Readers give their thoughts on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
In his Commons introduction to his Withdrawal Agreement, Boris Johnson agreed that the UK may have been “half-hearted Europeans”.
He is not speaking for us in the north of our shared island. Just read what SNP Commons leader Ian Blackford said, damning the deal later that day: “We are Europeans, and Scotland is a European nation.”
He concluded his speech with these electrifying words: “Independence is coming, and we will take our place as a proud European nation. The best future for Scotland is one as an equal, independent European nation. My message to Europe is, leave a light on for Scotland!”
It’s obvious that Johnson dreams
of being hailed as a 21st century Churchill, but he is more likely to be remembered in our grandchildren’s history books as the idiot who, through his lies on the EU, not only ruined his country, England – as well as Wales in the process – but also ensured Scotland’s independence and Ireland’s reunification.
Rebecca Brown
Compared to May’s deal, the one Boris Johnson brought home from Brussels is much worse. Gone are the legal safeguards against international tax evasion (I wonder why?) and for rules to ensure access to trade in the single market.
Gone too are genuine guarantees on rights for workers and environmental standards. And if your job depends on selling services into Europe, you don’t get a mention.
In comes a one-way ticket to an Irish border poll, which may explain why nobody in Northern Ireland is keen to vote for it.
And all this with a promise for a ‘good deal’ to unite the country?
This isn’t a deal for a United Kingdom, but the surest way of breaking up the Union.
Magdalena Williams
I t is now dawning on the British public that the free trade agreement (FTA) which, if we leave, we will soon start negotiating with the EU is just as important as the Withdrawal Agreement itself – if not even more. This is why we should all fight for a referendum on that FTA.
There is one especially compelling reason for it: On Super Saturday, Keir Starmer compared Theresa May’s ill-fated Withdrawal Agreement-cum-political declaration with Johnson’s versions; he explained that our present PM had shifted the mention of ‘level-playing field’ and ‘alignment’, (which basically refer to keeping the same workers’ rights, food and environment standards as the EU) from the Withdrawal Agreement itself, which is binding, to the non-binding political declaration, which lays the rough guidelines for that FTA.
This is clear evidence that those rights and standards are under threat from Johnson and his gang: It indicates their desired “direction of travel”, away from the citizen-friendly economic model of the EU to the US one, where big corporations reign supreme. This is a very concerning move if Johnson is re-elected.
Paul Smith
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