[thread] on "sovereignty"

"Some fears have been expressed that if Britain joins the Common Market she will cease to be able to formulate her own foreign policy and will lose her separate identity. "

More from ScottishPanda

[THREAD]

Beware the "baying mob"

Beware the "revisionist purge"

There must always be a culture war

There is a statue that needs protection from a "baying mob"

As they piss/spaff on her every time they walk past https://t.co/RiIkJVdOtp

EXCLUSIVE in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph

Every statue will be given greater protection from "baying mobs" and road names could be saved from the "revisionist purge" of Labour councils, under law changes to be published on Monday https://t.co/hMVElO2qHq
— Christopher Hope\U0001f4dd (@christopherhope) January 16, 2021

Thatcher

“Britain does not renounce Treaties.

Indeed, to do so would damage our own integrity as well as international relations.“

Anyone remember "in a very specific and limited way"
Or lying to Queen to unlawfully prorogue

[thread] a simple question

What are you prepared to sacrifice for brexit ?

Boris Johnson and his historic wordshttps://t.co/nFkevENjqB
— ScottishPanda (@PandaScottish) October 17, 2019

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread]

Drug policy is a complex area

It falls across social, health and criminal justice areas

I will leave the question of what Scotland is capable of in terms of devolved powers and what is reserved at Westminster

I just want to focus on "SNP cuts"

These statistics are dreadful and heartbreaking. Every death is a tragic loss of life that could have been avoided.

Drug deaths have doubled in a decade, and there's no doubt that the SNP's cuts to drug rehab and addiction programmes have a large part to play. https://t.co/MkmCFRAvir
— Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) December 15, 2020

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[THREAD]

This is good news

The securing of British jobs

Is good news

Though to secure them

It admits two things

1. They were under threat
2. Something was done to address that

This is a great vote of confidence in the UK and fantastic news for the brilliant @Nissan workforce in Sunderland and electric vehicle manufacturing in this country.https://t.co/W6nN1ki3Lq
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 22, 2021

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread]

I want to write a thread with a simple theme

One from a sad day four years ago

We all have more in common

There are people who want divisive culture wars

And those who don't

Pick a side

Actually scrub that

Imagine there are no

Now I am going to make it clear at the start

I did not vote for Boris Johnson

I did not vote for Brexit

I did vote for Yes in 2014 for Scotland (although I am undecided how I may vote in any future choice)

I did vote to scrap FPTP

So as befits a Scot

I am a loser

I have "sucked up" all my losses

But

I want Boris Johnson and his party to succeed in their manifesto

I want Brexit to succeed

Within the manifesto's and campaigns they promised much

And I want them to simply deliver that

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread] A small round up disassembling this desperate bullshit from Michael Gove

It's well written btw - deliberately so

Great piece by @michaelgove in @TheSun on the Union - and guaranteed to leave we are family tune stuck in your head all weekend. https://t.co/ZuMcBKqLmW
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 29, 2021

"Scottish independence would break up our family… and families are strongest when they stick together"

A reminder: Over 100,000 dead due to the incompetence of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and an entire government of sycophantic cronies

"THIS terrible pandemic has brought home to us all the importance of family. "

This is like when Stanley Johnson said that the UK only took coronavirus seriously when Boris Johnson got infected.

No - it didn't take a pandemic to remind me of the importance of family.

More from Brexit

Ed Birkett
@ed_birkett

What's in the EU-UK Brexit deal on energy?

It may be Boxing day, but I've had a quick look

Title VIII: Energy is the key section (page 156 onwards)

▶️ Standard stuff on commitment to competition, unbundling and customer choice

▶️ UK Capacity Market no longer needs to try to integrate overseas Capacity providers & vice versa

(Article ENER.6, Clause 3, page. 160)

2/

▶️ Existing "exemptions" for selected interconnectors will continue to apply.

This means that these interconnectors can continue to sell capacity rights ahead of time, rather than all through close to real-time markets.

(Article ENER.11, page 162)

3/

▶️ No network charges on individual interconnector transactions (as now)

▶️ But, UK cannot participate in EU procedures for capacity allocation and congestion management (more on this later)

(Article ENER.13, page 163)

4/

Gas trading: looks like the UK stays in the existing PRISMA gas trading platform.

Not my specialist area, but is this because PRISMA isn't an EU institution (unlike electricity market coupling)?

https://t.co/5GQJtZDpTa

(Article ENER. 15, page 164)

5/

Nick Reeves 3.5% #FBPE
@nickreeves9876

1/ Brexit politics is built on fear. Frightened people tend to seek security in the tribe. Once that tribe might have been the Labour movement, but now in a fragmented post-industrial society it is the nation. Tribal identification is emotional, not rational.

2/ A tribe that feels under threat wants to control its borders, and who enters into its territory. It demands loyalty and solidarity, and its prime virtue is self-sacrifice - economic arguments won't persuade tribalists. Its members want to feel it is strong and powerful.

3/ Tribalism at a time of crisis is intolerant of dissent. The tribe must pull together against its enemies. Dissent and questioning cause division and disrupt the collective effort. Criticism is seen as treason. The Brexit right have ruthlessly exploited tribal psychology.

4/ To understand Brexit politics it is necessary to understand that the working and middle classes are dead as coherent political forces and that frightened and insecure people are now clinging to the only available powerful tribe, the nation-tribe.

5/ The Brexit right understands and ruthlessly exploits basic social emotions. In contrast the centre and centre-left mostly can see no further than the blinkered logic of rational individualism, from which perspective everything else is irrational and incomprehensible.

Peter Foster
@pmdfoster

It's OUT! My latest #Brexit Briefing for @FinancialTimes - examining @BorisJohnson
"buy now, pay later" Northern Ireland Protocol, why the EU-UK trust deficit is killing it, how that can be restored - because it needs to work. /1

@BorisJohnson The danger here is that lingering animus over the opportunistic nature Johnson's Faustian bargain - dividing his Kingdom in order to 'get #Brexit done' and win an 80-seat majority - is clouding judgement on both sides of the Channel /2

@BorisJohnson The facts of the Protocol are no less true for Johnson's constant denial of them - that there would be checks, that there really is a trade border that now prevents plants and pets from travelling freely from Bedford to Ballymena as M.Gove reminds us. But these are other facts/3

@BorisJohnson Firstly, NI remains part of UK, even if it is now has EU customs rules.

Secondly, NI remains politically divided and fragile; the Good Friday Agreement is a constant work in progress.

Thirdly, both the EU and the UK agreed to this unsatisfactory arrangement jointly. /4

@BorisJohnson Fourthly, therefore, they have a joint responsibility to make it work because

Fifthly - and most importantly — there is no alternative to it. /5

Peter Foster
@pmdfoster

It's OUT! The first #Brexit Briefing of 2021...which explores how unrealistic some industry expectations are about 'fixes' to the current deal, now the penny is dropping about what it means for supply chains and UK position vis-a-vis EU

So take the example this week, where the @Foodanddrinkfed raised the issue that UK-hubs for food and drink were "unworkable" since goods that came in from the EU were attracting full tariffs when the were spun back into Ireland or other EU members /2

They were backed by other EU associations - and both said they would lobby UK govt and @EU_Commission to 'fix' what they presumed was an "unintended consequence" of the deal....except that both EU officials and UK govt have basically shrugged. The deal is the deal. /3

@EU_Commission This is in no way confined to food industry - clothes and retailers are also hard-hit.

But lots of industry has wrongly bet that 'common sense' and 'self interest' would prevail once the nasty negotiations phase was out the way...but that's not the signal being sent. /4

As one EU official puts it: “You can’t expect the UK to remain the food import hub for the EU. It’s not sustainable, and makes no sense in the mid-to-longer run." And that applies to financial services, clothing, retail goods....a bureaucratic curtain has descended. /4

Holger Hestermeyer
@hhesterm

It is time to talk Brexit and standards again. (thread)

London intends to make use of its costly SPS regulatory autonomy. As widely anticipated, first area of divergence expected to take place in the field of Crispr technology for genome editing, area where the UK has long argued for a more liberal stance.https://t.co/btRoxU3saZ
— Emily Rees (@emilyrees_eu) January 7, 2021

Let's start off with: I don't think any trade experts are surprised by this. It is why the TCA did not do much on SPS. It is why the EU did not offer much on SPS. It is why the UK did not ask much on SPS.

But it also shows that the popular slogan "after Brexit we'll have the same standards as before, so why would anything change in trade" was wrong - and worse, it was purposefully trying to stifle a necessary debate.

And this leads me to the next point: I have no issue with changing the rules, I have a massive issue with how it is done. Here's what we should discuss:

The decisive question: What are the standards the UK as a country wants. To inform this debate, we need the following information: