Last night's deadline passed and in Brussels the talks went on into the early hours with Johnson's negotiators apparently throwing in concessions as fast as the EU could take them. All the no deal bluster has been exposed for what it was. It is clear that Johnson wants a deal at-any-price. We are told the talks will resume today with a text possibly ready to be published this morning. There is universal belief that it will indicate a customs border down the Irish sea and dynamic alignment with EU rules.
What is clear is that there will definitely be a delay and Johnson's difficulties, just as Theresa May's did, will now be in parliament.
I am grateful to someone on Twitter who posted a link to an article in The Telegraph (£) written by Johnson in September 2018. You can read the important bits in the Belfast Telegraph for free (HERE). When the EU Commission proposed just such a NI only backstop he was scathing about it.
"As it stands, this version of the Irish backstop is little short of an attempt to annex Northern Ireland. It would imply customs and regulatory controls between Britain and Northern Ireland, and therefore a border down the Irish Sea." He asked, "How did Britain end up upside down in the ditch with all four wheels spinning lazily in the air?"
This is now his declared policy. What is it with Johnson and ditches by the way?
In his September 2018 article, written as usual without any idea of how he could or would do things differently, he said it was "a constitutional abomination, and if Chequers were adopted it would mean that for the first time since 1066 our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule."
The opposition are going to make hay with this. Essentially, David didn't slew Goliath, he meekly surrendered everything and gave himself up.
Someone on Twitter also claimed that Johnson was holding out on level playing field (LPF) issues, with the UK now rejecting May's commitment to keep EU standards. The French we are told were particularly keen to avoid a Singapore on Thames. I assume even this will also be conceded soon
His next problem (along Theresa May's now well-worn path) is the DUP and the Spartans. Arlene Foster has already publicly and explicitly said they will not accept a customs border down the Irish sea - and this is before the ink has even been put on any paper, let alone dried. I note this morning there are reports that PM Johnson is preparing to open our cheque book and offer another huge dollop of cash to the province. It looks like he is planning to buy Irish reunification.
The DUP are just one problem, the other is the Spartans. Owen Paterson, in a report in The Sun says the emerging deal is "unacceptable" with Newsnight last night saying Iain Duncan-Smith had "hit the roof" when told of the plan. Mark Francois appeared on Twitter coming out of a briefing meeting looking like a bomb with the fuse lit, refusing to talk to reporters. I assume he wasn't happy.
Others, like Rees-Mogg will accept it and try to convince his other ERG colleagues that it isn't what it seems. Steve Baker has given up on his principles and has indicated he will support it.
It is a gift to Farage who will rightly brand it a surrender. We also learn this morning from a leaked Brexit Party document, that they plan to put up a candidate in Selby and Ainsty at the next election which will keep Adams awake at night - and rightly so.
The Queens' speech on Monday mentioned ID cards being required to vote as a way of avoiding voter fraud. About 336 cases of fraud were reported in 2017 but the ID scheme using passports or photo-card driving licences will disenfranchise up to 30,000 mainly poor voters. This is the sort of thing the republicans do in the deep south of America to boost their own electoral chances. Once again though, somebody has gone through Johnson's Telegraph columns and found he was dead against any ID cards. Here he is in 2004:
"If I am ever asked, on the streets of London, or in any other venue, public or private, to produce my ID card as evidence that I am who I say I am, when I have done nothing wrong and when I am simply ambling along and breathing God's fresh air like any other freeborn Englishman, then I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded that I produce it."
And finally, buried deep among all the talk of a negotiated deal, ITV say inquiries into Johnson's links to Jennifer Arcuri are due to start today. Let's hope it leads to a criminal conviction although in the scale of things it will be the least of his crimes.
