Should We Be Worried about the Antics of Boris Johnson?

 

This tragic and ill-considered shambles currently going on in the UK is going to hurt that country far more than it possibly could the rest of the EU. ‘We shall break the law, but only a little bit’ says the Northern Ireland secretary to the House of Commons as the Government passes the Internal Market Bill, a bill intended to break not only a law but also a treaty. Another front that concerns the EU is the possible opt-out from the Human Rights Act, which could prevent many migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid summary deportation from the UK.

One rogue state will not bring down the EU, as some Brexiteers hope, but neither will it be allowed by Brussels to get away scot free. And an easy target raises its worried head in Marbella, in Benidorm and in Mojácar…

As The Irish Times notes, ‘The EU keeps calm and carries on as the UK wrestles with itself’. The no-deal possibility has become pretty much accepted across Europe as almost certain.

A reader sends us this remarkable item from The Telegraph (here): ‘Britain needs to stand up for its rights and not bow to the Brussels bully boys. While we have been playing cricket with a straight bat internationally, others have been playing dodgeball’. On the other side, an editorial in The Huff Post asks ‘Just WTF Does Boris Johnson Think He’s Doing?’, adding ‘…the wider issue is just what damage is he doing to his own reputation, to that of his MPs, his party and his country in the process?’.

We meanwhile read of potential and massive queues of lorries in Kent as Boris Johnson's controversial bill to override parts of the Brexit deal has cleared (apparently) a major hurdle in parliament.

All this despite a Tory former cabinet minister warning of "incalculable damage to our reputation all around the world".

All of which must be considered as a great and inexplicable tragedy and only that – if it didn’t have the potential to once again put the everyday lives of many Brits living in the EU-27 at risk.

So far, the EU has confirmed that the EU will stand by the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, which include a prohibition on the suspension of the citizens' rights parts as a result of the other party being found to have breached the WA (in whatever way). So far.

El Confidencial echoes the fatalism and indifference of the Europeans: ‘From erroneous beliefs to fatal miscalculations: Brexit enters the impasse. The UK has misjudged its cards and has embarked on a move that could end in a no-deal Brexit. Far from getting attention, indifference has deepened’. The British Brexit champions ‘never learn from their errors’ says the article.

But what of the Brits living (in some mild concern) in Spain? The Local (sometimes Paywall) quoting British in Europe says (or here, or original pdf here): 'All certainty has vanished' for British citizens living in Europe’. An excerpt: ‘…In January 2020 we finally hoped that the signature and the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement meant that our worst fears would not be realised and that we would at least salvage enough of our rights to live our lives broadly as before and have relative certainty about what those rights would be.

We knew that implementation would be challenging in all 30 EU and EEA countries plus Switzerland but hoped that with good faith on both sides most of us would finally have some peace of mind about our futures by the end of 2021 at the latest…’.

But, you know, we never were all that important to either side: a point worth remembering.