Day: December 9, 2020

As Boris Johnson gears up for a make-or-break dinner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tonight, speculation abounds over whether either side will be willing to swallow concessions to secure a future trade deal.

With time running out before the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December, the UK and the EU are still wrangling over fishing rights, the level playing field (LPF) and the governance of any treaty agreed.

So will the prime minister walk if the bloc refuses to budge? Or could he, as an unnamed cabinet minister suggested to The Sun, be forced to dine on a “menu of climbdowns”?

Red lines

Eurosceptic members of the Conservative Party have drawn red lines on on a series of issues surrounding the UK sovereinty, including the three that threaten to sink negotiations.

But with just weeks to go until Britain crashes out of the EU, some members of the hard-line European Research Group (ERG) have hinted that they may be willing to accept a deal if Johnson can secure certain concessions at today’s talks.

In comments that will be “welcomed by Downing Street”, some of the arch-Brexiteers have said they are willing to be flexible on the level playing field and could potentially accept a “commitment not to lower standards below the current baseline”, The Telegraph reports.

But Ben Harris-Quinney, chair of the right-wing Bow Group think tank, says that the position of Brexiteers “hasn’t really changed throughout” the negotiations and is unlikely to shift now.

“The ERG Brexiteers will absolutely round on Boris if he breaches the red lines, and are very happy to push for a no-deal Brexit,” he told the Daily Express.

United front

The PM can still count on having plenty of backers, however, after cabinet ministers from both sides of the Brexit divide “last night insisted Johnson had their full support and latitude to make a call, deal or no deal”, according to Politico‘s London Playbook Emilio Casalicchio.

But some senior figures have remained bullish ahead of the crunch talks.

Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that there could be a compromise on fishing rights, but insisted that the UK could not back down from being an “independent coastal state”.

“I think there can be scope for compromise but the compromise exists on the way in which European boats can continue to access UK waters,” he said. “But what is not up for compromise is the principle that the UK will be an independent coastal state and it will be a matter for negotiation between the UK and the EU.”

No compromise, no deal

As the clock ticks down, the mood in Westminster among those hoping for a deal is bleak.

A UK official told reporters last night that “it’s clear that some political impetus will be required for the talks to make any more progress”.

“We must be realistic that an agreement may not be possible as we will not compromise on reclaiming UK sovereignty,” the government source added.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has also struck a pessimistic tone, after reportedly telling MEPs that the deadline for finalising a deal is today.

According to sources, Barnier warned EU ministers at a private meeting yesterday that “we are close to the moment of needing urgent measures which means a contingency plan for no deal”, The Guardian reports.

“The basis of our future cooperation with the UK is more important than rushing now,” the negotiating chief continued. “We cannot sacrifice our long-term interests for short-term political goals.”

In the wake of Barnier’s warning, a UK government source “said the two sides were too far apart for a deal to be struck tonight”, reports the Daily Mail.

“If they strike out and make no progress then that is going to be it,” the insider predicted. “There is no point carrying on for the sake of it.”

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. Nicola Sykes in Politico

on a bleak saga

How business lost the Brexit battle

“July 2016. The captains of British industry have congregated in a glass-walled City conference room. The meeting is so oversubscribed that FTSE chairmen huddle by the complimentary brownies and turf out the note-takers in the observer chairs ringing the room. It’s a bruised company. Overwhelmingly pro-European, many sit at the helm of international business, focused on the market of 500 million people the U.K. has long been a part of. There are German voices among the chatter, Italian, Irish and the odd, bemused, American. They employ millions of people between them and generate billions in tax revenue for the government. Just a week before, the U.K. voted to leave the EU. For most, it is a personal as well as a financial loss.”

2. Kate Andrews in The Daily Telegraph

on a lack of perspective

Beware the Left’s new craze for wealth taxes

“Argentina – a country well versed in financial crises – has introduced a one-off levy on those with assets worth more than £1.8 million to help fix a fiscal hole left by Covid. Legislation put forward in California for a new tax on net worth failed to pass this year, but voters in San Francisco have brought in a local levy targeting Silicon Valley CEOs. In the UK, the idea of a one-off or annual percentage tax on the value of an individual’s assets is gaining currency on the Left, even Labour ‘moderates’, who are keen on proposals that undermine private property and expand the state. But more worrying is the number of establishment economists warming to the idea when they should know better.”

3. Jennifer Finney Boylan in The New York Times

on reflecting on 2020

Time won’t let me wait that long

“As I head toward the clock shop, I am thinking about the things we have lost this year: over a quarter of a million dead in this country, lives upended and destroyed. And the small things too: the closeness of friends, a pint in a pub, a stranger’s handshake. I think about some of the people who’ve died. John Prine, our national treasure. Who sang, ‘When I get to heaven, I’m going to shake God’s hand. And thank him for more blessings than one man can stand.’ And Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the justices who ruled five years ago that my marriage was legal. And who joined the majority just this summer in ruling that I cannot be fired from my job simply because of who I am.”

4. Jocelyn Benson on CNN

on fear and division

Protesters spent nearly an hour outside my home chanting about conspiracy theories. Here’s what I learned

“For all of us, our job is simple: to defend and protect every voter, their choice and their vote. And each of us will continue to proudly, defiantly, guard every citizen’s vote, undeterred, because no matter how one voted or who they voted for, where they live, or what they look like, their vote is the lifeblood of our democracy. And the misguided efforts to spread lies designed to undermine people’s faith in hat was a well-run, secure, fair and accurate election, need to stop. It’s gone on too long, and it’s gone too far.”

5. Ghulam Nabi Fai on Anadolu Agency

on ignoring treaties

Urgency to add teeth to enforcement of human rights

“It might be said that never have so many human rights been proclaimed yet been so routinely violated. Think of the ongoing human rights atrocities that are going unsanctioned. Myanmar, where the Muslim civilian population is routinely driven out from homes and cities are consistently destroyed. Tragic genocide in Syria. Death and destruction in Yemen. Denial of the Palestinian demand to exercise the right to self-determination. Kashmiris brutalized by 900,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces. The list goes on and on.”