Johnson was involved in a phone-in yesterday, taking questions from members of the public. Asked if there would be a border down the Irish sea the PM said, "Absolutely not". Then sticking to Oscar Wilde's adage that if you're going to bring evidence in support of a lie, you might as well tell the truth in the first place, he went on to give the 'evidence', "if you read the agreement it says explicitly Northern Ireland is part of the UK customs territory", said the PM.
Since any number of expert commentators have confirmed there would be a border I went to check the withdrawal agreement.
On page 298, Article 4 covering the Northern Ireland protocol says explicitly that:
"Northern Ireland is part of the customs territory of the United Kingdom"
Clear enough. Or is it? If I read on to page 301, item 3 under Article 5, I come to this:
"Legislation as defined in point (2) of Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 shall apply to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland (not including the territorial waters of the United Kingdom). However, the Joint Committee shall establish the conditions, including in quantitative terms, under which certain fishery and aquaculture products, as set out in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council1, brought into the customs territory of the Union defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 by vessels flying the flag of the United Kingdom and having their port of registration in Northern Ireland are exempted from duties."
Not having all the details of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 in my head (or indeed what it is), I Googled it and found the relevant regulation - see it HERE.
Point 2 of Article 5:
(2) "customs legislation" means the body of legislation made up of all of the following:
(a) the Code and the provisions supplementing or implementing it adopted at Union or national level;
(b) the Common Customs Tariff;
(c) the legislation setting up a Union system of reliefs from customs duty;
(d) international agreements containing customs provisions, insofar as they are applicable in the Union;
In other words, although Northern Ireland is technically in the customs territory of the UK it will be applying the entirety of the EU customs legislation and Union Customs Code. I assume this will have to be done under domestic legislation at some point when it will become abundantly clear to the person who asked the question and all the other listeners, not to mention those reading the reports about the phone-in, that there will indeed be a border down the Irish sea. Of course he may be relying on semantics and claim there will not be floating customs posts checking on ships crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. But a border and checks there will be.
So what, I hear you say, Johnson told another lie. Every interview he gives is full of them (he wouldn't say how many children he had yesterday - as if it's a state secret) and I'm very sorry to say this is true. There are so many the fact checkers don't even bother now.
But I would argue the lie about the Irish border is orders of magnitude bigger than most of the others he tells because it has potential to split the United Kingdom and reignite the troubles in Ireland. It is not a white lie although it rests on a technicality. Anyone capable of such recklessness is a danger to the country but Johnson just doesn't care.
The problem is that he is congenitally incapable of telling the truth. Indeed I'm not sure that he can discern the truth from a lie anymore, it's all the same to him. And people accept it.
He is defended by his supporters and those who intend to vote for him by saying, "well, they are all liars anyway", something that is not quite true although near enough. But I would argue it isn't the politicians who are to blame but the voters. If they are unwilling to bother themselves with finding out the facts for themselves - and the web makes it very easy indeed - they are always in danger of voting in another liar.
I would go as far as saying that when Johnson's lies come back to bite, as they will, the people will dump him and cast around for another liar and don't worry, there will be a very long queue.
I'm off to Wakefield this morning to canvass for Mary Creagh.
I'm off to Wakefield this morning to canvass for Mary Creagh.
