“We’re in the money!”
You may have noticed by now that a leaked copy of the Brexit Summit document is doing the rounds. It is genuine (it’s featured in part at the FT, but the FT has a paywall and The Slog doesn’t hahaha). The full text will add serious concerns about the long-term trust we can put in Brussels without passage of EU Law prior to a referendum). These of course must be placed alongside the paucity of content to the deal, given David Cameron’s early and somewhat obfuscated ‘demands’ as featured in the UK media last year.
Perhaps as disturbing as any other single thing is the careful use of legalese in the draft, specifically in the tendency to describe what is rather than what will be guaranteed; and also the continuing wooliness:
Well, they may say that…but it is being made clear to us that we are not changing minds one jot in this ‘negotiation’. This is made abundantly clear througout:
It says there very clearly that it remains a Union objective to stick with monetary union and that the currency is the euro. As the single biggest problem the EU faces is an inflexible single currency, why should we stay in an take on a suicide case as our leading trade partner?
Where is the promised reform in all this?
Equally, a major worry for the Kippers is the pressure on Britain’s social security system represented by free movement of workers. My concern is that it will crush worker wages even further; wherever you stand however, this clause is pathetic:
Equally recurrent throughout the document are endless references to ‘subsidiarity’ – ie, the eventual Sovereign power “in due course” will be something as yet to be specified within the EC….but not us. In returning powers to the UK, Cameron is now being effectively humiliated by dilution and double-negative:
“Frankly squire, your chances of getting any real power back are diddly-doo, but theorically, it’s possible”. This next classic promises to ‘take into account’ the ‘reasoned opinions’ of Member legislatures:
“But if you really twist our arms about it, oh alright then, you can have 12 weeks of trying not to comply and persuading 27 legislatures to agree with you”. Then they’ll do it anyway.
The Sovereignty issue as a whole, in fact, is a giant fudge being dragged slowly into a quicksand of dictatorship by loose ends:
Right then, we’ll do that.
Even the acceptance that we don’t want to have bathroom tissue shredded by puppies as our currency is booby-trapped at the end:
So, an undemocratic Member State who for the sake of argument we shall call the United Kingdom – which regrettably finds itself the poodle of another Power for example the United States – will request euro membership from Wolfgang Schäuble at some point in the future, and this shall be respectfully accepted. We the People shall not be involved in the invitation…any more than Hungarian citizens were in 1956.
There is, dear reader, just one area where Camerlot has decided to get tough. Can you guess what it is?
City of London safeguards are to be a major topic at the Summit that starts today. As the FT notes [my emphases]:
‘This was not the plan. The officials negotiating this text wanted to sort the section on economic governance — basically outlining principles for coexistence between euro and non-euro countries — so that leaders weren’t subjected to a deep dive on financial regulation. But they failed to agree a key part that marked out turf on financial stability issues between national, eurozone and EU authorities.’
So now we know what really matters to Lord Snooty & his Pals. Actually, we’ve always known it, haven’t we?
Previously at The Slog: No real safeguards on banks in sight, nothing to see
The Slog 