| Meanwhile, elsewhere in Westminster it emerged last week that the UK Government will delay changing over certification of building materials from the EU system to the UK’s own system. This is something they say could take years! So my question is this, why on earth wasn’t this process started during the Transition Period – which lasted for 4 years? These changes are exactly the kind of things which were meant to take place during that period, however, evidently the ‘Snivel Servants’ and ‘Remainer’ Government Ministers simply couldn’t be bothered to get started on the process – or more likely hoped the talks would break down. So instead of pushing on with our own regulatory system, we will continue to have EU regulations governing how we conduct everyday industry in this country for at least the next two years.
Over in Northern Ireland, you may remember in our last e-Bulletin we confirmed that Edwin Poots, the former Minister for Agriculture in the Northern Irish Government, has taken over from Arlene Foster as Leader of the DUP. Mr Poots has already taken a very firm stance against the Northern Ireland Protocol, and has called out the EU for using Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement as pawns in their attempts to keep control over the UK. We certainly commend Mr Poots for his approach on this matter, because it is high time the UK took a more aggressive approach to the EU’s continuous attempts to keep a stranglehold over the UK. We must be prepared to walk away from our current deal with the EU, if they are not willing to seriously renegotiate where there are problem areas. Clearly Ursula von der Leyen is digging in her heels, ridiculously and continually lecturing the UK about not being able to get the benefits of being inside the EU now we have left. I do not hold out hope of any major changes however because the EU are clearly refusing to give way, because they would lose the leverage, they hold over us.
However, I must be clear, this doesn’t mean we are advocating walking away and cutting off all connections with the EU, because it is a fact of life, we need some agreements with Brussels to ensure things like travel and police cooperation continue. Pulling up the drawbridge and acting like we don’t need to talk to the EU about anything would be just as naïve as Remainers claiming we are unable to do anything without the EU setting all our laws and ruling over us.
In many ways we should model our relationship with the EU on that of Switzerland, who just this week walked away from 7-years of trade talks with Brussels because the EU was trying to enforce more of their laws on the Swiss – including total Free Movement of People! However, what makes the Swiss relationship unique is that instead of one large trade deal with the EU, they have over 150 bespoke mini deals on specific sectors. This means things should be far more flexible, while still avoiding the Swiss being bound to EU regulations. However, as expected, the EU is furious and they are making all kinds of threats about the current deals being out of date. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Surely, the EU cannot expect to control major economies like Switzerland as well as the UK when their attempts at blackmail are rejected!
This is a strategy for talks we at Get Britain Out urged the Government to take for the past 4 years, yet the disastrous tenure of Theresa May as PM has meant the EU held the upper hand in talks, believing we would never walk away. Well now Boris Johnson has the power and the support of the country, it is time for a serious rethink, because the current situation where this country is divided and still partly under the control of the EU simply cannot continue. |
