UKC

Just seen this on Twitter and thought it was worth throwing into the mix here. Sorry for another Brexit thread but, hey, its just one more on top of the thousands. 

Key text of the Withdrawal Agreement on the applicability of EU law to Northern Ireland in the backstop:

(it helps to remember that Protocol refers to the Northern Ireland Protocol) 

https://twitter.com/hayward_katy/status/1168935609513254912/photo/1

"In practise the extent to which amendments or replacements [to EU law] may be relevant for a temporary Protocol will be limited"

"There is also provision for the UK and the EU to jointly agree to include within the protocol new areas of EU law"

"However this would clearly require the agreement of both the UK and the EU as set out in the Protocol."

Which means, as i understand it, if the backstop were to be implemented, NI would be bound by current and existing EU law but any new EU law would need to be agreed jointly by the EU and the UK. This does undermine the claim that the backstop is undemocratic and it certainly undermines Johnson's claim yesterday that the backstop gives Dublin more say over NI than Westminster or Stormont. 

What comes out of BJ's mouth and the truth very rarely have much correlation. 

The weird thing is that it's not just that he's a ruthless liar, I believe he quite literally doesn't understand either the GFA or the backstop. I think in Bojo we see an unprecedented and very strange combination of stupidity and dishonesty.

Disagree. I think he understands that in political arguments, the big picture matters more than the  detail. 

“Where EU law is referred to by the Protocol it is to be read as including amendments or replacements for that law”.  From your link.

So the EU can change the law and that new law applies immediately.

Are you suggesting that the EU, or literally any other trade bloc for that matter, would agree to lose the ability to ever change their customs protocols  for a market of 27 member states without the approval of a non-member state?

No.

"I think he understands that in political arguments, the big picture matters more than the  detail." Convenient that he understands that, apparently having never had a good grasp of  important details. I think someone like Rory Stewart is the real deal in the intellectual stakes from a similar educational background and Boris is a entitled bluffer who rarely stood up to serious challenge of his actual political intellect. His performance in Parliament yesterday was as bad as I've ever see, well deserving of lampooning:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/03/clown-prince-johnson-cower...

Well on this side of the Atlantic at least.

When an approach fails you can always repeat it. This is our PM.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/04/boris-johnson-fails-to-bri...

I don't think it's a case of understanding or not understanding. I think he just doesn't care about the truth or details and will say anything to forward his agenda*. And that agenda isn't Brexit, the UK or the conservative party it's Boris Johnson. That's why he's so disliked by many and why he has the potential to be uniquely harmful.

He's a conman and a shyster. An expensive education and family money has given him a thin veneer of respectability in some eyes but in a parallel universe he'd be selling clocked cars or conning pensioners out of their savings.

*Sometimes it's not even to forward his agenda. He'll say anything that pops into his head, especially if he thinks it will get a laugh or sounds clever.

I agree.  It's not my specialist area but I strongly suspect that most of the Latin he spouts is wrong and his classical allusions inaccurate and partial too.  I'd really like to have someone like Natalie Haynes fact check it before broadcast.

Rory Stewart hinted at that a few times.

It's amazing looking at the papers today how the Fail, Excess and Scum and even the Telegraph are headline blaming Corbyn for Boris shooting himself in his foot.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/05/pm-cornered-how-the-papers...

Can't find the link but somewhere else in the Guardian (the live politics blog possibly) was a comparison of the Scottish & English editions of the Sun - could hardly be more different

edit to add

https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.4008773!/image/image.jpg_gen/deriv...

This is a fair challenge. I posted in a rush and quoted the sentences underlined in red and missed that.

He has been conning pensioners out of their savings - at least those who didn't move their savings out of Sterling before his actions caused it to crash in value.

Read "Tom Brown's Schooldays" and you will see that even in them days in Public Schools there was a healthy trade in pre-written homework and essays for the rich and lazy to use so as not to be detained indefinitely in the lower forms and to progress easily to to the upper forms

I have referred to this matter before but I refer you again to a letter from his housemaster and classics teacher reporting

“Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies . . . Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half): I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”

Says it all really.  A perceptive and prescient man.

I know I've seen that quote before, but thanks for reminding us. As you say, brilliantly prescient.

Old school school reporting. I'd love to have the skills and bottle to describe a pupil like that. Lord knows I've tried but the reality is that despite being true, fair and honest middle management would weed that out these days.

I also like Patrick Leigh Fermor's report that read '"a dangerous mixture of sophistication and recklessness". Unsurprisingly he liked it too.

I once had one from my Greek master (which I quoted in my book 'Fiva') which said simply: 'Ignorant? -- Or bone idle??' I had to take it to the Headmaster, who asked me which it was ... a bit of a trick question really, because of course there was only one answer, which I got right. 'Bone idle, sir.' Even so, I was given six of the best.