Britain's Lord Frost rejects EU Concessions on NI Protocol
Dublin rediscovers "perfidious Albion'' as an Irish land border edges closer
14 October 2021
Brexit Minister Lord Frost has proposed
plans for an entirely new protocol.
The publication of proposals from the EU to resolve conflict over the Northern Ireland Protocol represent a stunning triumph for Britain's Tory government.
Changes to rules on food and plant and animal health involve an 80% reduction in checks.
Flexible customs formalities remove paperwork from Britain to the North.
Increased consultation with Northern Ireland institutions.
Uninterrupted security of supply of medicines.
The British achieved all this through the standard kamikaze method they have employed throughout the Brexit process under Johnson. Complaining about a deal they signed off on. Lie, threaten, bluster, threaten to pull out and wait for concessions. Then look for more. The unionists gibber in the background, serving as useful idiots for the British.
True to form, British negotiator Lord Frost dismissed the new concessions and demanded the removal of the European Court of Justice from oversight of the agreement.
This demand is more or less impossible. The question now is: Are the British pressing for maximum concessions or will they tear up the deal?
The evidence suggests they will. Former advisor Dominic Cummings testifies that Johnson never intended to honour the agreement and he is supported by many other witnesses.
Earlier in the year Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis proposed a bill to amend the UK's Brexit deal, admitting that it would "break international law".
There are strong reasons for Johnson to take this line. There is chaos in Britain. It is hard to tell which element is more important; the reality of "Global Britain" or the corruption and incompetence of the government. Economic and political war with Europe would be a useful distraction.
The Tories base all this on transparent lies. They are concerned for the unionists, but they sold them out and in any case the unionist anti Brexit view is a minority one. The problem is disruption in the North, but there's little disruption there and massive disruption in Britain. The difficulties with the movement of goods to the North don't arise directly from the regulations, but from British firms unwilling to deal with paperwork. Many of the issues would disappear if the British would sign up to food and medical standards, but they want to drive these down.
Everyone sees Boris lying, but there is no opposition. Unions, Labour and the left share a common failure, split between all out support for a decaying Europe and dreams of a left Brexit.
At the moment the British can press ahead. Brexit is simply a subset of a more general decay in Europe. The far right have moved away from exiting the EU but are simply tearing up the rules, for example in Poland. The EU response is to conciliate and move slowly. However, a full exit will see a full-scale offensive against workers in Britain and, at some point, the return of a land border in Ireland.
Dublin Tánaiste Leo Varadkar recently complained about the untrustworthiness of perfidious Albion, forgetting that it was he who struck the deal with Boris in the first place. Yet the Good Friday Agreement, that Dublin holds as a charm against both revolutionary change in Ireland and the collapse of the Brexit deal, has been bent into a pretzel by Britain. There is no guarantee.
As for Sinn Fein, they say the British will organise a border poll in a few years and Ireland will be united.
And the pigs about to be slaughtered in Britain in a mass food dump will fly to Ireland, where they will magically transform into bacon sandwiches.
The response to this far right offensive is, as we have said before, the call for a United Socialist States of Europe. The task now is to add content. In Britain this is the fight against deregulation and for a party of the working class. In Europe it is to link with worker's struggles in solidarity across the continent. In Ireland the fight is against an economic regime run in the interests of big capital and for a true Irish democracy rather than fake unity campaigns.