David Davis has come up with another cockamamie wheeze to avoid border controls in Ireland, if the Sun is to be believed. The scheme involves Northern Ireland having “joint EU and UK status” and operating a “double hatted regime of European and British regulations”. There would also be a 10-mile buffer zone along the 310-mile border, which would share the same trade rules as south of the border.
The wheeze is said to be a “major revision” of the “Max Fac” solution to the Irish border that the Brexit secretary was previously pursuing. Davis abandoned that because the whizzo technology doesn’t work, according to the Sun. A somewhat different version of the story is continued in City AM.
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Click here to find out moreIf this was April 1 not June 1, Max Fac 2 would clearly be a joke. Among the many questions it raises are: Will there be frontier checks at the border between the buffer zone and the rest of Northern Ireland? And why on earth would either the EU or the DUP, which is propping up the Tory government, agree?
Nobody on this hilarious twitter conversation can make head or tail of it. One wag wrote: “It’s simple. It’s like the Korean border minus the Korean pop music on loop.” Another said: “So it can simultaneously import and exclude chlorinated chicken. Schrödinger’s chicken.” Yet another comment: “Don’t bother trying to explain ‘Max Fac 2’. Just wait a bit and ‘Max Fac Beyond Thunderdome’ will be along soon.”
IMHO. Nothing that May/Davis propose is actually meant to work, simply because they have no intention of coming to any timely resolution with the EU.
They know there is no sensible, workable agreement that we can reach with the EU, there are too many obstacles, and anything they propose will have a massive cost, in payments to the EU and politically, Including remaining within the legal framework, overseen by the ECJ.
None of which is acceptable to them and their very wealthy supporters/managers.
May and Davis will continue to procrastinate, throwing in the odd titbit for the media to pontificate about.
Then, when they deem the time is right, maybe in the autumn, or a bit later, they will declare that they have no prospect of reaching any sensible agreement with the EU, and we will be leaving anyway, as promised, in March 2019.
The EU will be lambasted, very unfairly and incorrectly, with May/Davis blaming the EU for their intransigence. Painting themselves whiter than white, as the injured party, simple and straightforward lies, which, of course, they are practised at.
If parliament, and the people, cannot stop them we can look forward to a completely chaotic hard brexit, with horrendous consequences, in terms of the social, environmental, scientific, trading and financial disaster to follow.
But, the very wealthy will have achieved their aim, May/Davis/Rees-Mogg will be amply rewarded for selling us down the river, and creating the new European UK tax haven for the wealthy.
Where we serfs will continue to pay tax, but a lot more of it!
This is what they are aiming to evade! https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/company-tax/anti-tax-avoidance-package/anti-tax-avoidance-directive_en
Which must become UK law in 2019/20, unless we leave the EU promptly in 2019 without any restrictions.
There is also new proposed EU anti tax Evasion legislation to follow!
I agree with Graham Greenwood’s analysis. The Barnier team, European Parliament , anything with Euro in the title, will form a perfect scapegoat for the failure to reach a satisfactory settlement. The Government will leave it to the very last minute and then present Parliament with their ‘take it or leave it’ scenario , knowing the only alternative to their package will be to crash out with no deal.
Unless a referendum on the terms of the exit package is forced against the Government’s will, the role of Parliament will be central. Whilst the Lords are likely to examine any package in the most critical manner, MPs will be under tremendous pressure from their party whips, and the tabloid press, to toe the party line. It is crucial therefore, that the majority in Parliament who are opposed to a Hard Brexit, are prepared to work together to ensure that majority is reflected in the outcome. They must be prepared to defy their party leaderships if there is to be any chance of avoiding a destructive Hard Brexit.