Gove made another appearance before the Future Relationship Select Committee yesterday, this time by video conference. I didn't watch it all, although it's available in Parliament TV HERE if you have the time to spare. It's a reminder that Brexit continues to rumble on in the background, albeit at a snail's pace now in the shadow of Covid-19. I rely on a Twitter thread by Pauline Bastidon who works for the Freight Transport Association (FTA).
It was by her account a typical slippery Gove performance. The oleaginous Heap-like and grandly titled Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office is a man you would be wise not to trust. Like Humpty-Dumpty he uses words to mean exactly what he wants them to mean, no more and no less.
Getting information from him is like a blind man trying to find a black tiddlywink in a darkened cathedral at night. He is unfailingly polite, but in a way which makes you think he's secretly laughing at you. He is probably distantly related to those who laboured to produce the bible. For everything he said, there was something opposite to balance it all up nicely and leave you with - well, nothing. And where it wasn't possible to say nothing in the most comprehensive way, then the problem was someone else's responsibility.
In fact listening to him one gets the impression he has no opinion or knowledge of anything at all but he always looks terribly pleased with himself.
In fact listening to him one gets the impression he has no opinion or knowledge of anything at all but he always looks terribly pleased with himself.
Concerning the Joint Committee to implement the NI protocol there won't be any minutes published, but he personally will update the House of Commons (i.e he'll tell them whatever he wants). Any border checks will be carried out by UK officials and while he understands why the EU would like a mission in Belfast, no they can't have one. But he'll 'do everything to inform them'. Information on what preparatory work had been started (or finished) on the protocol was apparently not forthcoming.
Ms Bastidon says Gove repeated the government's lack of support for level playing field conditions and although I assume he didn't explain which way he wanted the field tilted, I think we can all guess. As time goes on I think it's starting to become clear which way the wind is blowing. They want Britain to become to Europe what Hong Kong was to China - a low regulation gateway to a lucrative market, a sort of giant freeport off the north European coast. A sort of blood-sucking leech.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this will never happen.
He hinted Britain's draft legal texts may be published in "a matter of weeks" but I wouldn't hold your breath for that. Again he said the UK-EU deal should be based on precedents - all cherry picked from various recent FTAs - and disingenuously claimed that no deal is off the table because we've ratified the Withdrawal Agreement!!
He casually insulted Canada and the EU with this stunning claim:
CETA, the Canadian Agreement is 1598 pages long and took seven years to negotiate. Had the two sides known there 'isn't a significant difference' between that and nothing they could have saved themselves an awful lot of work. And don't forget Brexit is often given as the reason we need to get out of the EU so that we can negotiate our own FTAs - which aren't significantly different from WTO terms according to Gove. The contradiction is simply stunning.Adds there isn't a significant difference between a Canada style FTA & no FTA at the end of the year. Ie, this is not critical to prepare for the end of the year in his view. In response to pt that #COVID19 has changed things (& nice ref to FTA), says extension isn't right thing.— Pauline Bastidon (@BastidonPauline) April 27, 2020
At the end of the thread Ms Bastidon says Gary Sambrook, newly elected the Conservative MP for Birmingham Northfield, argued against an extension to the transition and Gove confirmed it was not the 'government's intention' and trade talks could be completed this year. I'm glad he thinks so, nobody else does.
And she was surprised there was so little discussion regarding preparations for the end of the transition related to no agreement scenario and she wished "more of the debate cld have been on that point - both in a general EU-UK context & GB/NI context. I'm surprised no MP asked about UK BCPs for instance"
BCPs = Border Control Posts by the way.
She was also surprised that "no one mentioned the border operating model or more concrete steps industry + gvt need to take to prepare for end of transition. It's all the more critical since the Gvt refuses to contemplate an extension to the transition period."
She works for the FTA, the body which represents hauliers, freight forwarders and the whole industry responsible for getting goods across the newly created border. Just eight months from having to negotiate completely new checks with a mammoth increase in paperwork they still don't know how or indeed if, it will all work.
We are certainly getting towards the business end of Brexit, but are things any clearer? No.
We are certainly getting towards the business end of Brexit, but are things any clearer? No.
