Seriously, there is no point in a backstop if it is time limited or if one party can simply withdraw from it at will. The EU’s deputy chief negotiator has said that there is no change in the EU position.
James Felton, on Twitter, put up this picture with the following caption, which more or less perfectly describes the position of the Brit Prime Minister.
“Me again. You know the backstop.
The backstop I signed up to, yes.
After two years of painful negotiation, that backstop, yes.
The backstop you’ve repeatedly said is a red f***ing line, yes.
I was thinking – can we scrap it?
No?
Ok, same time again tomorrow.”
Oh, Theresa, if only you hadn’t got yourself entangled with the Dinosaur Unbelievers Party (DUP)! And you thought the worst thing you’d ever done was run through some field or other when you were a bairn?
**********
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Could GATT Article 24 be the rabbit that’s about be pulled from the hat?
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I dunno… what does it say?
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Chatter has been growing about this for a couple of weeks – I’m no expert – however I think, put simply, under WTO rules the UK and the EU can agree to trade on zero tariffs for a period of two years while lasting trade agreements are worked out under Article 24 of GATT.
By mutual agreement trade proceeds uninterrupted and no requirement for an Irish hard border, which in any case no party is proposing to implement.
The EU would agree to do this under pressure from EU exporters to the UK, in particular the Automotive sector – the EU bureaucrats like Barnier and Tusk may appear all powerful but ultimately money talks.
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Thanks. That would seem sensible, as long as they could agree the future within two years, which, with the current government, seems highly unlikely.
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Does not help freedom of movement
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Without which we’re a bit stuffed…
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As I’ve seen it, her problem is that the Belfast Agreement is a legally binding international treaty. It states very clearly that there can be no border on teh Island and that everyone who is Irish, from north of south is Irish and entitled to an Irish passport and Irish rights.
The other side of the coin is that the monarchists get to sing GDTQ and fly their flag with impunity.
Maybe there is something that can get round this, but if so the Great British and the Europeans have not seen it.
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Sky News Breaking
Verified account
Prime Minister Theresa May has asked Conservative MPs to back a revised Brexit deal which will replace the Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements”.
But…
@SkyNewsBreak
The Chairman of the European Research Group Jacob Rees-Mogg says he is in “no mood to support” Sir Graham Brady’s amendment to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal which would replace the Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements”
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Robert Peston
Verified account
Following @theresa_may urging her MPs to back the Brady amendment, two of them asked her the obvious question what she thinks should replace the backstop. There was no enlightenment from her.
*****
Strong and stable…. and clueless as ever.
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Tris,
Congratulations on your election victory.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-scotland-17960490/scottish-council-election-professor-pongoo-beats-lib-dem
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LOL. Munguin was trying to keep it quiet to save Willie Rennie’s blushes.
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I’m just surprised she has a reflection in the mirror behind her !!!
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LOL. Probably her people painted that on to make her “appear” human.
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Listened to the polish MP last night on the radio.
He’s undecided about the grady amendment??????
He’s going to consult his local party chair.
Then the moggie, he’s not supporting. He is rallying the tropps against the cooper amendment.
The pieceended with, well it’s all down to the speaker, which of many amendments he calls.
All reminicent of a pack of rats fighting over a torn empty plastic crisp bag.
Isn’t it wonderful to have the BESTEST government in the universe, worth their weight in one atom of hydrogen perhaps.
Radio 4 in the afternoon had a wonderful piece of theatre, really propaganda, about the politics of Ireland and it’s border.
The main part was the mythical technology available to allow both a free border for people and goods, all done by Microsoft.
All you have to do is do a regular hard reset, recover the machine to an earlier time, all sorted.
The main character was Fintin, wonder where they picked up that name?
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About this technology…
Norway and Switzerland both have borders with the EU and although one is in the EEA and the other in EFTA, they still require borders.
Norway and Switzerland are very rich countries.
Why do they not have that technology?
Why are there lorry queues at the borders?.
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Sorry Tris I think you are wrong there … both Norway and Switzerland are in EFTA.
1,000 apologies. 🙃
https://www.efta.int/about-efta/the-efta-states
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You’re right Arbroath. Apologies. All four are in EFTA, but only the other three (Switzerland excluded) are in the EEA.
Note from Munguin. Tris to go without salary for a week!
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dear Munguin,
Please don’t withold Tris’s salary remember unlike you he is a human and as such inferior to your greatness.😉🤭
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🙂
I think it worked. He just handed me a 20p piece.
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What is now clear to the whole world is that international agreements with Westminster aren’t worth the paper they are written on,unless you have an enforcement mechanism.
We Scots have been aware of that for some time,Westminster’s regular trashing of the union treaty with impunity.
Yes,you need a big stick when dealing with HM government.
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And a long spoon!
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Yes well when you are wery busy
As midwife to the Birth of Empire 2
International treaties etc hold no
Sway with Brexiteers.
After all Empires do not listen
To the little Nations .
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I was wondering the other day, Niko, which countries are going to be in this empire of theirs…
I came up The Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Rockall.
Some empire, huh?
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Rockall is part of Scotland.
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Inverness postcode, yup.
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It has a postcode?
WoW
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Yeah. It came up in one of my hobby groups, so we asked the UK government.
I can dig up the letter if you want?
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No no, I believe you LOL
I just wonder who gets letters out there. And better still, who delivers them.
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It needs to have someone living on it for a few months out of the year, or the UK loses the fishing rights it gets from it.
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Not a job I’d care for. It looks inhospitable.
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Munguin would quite enjoy it as long as he had company. Maybe Professor Pongoo would fit the bill.
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🙂
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Damn. It’s my day for being wrong. Don’t tell Munguin or I’ll get no supper.
🙂
Although there is a certain amount of dubiety on this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall_Bank_dispute
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I think that phone conversation that you have reported is cut off a wee bit short Tris. If I may I’d like to borrow a saying from Ghostbusters that was obviously shouted by the E.U. member at the end of the phone after Feartie had finished her phone call.
“Me again. You know the backstop.
The backstop I signed up to, yes.
After two years of painful negotiation, that backstop, yes.
The backstop you’ve repeatedly said is a red f***ing line, yes.
I was thinking – can we scrap it?
No?
Ok, same time again tomorrow.”
WE GOT ONE! 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
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LOL
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We are into either more time wasting to facilitate a hard Brexit, because the EU has made it clear that the backstop agreement remains, or more self delusion or a stoking of antiIrishness as part of the xenophobic English Nationalism.
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You really couldn’t make this up, could you?
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Sorry to bear bad news.
According to the EBC, a Chinese company has found the biggest gas field in the North Sea.
We’re doomed, all that gas,good job westmonster is looking after it for us.
In the meantime there are reports of a major hot gas leak in London, houses of parliament.
The maybot is going to vote against the deal SHE negotiated, the only deal in town and she’ll do it without even blushing.
As someone said we need adults in westmonster not primary school children. The debates of late are just school ground name calling. We deserve better.
This union is bust.
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Oh no, surely not.
We are all doomed.
Maybe Beijing will claim it for themselves and Mrs May will say, OK, if you give us a trade deal!!
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Why is Velma Dinkley negotiating for the EU?
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Obviously a woman of great talent. Rather her than Scoobie himself!
Mind you, Scoobie would do a better job that Mayhem Maybot.
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Hope you are all preparing for indyref2. It will be called in a few days and happen just before 29 Mar 19.
Get your wellies on and get canvassing. Don’t get left at the starting line. 57 days or so to go before it is all over one way or another. It’s Freedom or Assimilation, no other choice.
NS has let them prepare the ground and haven’t they done well, nothing they say cannot be easily rebuffed given the staggering incompetence shown over the last few years. The SNP are doing a great job in Westminster demonstrating that Scotland is being ignored, dismissed and rebuffed at every turn. The BritNats really have no ammo left.
#DissolveTheUnion
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I’m ready when they want me.
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I’m hoping for a date before 29 March too, Kangaroo, for successor State / continuing membership in EU reasons, but time’s a-wastin’; if that window isn’t closed already, it will be very soon now.
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Who knows, Ed. I heard on the news last night that Jeremy Hunt says they may have to ask for extra time, whilst No 10 says they will leave on 29 March.
I thought the queen told everyone they had to pull together. Seems even the Cabinet can’t.
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I really don’t enjoy it when I get to say “I told you so” again. How can it be that so many of those eejits down at Westminster are evidently unable to engage with reality?
What Ms. Weyland said, polite and measured as it was, was about as rude as it gets in diplomatic-speak: she was saying that May is a liar and the UK is an impossible negotiating partner, and not alleging but stating, with reasons given, that the UK side / Theresa May are not acting in good faith. In the diplomatic world, you do not do that to anyone you have any time for at all. The EU negotiators are extremely pissed off with the English and are not going to give a centimetre, in other words. I say “English” because none of the other UK nations has ever been properly represented in the negotiations…
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I think that’s a fair assessment, except t say that Norther Ireland has been consulted and paid a lot of bribes, or at least the DUP has.
Talking of bribes, I see that some Labour MPs are being bribed with money for their constituencies if they vote Mrs May’s deal through.
Whatever happened to “no deal is better than a bad deal”? Did it go the same way as “Strong and Stable”?
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When she came to power, didn’t May bleat something about governing for all the people? She may even have included us Jockanese, because you have to be people to be in that, precious, precious Union, etc., etc. Or so one supposes. Sometime early on in her presidency. Outside no. 10 when she took office?
It wasn’t up there with Maggie quoting St Francis of Assisi, I remember that, but it had the same stench of hypocrisy about it – I hope I’m not misremembering about May; it’s just that there’s no point in trying to distinguish between different flavours of bilge, so I pay almost no attention to her.
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Exactly. I saw it in company with a lot of others and we all burst out laughing and mimicking Maggie … where there is ***, let me bring ***.
Utter rubbish. I don;t recall that she mentioned Scotland, but she bangs on about her precious union.
In the immortal words of René Artois. “You stupid woman!”
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**WARNING – FULL OF PONCY FRENCH PHRASES BECAUSE THAT IDIOT FREEMAN IS SHOWING OFF AGAIN**
Ah yes… the oppo seems to believe that a défaut mineur de politesse in pursuance of truth is equivalent to lèse-majesté, presupposing an a identification of Theresa May, as Prime Minister and Leader of the Party in power, with English sovereignty. If you look at it like that, it sort of explains the otherwise inexcusable arrogation of the legislature’s powers to the Executive President and her fractious Cabinet, and her appallingly presumptuous behaviour toward the Europeans: how dare they disagree and therefore disrespect her when to do so is to disrespect England’s sovereignty in all things!
In other words, it’s l’Etat, c’est moi; or rather, l’Etat c’est nous in the minds of the Moggs, BoJos and Goveys of this world… It’s yet another example of Their general inability or disinclination to engage with reality (viz. Their dismissal of the importance of the intraIrish border).
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I guess that the Irish border never crossed the minds of a single one of them when they started this process.
So Londoncentric are they, that the problems of a distant place of which they know precisely NOTHING, would never have crossed their tiny minds, as they were passing the port from the left.
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I meant to mention – René Artois. Quelle coïncidence that I played the eponymous Artois (speaking in French rather than tortured English) in a short take-off movie our year made at university! I was cast, of course, for this key starring part because of my so remarquable French and saisissante présence théatrale, absolutely nothing to do with my embonpoint or my neurotic behaviour…
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Or indeed you fatal charm for the women (and Ltn Gruber).
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Let us draw a veil over such intimate matters, gentle readers … even if taking off seven of them while bopping to the music is so much more fun.
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Not really off topic … here’s a story from Deutsche Welle entitled “EU and Japan create world’s biggest free trade zone”: http://t1p.de/03so.
The Japan – EU Free Trade Agreement (JEFTA) will encompass about ⅓ of the global economy.
Key words for Scotland: “The deal protects ‘Geographical Indications’ such as Cheddar, Kobe beef and Scotch whiskey” (OK, so they spelled ‘whisky’ wrong, but hey, who cares).
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Oh yeah – one other thing, also from Deutsche Welle: “EU, Mercosur aim to make world’s biggest trade bloc by end of 2019” (http://t1p.de/r7kh).
For ease of reference, the Mercosur countries are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay; Venezuela is also a member, but has been suspended. Quite a lot of other South American countries have free trade with the Mercosur countries, so the agreement with the EU will in effect take in most of South America.
I look forward to some barking Tory or other claiming that a sovereign and independent Britain can do much, much better on its own than under some nasty EU-imposed free trade deal.
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Once again, I’m sure that the good DOCTOR has it all under control.
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I do wonder about the good Doctor Fox, and whether it’s actually Dr. Fox-Werrity. That is one very strange relationship. Is Fox’s wife no more than a “beard”? (I.e., a fake wife for purposes of Keeping Up Appearances, which is, as we know, something which most small-c conservative types seem to think is a matter of supreme importance as it has to do with social status.)
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Well, while I’m not in the least bothered if he’s with Werrity, I can’t stand people who speak out against something (and MPs who vote against it), whilst doing it. And Fox was a hardliner on gay rights voting against everything. So if he is with Werrity, (big IF) he’;s a bloody hypocrite.
As for the doctor thing. I believe that Fox has a medical degree. That’s not actually a doctorate. The doctor title is honorary, and only applicable if he/she is in the medical profession. Fox hasn’t practised medicine for a very long time and unless he’s kept up to date, by practising the required amount, he’s really not a doctor.
This is why a take the mick out of him for his absolute insistence that he be addressed as DOCTOR.
.
Gordon Brown for example IS a doctor of philosophy but never objected to being called Mr Brown.
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Well, I’m sure that Japan is one of the 40 trade deals that DOCTOR Liam Fox has ready to be signed on March 30.
I look forward to that.
No matter how they spell whisky!.
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