It’s as if the UK is deliberately sabotaging Brexit negotiations, isn’t it?
A lorry passes an anti-Brexit placard at the Ireland-Northern Ireland border crossing in Killeen [Image: AFP/Getty].
This Writer cannot imagine what will be in the EU position paper on the Irish border question – but I doubt there will be any “magical” solutions in it.
Nor are there likely to be any premature trade negotiations.
I wonder what David Davis and his ill-prepared cronies think they are doing.
Are they deliberately trying to provoke their EU counterparts?
The European Union has accused the UK of “magical thinking” over plans to create an invisible border in Ireland after Brexit, amid fading hopes of an early divorce deal this autumn.
The response came as both sides prepared for the next round of negotiations in Brussels next week, with the EU issuing a stern rebuke against using the peace process as a bargaining chip.
Last week the UK outlined ideas for “as frictionless and seamless a border as possible”, with waivers for people and goods crossing the 310-mile long boundary between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Both sides want to avoid a hard border that risks reigniting attacks on checkpoints, which were a feature of the Troubles.
But EU diplomats think the British are trying to push responsibility for solving the Irish issue back on to them.
The UK paper on Ireland outlined two options to virtually eliminate checks on goods crossing the border: the first would rely on technology to eliminate physical border checks; the second would see the UK take responsibility for monitoring the border and even collecting customs duties for the EU.
Talk of technical fixes is seen as premature in Brussels. But it is the second proposal that has most alarmed EU diplomats, who think the UK already has problems in preventing customs fraudsters.
One EU diplomat told the Guardian that allowing the UK to manage the EU’s external frontier would be very difficult to accept. The British paper on the Irish border calls for “flexible and imaginative solutions” eight times, a repeated phrase that has left EU diplomats rolling their eyes.
Source: UK accused of ‘magical thinking’ over Brexit plan for Irish border | UK news | The Guardian
I do believe you are right about sabotaging any deal – lets hope they can be disposed of before they can do any more damage
“Flexible and Imaginative” is the New “Strong and Stable”. Like “Strong and Stable”, they are just words, there are no policies or ideas to back them up.
Davis has been described by two people who know him and who have worked with him as both idle and dim. I can believe them, but he is also a self-confessed liar. He admitted telling lies during the referendum campaign, but seemed to think he was excused this blatant dishonesty by saying all politicians tell lies during “election campaigns”. Nobody took him to task by pointing out that it was not an election campaign. The man is clearly just another inept Tory bigot.