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1) If You Avoid The Really Difficult Stuff, Negotiations Can Be Quite Simple
David Davis and Michel Barnier took to the stage in Brussels on Monday to reveal that, in keeping with the odds, a post-March 2019 transition deal between the UK and the EU had been agreed.
The UK will accept all the rules of the Single Market and customs union until December 31 2020 – the date originally put forward by Barnier and now agreed to by Davis.
In another win for the EU, any citizens arriving in the UK during the transition period will get the same rights they receive now.
On fishing, the EU will still get to set the terms of the UK’s fishing quotas, and Britain will only be able to “provide comments” when Brussels sets out the next set of rules. (More on this below.)
The UK secured a victory by getting Brussels to agree that London can negotiate and, crucially, sign trade deals in anticipation of the leaving the bloc proper at the end of 2020.
The contentious issue of the border with Ireland was, as expected, kicked even further down the road, with the section only getting the yellow highlighter treatment (policy objective agreed, but needs work on the detail) instead of the glorious green (agreed and waiting for sign off) which covers much of the text.
So with everything pretty much staying the same until 2021, will anyone actually notice the difference when we leave the EU on March 29 2019.
Yes – the 73 UK members of European Parliament, who will be out of work. Out of work that is, unless you happen to have your own radio show on LBC.
2) This Is Not The Plaice For Jokes
And it was that LBC radio host who managed to get himself back in the news this week, when Nigel Farage threw crates of dead haddock into the Thames on Wednesday. The publicity stunt, organised by Fishing for Leave, was aimed to highlight the capitulation of the UK government in the negotiations when it came to fishing.
While Farage was trying to make a splash outside Parliament, Defra Secretary Michael Gove was trying to steer through choppy waters inside the Commons.
Responding to an Urgent Question on the agreement, Gove actually did little to dial down the sense of frustration with the terms of the transition deal.
He told MPs: “The first thing I will happily acknowledge is that there is disappointment in fishing communities. As someone whose father was a fish merchant and whose grandparents went to sea to fish, I completely understand how fishing communities feel about the situation at the moment, and I share their disappointment.”
While SNP MPs gnashed their teeth over the deal, Gove was completely within his rights to point out that as Remainers, they would support the UK staying in the Common Fisheries Policy forever.
Tory MPs from coastal communities made their feelings known in a meeting with Chief Whip Julian Smith. According to PoliticsHome, Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray “ripped him a new one” after he claimed the deal wasn’t a problem as “it’s not like the fishermen are going to vote Labour”.
Another Tory, Douglas Ross, said: “It would be easier to get someone to drink a pint of cold sick than try to sell this as a success.”
Yet for all the chest-thumping, it is highly-doubtful those MPs will actually vote down any deal. One Tory MP I spoke to said they are finding themselves in the position where they have to trust Michael Gove to deliver on his promise the UK will be out of the Commons Fisheries Policy by 2021. “Think about that, we have to trust Michael Gove,” they said.
3) The Irish Border Does Have An End
As this email hits your inbox, Theresa May is in Brussels for a European Summit where EU leaders will ‘welcome’ the transition deal. Brexit is likely to get an airing at Thursday night’s working dinner, but much of the focus will be on the bloc’s response to the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
But with the transition deal done, now it just needs to established what the UK is transitioning to. But the talks on a future trading relationship are still on hold until the Irish border issue is solved.
Theresa May may have branded the EU’s ‘backstop’ proposal of keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union as unacceptable, but the UK has now accepted a plan B needs to be agreed in case the trade talks break down.
Arriving in Brussels for the summit, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was clear that there is an end to the road which the can was being kicked down.
He told reporters: “October is the deadline. Would I like to have it done by June? Yes, absolutely, but I would rather have the right deal in October, rather than any deal in June.”
HuffPost UK’s Rachel Wearmouth travelled to Northern Ireland to speak to people who live on the border – in some cases, literally.
Seamas O’Reilly has the border running through the back garden of his family home on the outskirts of Derry.
Rachel writes:
He points to a garage visible from the kitchen window. During the Troubles, it was a border checkpoint, monitored by soldiers with guns. Often the exchanges there were a simple a passing of documents and a nod of the head, but not always.
“Basically, it was blown up a couple of times,” O’Reilly says. “We had our windows blown out by the explosions.
“These places were never particularly well-liked and in the last 20 years they haven’t been there.”
4) Free Trade vs Protectionism: The Passport Edition
The image of Nigel Farage waving his burgundy passport around, decrying it had the words ‘European Union’ emblazoned on the top, seemed to resonate with a certain kind of Leave voter in the EU referendum.
Perhaps it was those same people who were disproportionately excited about the return of the ‘famous’ blue passport.
Theresa May – who, according to rumours, actually backed Remain in 2016 – even took to Twitter last year to say bringing back the blue document was an “expression of our independence and sovereignty”.
But in true you-couldn’t-make-it-up news, the contract to make the new passports has not been awarded to a UK company, but the French-Dutch firm Gemalto.
Former Cabinet Minister Priti Patel – who campaigned for Brexit – described the decision as “perverse”.
She told The Sun: “This should be a moment that we should be celebrating. The return of our iconic blue passport will re-establish the British identity.
“But to be putting the job in the hands of the French is simply astonishing. It is a national humiliation.”
The Home Office say that it’s decision will save taxpayers about £120million over the length of the five-year contract.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, De La Rue’s chief executive, Martin Sutherland, said either Theresa May or Home Secretary Amber Rudd, should “come to my factory and explain to my dedicated workforce why they think this is a sensible decision to offshore the manufacture of a British icon”.
Perhaps the money saved on the passports can count as a ‘Brexit dividend’ and be given to the NHS.
Don’t Get Angry, Get Blogging…
At HuffPost we love a good blog, and here are the finest Brexit-penned entries from this week. Have a read, and if any of them provoke an urge in you to speak your brain, send a blog to ukblogteam@huffingtonpost.com and you could find yourself in this very newsletter.
Dr Simon Usherwood on everything you need to know about how transition works
Sashy Nathan on putting human rights at the heart of a UK-EU deal
Tony Juniper on what could happen to the environment after Brexit
Baroness Hayter on why we need more time to solve the ‘looming nightmare’ of Brexit