status envisaged in the protocol as part of the EU single market and the United Kingdom tolerable for both sides. Northern Ireland would be a possible loophole in the single market, but with reasonable controls, abuses could be kept in check. The single market is far from collapsing because of the Irish economy.

However, this same good will is lacking. There are still forces in the EU that see Brexit as a cause for ill will against Great Britain. And for the Conservatives in power in London and the Unionists in Belfast, the Northern Ireland Protocol serves as a pretext for domestic power games. The Unionists are blocking the formation of a government in Belfast and thus blackmailing London. The hard-pressed Johnson government, in turn, is managing the conflict with Brussels to boost the support of Conservative members of parliament. The sufferers are not only the 1.8 million Northern Irish, but the entire population of the kingdom, whose economy is being unnecessarily burdened.

Common sense is considered a quintessential British virtue. It is bitterly lacking here. The receipt for this should be given by the British MPs and Peers in Westminster. Without their approval, the law would be remembered as a mere attempt by the Johnson government to exert pressure.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[Jimbuna]

I'm not sure how this will end but if a trade war one of the results, both sides will suffer....what an utter mess.

[Skybird]

Everybody knew from beginning that this was coming with THAT Brexit treaty.

[Skybird]

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/2...tories-kill-it

The proposed legislation would try to remove the customs border problem with a new “green lane” and “red lane” for trade. Goods traded from Great Britain to stay in Northern Ireland go in the green lane and could move without customs checks. Goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for export to the Irish Republic or the rest of the EU go into the “red lane” and would remain subject to customs checks in Northern Ireland.
The other key plank of the bill would remove the European Court of Justice from its role adjudicating trade disputes relating to Northern Ireland. Instead, “independent arbitration” would resolve trade disputes; it is not clear what this would entail. A further meaningful change in the proposed legislation would give Northern Ireland the same tax breaks as the rest of the UK.
‘Acting dishonourably’

The EU reacted by underlining its position that the Northern Ireland Protocol is not up for renegotiation. A constant throughout the entire Brexit process is that Brussels, backed by an unusually united 27 member states, sees watertight protection of the single market’s integrity as sacrosanct – meaning it must have a rigorously controlled border.
Brussels’ approach is overkill, Tonge suggested: “I do understand the British government’s position; the idea that Great Britain to Northern Ireland so-called ‘exports’ will go into the Irish Republic and undermine the single market is fantasy,” he said. “If only the volume of British exports were that high! Most will stay in Northern Ireland in any case.
“And even Johnson’s government, even the DUP, don’t dispute the need for checks [at Northern Irish ports] on goods that go from Great Britain to Northern Ireland to be sent south of the border,” Tonge continued.
>> How Brexit created a ‘recipe for endless tension’ among unionists upon Northern Ireland’s centenary
But as Jonathan Powell would no doubt point out, it was Johnson’s government that proposed shifting the customs border to the Irish Sea back in 2019 before formalising the move as soon as possible.
“At the end of the day, they’re the ones that signed this deal; therefore the British government is acting dishonourably in proposing to renege on it,” Tonge said.
(...)
Following that uncertainty, the Protocol has worked well from an economic perspective. Closer trade links with the EU have helped the Northern Irish economy “slightly outperform the UK average”, a report by the National Institute of Social and Economic Research found in May.

(...)
“Johnson’s majority of 80 might sound great but it only needs 40 rebels to down you; that’s only about one-ninth of the party, given that every other party bar the DUP will oppose the government on this,” Tonge said. “There is a still a Remainer wing within the Conservative Party, even if it is operating in much-reduced circumstances. Aside from that, there will be a lot of anti-Johnson MPs who have no particular ideological view on the [Protocol] who will see this as a useful opportunity to put Johnson in further difficulties.”
Given those factors, it is about “50/50” whether the legislation will get through the Commons, Tonge said.

[Jimbuna]

The EU has announced new legal action against the UK government over its plans to scrap parts of the post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

Ministers outlined a bill on Monday aimed at unilaterally changing trade, tax and governance arrangements in the 2019 deal.

The treaty was agreed by both sides but the UK says it has disrupted trade and power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

But the EU says overriding parts of the deal would break international law.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said there was "no legal or political justification whatsoever for unilaterally changing an international agreement".

"So let's call a spade a spade, this is illegal," Mr Sefcovic said, adding that the UK's decision "left us with no choice" but to take legal action.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson said his government was disappointed the EU had taken legal action and continued to favour a negotiated resolution.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61809459

[Jimbuna]

[Catfish]

Meanwhile Mrs Truss tries to get rid of fugitives in deporting them to just of all Rwanda. Congratulations, she's got all the attributes and opinions to become the next prime minister. Wearing a Thatcher scarf and being photographed in a tank gets them everytime.
Maybe would be easier to re-introduce the death penalty, faster and cheaper and less hypocritical

[Jimbuna]

Tend to agree with you Kai but my one main objection is the fact that these refugees are travelling through so-called 'free' countries (Germany and France to name just two) to come here.