So says Owen Bennett of HuffPost Politics:
On June 23, the UK was divided into three groups: Leavers, Remainers and non-voters.
Now, we are all in one group: Waiters.
We are all waiting to see what the three Brexiteers – Liam Fox, David Davis and Boris Johnson – do next.
We are all waiting to see if the UK gets access to the Single Market.
We are all waiting to see if freedom of movement into the UK is scrapped.
We are all waiting to see if those trade deals we were promised will materialise.
But one person is not waiting, and that is Nick Clegg.
Remember him? The former deputy prime minister who helped prop up David Cameron as Prime Minister for five years in what became a near-fatal act for his own party?
After the 2015 General Election, Clegg laid low. When new Lib Dem leader Tim Farron dished out shadow portfolios, his predecessor was notably absent from the rostra.
…
But as of last week he is back in front line politics as the Lib Dem’s Brexit spokesman – and thank goodness he is too.
Whether you voted Leave or Remain on June 23, you should be pleased Clegg has taken on this role. His knowledge of the intricacies of Brussels is second-to-none. Before becoming an MEP in 1999, Clegg worked as European Commission trade negotiator. Thanks to his five years at the heart of Government, he knows how Whitehall operates. He knows how things are done abroad and at home.
At a briefing with journalists today, he released the first of a series of briefing notes on the various dilemmas facing the Brexiteers.
Today’s was focused on the UK’s access to the Single Market.
Does the Government distinguish between ‘access’ to the Single Market and ‘membership’?
If we are outside the Single Market, will the UK mimic the harmonised rules to make it easier to export to the EU?
Would the Government be prepared to pay in some money to the EU budget to get access to the Single Market, as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland do?
These were just some of the questions he flagged up.
With a AWOL official opposition, the task of holding the government to account on Brexit falls to Clegg, says Bennett:
It’s not as if Labour is able to scrutinise the Three Brexiteers at the moment. The party hasn’t even got a Shadow International Trade Secretary, and Emily Thornberry is having to double up as both Shadow Foreign and Shadow Brexit.
The Scottish National Party is too busy trying to convince everyone the UK-wide referendum result does not apply to Scotland, and so will be more focused on looking for loopholes than analysing agreements.
Clegg therefore finds himself in the position of Scrutineer-in-Chief as the Brexiteers get to work.
After a fairly terrible few years, this is the moment Nick Clegg has been waiting for.
You can read Nick Clegg’s first briefing paper on the single market here.
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8 Comments
Nick’s paper is very good at boiling down the questions & issues into a relatively short four pages. Well worth a read.
At PMQ Tim Farron mentioned that he and TM had both stood for election to the Commons in the same seat. She is for careful consideration, so the reply that “My party is bigger than yours” might not be spontaneous.
She was not obviously delighted that the Deputy Prime Minister was the chairman of the cabinet subcommittee on Home Affairs, knowing that he had previously been the Liberal Democrat spokesman.
Add in what Miriam Gonzales wrote in the Financial Times and imagine highly intelligent and well informed conversations over the breakfast table about trade negotiators.
What is Bill Le Breton’s view on whether we should leave the EU customs union or not?
Leaving the customs union leaves us free to negotiate our own trade terms with non EU countries like the USA, China, India etc. But apparently would mean more trading paperwork at borders with the EU.
David Evershed: What David Davis told the Financial Times is different from what Enda Kenny told the Irish Times. DD said that as well as leaving the EU he wants to leave the customs union (no mention of Turkey’s membership) but TM has not (yet) agreed. She said as much in Rome when the Italian PM talked of his sadness at the UK decision.
The Irish PM clarified that a “hard border” meant no return to watchtowers etcetera. TM does not want that either. EK said that trade in physical goods can be handled by communications between factories and offices, thereby minimising delays at the border. This obviously applies to legal trade and makes no mention of differential taxation of red diesel.
Co-operation on the movement of people using passenger lists already exists.
Identity needs to be produced for internal flights within the UK, such as a passport. A flight I was on was subject to a check by UK immigration officers in England, which they described as a “random check”.
a. There IS an off-the-shelf solution and it is used by the the minnows USA and China. We just accept the rather minor WTO tariffs which the EU must also accept in order to remain in the WTO. If need be these tariffs can be subtracted from VAT to leave net export costs and incoming taxes the same (or better). This option is not even considered by Clegg. The WTO has long made the EU market tariffs redundant. Any unilateral tariffs/sanctions – such as with China or Russia – end up with tit for tat trade blockages leaving nobody better off.
b. The notion that access does away with complex trading rules is an abject fallacy: They are just replaced by equally complex and contradictory product and sales rules.
c. The UK has had a seat at the table but is mostly in the minority and overruled: Something Clegg still can’t get through his head despite it being made obvious time and time again, most lately with Camerons feeble attempt at reforms where he asked for almost nothing and got much less.
d. The supposed lack of barriers to EU trade ignores the barriers of trade outside the EU where the UK cannot negotiate in the UKs best interests and where the 28-member EU seems incapable of making any decisions in any decent frame of time.
e. For those who have actually tried moving ‘freely’ it isn’t what is advertised. It is fraught with never-ending pointless paperwork and continually facing bureaucrats who don’t know their own rules. As for living abroad, be prepared for widely disparate rules about employment/health, discrimination, invented taxes and frustrating continental slowness/complexity about absolutely everything related to operating a business.
f. The notion that we will lose this fabled 44% European trade because we are outside the single market is just plain silly. Clegg keeps beating this drum after everyone has moved on from project fear.
His final 10 points are utterly irrelevant as he still fails to be pragmatic and offer solutions rather than list mostly-imaginary problems. Clearly his only proffered solution seems to be to ignore the ballot result. So once again Clegg will in turn be ignored by the Tories and the electorate.
Well done to Tim for getting Nick back involved in front line politics scrutinizing what the three brexiteers are up to.
Meanwhile in the real world 26 countries now want a deal with Britain, including btw Germany.
http://order-order.com/2016/07/29/brexit-breaking-free-global-markets/
JamesG 29th Jul ’16 – 11:17am…..Meanwhile in the real world 26 countries now want a deal with Britain, including btw Germany.
http://order-order.com/2016/07/29/brexit-breaking-free-global-markets/….
Ask any country’s “Government officials or prominent business figures if they would like a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain” and I can’t believe you’d end up with 100% negative replies…..Ignore any inconvenient factors about, “On what timescale, products, terms and conditions”, etc…and you’ve a glowing headline…
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