We were told yesterday (HERE) that the cabinet were being 'invited' to read an unfinished draft of the withdrawal agreement with a cabinet source saying, "They’ve been offered the chance to go in and read it. But it won’t include the backstop." This is amazing to me. We seem to be very close to reaching an agreement but cabinet members are only now being shown a draft of the 95% that has been agreed.
We were also told another cabinet meeting might be scheduled for Thursday where the backstop would be available, but now this has been pushed back to next week.
This is perhaps the most important and far reaching agreement we have ever signed and it's being handled in an incredibly cursory and cack-handed way with not much more attention than you would give to the terms and conditions you have to accept by clicking a button before installing an app.
The EU parliament's chief negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, has been kept in the loop all through the negotiations in order to ensure there is no last minute objections. On this side of The Channel even the cabinet is being kept in the dark. There is a huge risk that some ministers will have profound objections. One might say Mrs May is repeating the problems of last year when the DUP objected to the Joint Report after similarly being denied access.
Meanwhile Gove and most of the cabinet are pressing for the Attorney General's legal advice on the backstop to be made public. The Guardian reported, "At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Cox gave ministers a summary of the advice, and told them that if the UK insisted on the right to unilaterally end a backstop, opposed by the EU, it increased the risk of no deal".
His advice might seem obvious to us but we have repeatedly been told that no deal is better than a bad deal so perhaps we might take his words to mean a bit of reality has been allowed to enter the cabinet room. Now it appears a bad deal is the best we can expect. The PM is putting pressure on the Brexiteers, including Dominic Raab, to assume responsibility for driving us towards no deal. It is a recognition that the EU will not offer any flexibility on the backstop, no matter how much we wriggle, and without an indefinite and legally watertight commitment which we will be unable to end unilaterally, there will be no deal and no transition period.
I imagine Cox told them the first circle of hell, known as limbo, can actually seem quite comfortable (HERE) when you get used to it.
Last night The Guardian published an article (HERE) suggesting there was a lot of scepticism in the EU:
"EU sources in Brussels were deeply sceptical to the notion that the negotiations were on the brink of a breakthrough. One senior official said that it would be a mistake to “underestimate the incompatibility of the views” of the two negotiating teams on how an all-UK customs union could work as a backstop solution in the withdrawal agreement.
"The EU wants reasonable commitments from the UK over regulation and would seek assurances on the access of European fleet to British seas before it has agreed to any such customs arrangement".
It might be good for Fishermen to start worrying about a sell out.
Last night The Guardian published an article (HERE) suggesting there was a lot of scepticism in the EU:
"EU sources in Brussels were deeply sceptical to the notion that the negotiations were on the brink of a breakthrough. One senior official said that it would be a mistake to “underestimate the incompatibility of the views” of the two negotiating teams on how an all-UK customs union could work as a backstop solution in the withdrawal agreement.
"The EU wants reasonable commitments from the UK over regulation and would seek assurances on the access of European fleet to British seas before it has agreed to any such customs arrangement".
It might be good for Fishermen to start worrying about a sell out.
