Johnson's "new" Deal

[jim360]

So far so quiet on AB, but since the new Deal* (text available at the bottom) has now been announced, what are people's thoughts?

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/revised-withdrawal-agreement_en

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/revised-political-declaration_en

[Khandro]

Great, he deserves it.

[Old_Geezer]

Was wondering when the details would emerge. No time to check at the moment, but I prefer more experienced folk to spot and highlight the main issues anyway. I'd probably not recognise things that will have major consequences. (A bit like Trump missed the squabbles between the Turks and Kurds.)

[jim360]

I suppose a few questions I'd have for Leave supporters: are they happy that the UK still will pay the EU approx. £40 billion in the next decade? Are they still comfortable with a transition period, extending to as late as 2021? Are they still happy that many hundreds of pieces of EU law will still apply to Northern Ireland? Are they happy with a de facto Customs border down the Irish Sea? Are they happy with a Joint Committee overseeing all this? Are they happy that almost all of the "broken" Withdrawal Agreement remains in tact?

Etc, etc.

[anneasquith]

Seriously now.......... I DON’T CARE. The only statistic I’d be interested in , how much money did this fiasco cost Britain?

[davebro]

Corbyn & Swinson have already come out against it so I doubt if it'll get through Parliament.

[jim360]

So have Farage and the DUP, in fairness.

[Ellipsis]

That's a tough one, anne. It depends what the MPs could have been doing with their time over the last 3.5 years if they hadn't been working on this. Maybe inflicting even more costly damage elsewhere ...

[Khandro]

My first post refers only to the removal of the backstop, that is the only headline I have seen.
It will of course come at a price, which I imagine is high & won't get through parliament.

[jno]

£350m a week, anne.

[Sqad]

Jim....like the majority of the UK electorate.......I couldn't care less.
REMEMBER it was the UK that wanted to leave the EU and i think that the EU have been very tolerant of the UK's political antics.
To me, this is a situation where parliamentary procedure and democracy has failed miserably.
In my country, should i be the head , then this agreement should be implemented WITHOUT a parliamentary vote on Saturday.

Enough is enough.

[jno]

I'm inclined to think Sqad would be a better PM than Bojo - at least he knows about ibuprofen; all Bojo can do is speak Latin.

However, representative democracy is what Britain has, and if the nation is devided, there's nothing improper about parliament being equally divided.

[Bazile]

Are we still leaving on the 31/10 and will i still be able to get my vegan sasuage roll from Greggs ?

[ludwig]

I've given up predicting anything and will wait and see what happens.

What I'm not sure about is why there's so much talk about whether the DUP like it or not. The only point to them was to maintain a slim majority for the Govt. Now that they've got rid of that majority themselves by sacking a load of their own MPs, the DUP are a bit irrelevant aren't they?

[Sqad]

jno

"and if the nation is devided, there's nothing improper about parliament being equally divided."

There is if a democratic referendum hasn't been implemented in three and a half years......it is a nonsense in the name of democracy.

[jno]

a majority in parliament isn't the same as a majority for Brexit since the latter crosses most party lines, so having the DUP on board might be useful on this occasion. But I doubt there will be a majority for the present "deal" regardless.

[jno]

MPs represent their own constituency, Sqad, they don't have to represent the whole country. They may also choose to vote according to their own conscience - if for instance they think the deal presented to them will leave the country worse off - even if it gets them kicked out of their party.

[Sqad]

jno...I agree BUT, the electorate from both sides of the Political border are now saying get "ANY" deal now and let us move on...Brexiteers and Remainers.
I know and appreciate that we are living in a Democracy, but in my opinion we have reached a stage where democracy has failed the electorate.

[anneasquith]

£350m per week for 3 years.? LOL .

[youngmafbog]

To answer your question directly jim:

are they happy that the UK still will pay the EU approx. £40 billion in the next decade?
No, not really but if we are to appease the remainers then I can't see that anything else would ever happen.

Are they still comfortable with a transition period, extending to as late as 2021?
Yes & No. A transition is needed though for both the UK and the EU. We dont want to cut our noses off to spite our face and neither should we want to inflict undue pressure on the EU economy.

Are they still happy that many hundreds of pieces of EU law will still apply to Northern Ireland?
I'd need to look deeper into what it really means.
Are they happy with a de facto Customs border down the Irish Sea?
Possibly, the devil is in the detail though so needs to be scrutinised.

Are they happy with a Joint Committee overseeing all this?
No, but at present I dont have any better ideas.

Are they happy that almost all of the "broken" Withdrawal Agreement remains in tact?

Not at all, but I accept that I need to give a fair bit to move on.

[jno]

yes, anne, it's unfortunate that that was the amount to be given to the NHS, but democracy before health you know...