Are Our Politicians That Dim?

Mrs May has gone off to an EU Heads of Government meeting today, apparently with a somewhat more precise estimate of the sum that the UK government is prepared to pay to the EU to meet one of the three preconditions for the negotiation to proceed to considering the terms on which the UK may deal with the EU after March 29, 2019.

That leaves one of the three points still in the air,as far as the EU is concerned; with the other two nowhere near resolution.

The current crisis in the Irish government will give the entire EU 'side' in the talks a perfect pretext to prevaricate - probably into next spring, possibly into the summer of 2018 - before the question of the Irish border comes for consideration. I have previously suggested that the Irish Question is likely to derail the whole Brexit charade. The UK government's bland trivialisation of the issue, with 'Downing Street' briefing the press that British-Irish relations are excellent, evades the issue entirely. Thus I repeat my message that the relative state of peace that has been achieved in Ireland was built in the context of both the UK and the Irish Republic being locked into the EU as it proceeds with the trivialisation of statehood in the 'ever-closer union'.

The whole peace process will be undermined unless the Irish border remains a matter of local government, as it now is. If it became an international frontier, with customs posts and passport checks [even if the pipedream of all that being done electronically and unobtrusively could be fulfilled technically] it would end the peace. The Tories' parliamentary majority - supplied by the  Democratic Unionist Party - would be lost if the notion of putting a frontier between the UK and the 'Island of Ireland' even became a serious proposition.

If the members of the British Cabinet, or of its 'Brexit Committee' are daft enough to believe that the problem can be wished away if it is allowed to languish for long enough in the 'Too Difficult' tray they are undoubtedly ruling themselves unfit for office.

Then there remains the third matter to be resolved ahead of the discussion that David Davis wants to begin, the status of the European Court in the future of the United Kingdom: not least, in resolving issues between the UK and the Irish Republic. This makes the issue of the Court inextricably part of the Irish Question: as it is on the status of EU nationals in the UK {of whom there are roughly three times as many as the Brits scattered around the rest of the EU.

It is the most astonishing impertinence for Mr Davis to tell the rest of the EU - 27 states and their shared institutions - to 'grow up' and get on with what the UK wants to discuss, when they have repeatedly made their position clear. Meanwhile Germany might not have a post-Merkel government until the summer, unless the present logjam can be broken by a 'Grand Coalition' that looks most unlikely; and during that time little Mr Macron will do all that he can to entice financial firms to France. The longer the Brexit negotiations are stalled, the more firms will decide how much of their business and personnel to move to the continent: so even if the Irish Question completely stops Brexit from happening - as is highly likely - there will be a loss of investment and employment from the UK to the continent. Well done, Theresa, Boris, Michael, Liam and company!

[And I voted Leave: assuming that in the unlikely event of that side winning, there would be a rational accommodation made with the EU that would respect historical facts and common sense]