Less than twenty-four hours after the United Kingdom issued a joint-report with the European Union on its planned exit from the EU, a senior government minister in the UK has stated that the country can renege on the transitional deal at any time. Writing in the establishment Daily Telegraph newspaper, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has warned that the international agreement between London, Brussels and Dublin is not binding on any future government in Britain, which can reject the deal if it so wishes. The Conservative Party MP, who has been a prominent figure in the Brexit movement for decades, which is closely related to his vociferous opposition to the Irish-British peace process, downplayed the importance of the communiqué, which focuses on UK-Ireland and UK-EU relations.
By the time of the next election, EU law and any new treaty with the EU will cease to have primacy or direct effect in UK law…
The British people will be in control. If the British people dislike the agreement that we have negotiated with the EU, the agreement will allow a future government to diverge.
[The UK has] full freedom to diverge from EU law on the single market and customs union.
Everything we have proposed is provisional on achieving a final deal with the EU which is mutually beneficial.
Just as Michael Gove saw the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement of 1998, which effectively ended three decades of conflict in the British legacy colony on the island of Ireland, as a treaty the United Kingdom could arbitrarily tear up, so too he assumes that the UK can discard any other understanding it reaches with those nations or international bodies he regards as its inferior. The reactionary Tory, with his revanchist fantasies about Greater England and Empire 2.0, is the very embodiment of the Brexit disease infecting the body politic in Britain.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Splendid. I look forward to us Scots, your fellow Celts, ripping up the Union Treaty and us standing four square with Ireland and the EU.
What’s good for the BritNat goose is good for the Scottish gander.
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Totally in agreement.
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I don’t like Govey anymore than you do. But in a narrow technical sense he’s right; no UK parliament can bind its successor to any laws it has passed*. So, when the Maybot falls and there is an election, her successor need not follow what she has done.
I expect that the same is true of the Dáil.
*The only exception I’m aware of is legislation granting independence to a colony; this really cannot be overturned.
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Yes, though… while in the letter of the law yes, in the politics of it, perhaps not. For example tearing up the GFA/BA might be feasible on paper but in practice…
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the agreement that was signed the other day is a political agreement on how to proceed -setting out lines of action. Mr Verhofstadt and his colleagues on the EU parliament Brexit Steering Committee said it indicates “sufficient progress” has been made but several details still have to be settled on citizens’ rights , Ireland etc.
The really significant document is the forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement (expected autumn 2018) which will be an international treaty. What’s written in that will be binding for the UK and EU. No matter what Mr Gove or anybody else says.
That’s why the Irish Govt insisted the Border issue continue to be discussed right up to the end. It’s important to get it right for everyone on the island of ireland. The DUP will get short shrift from M Barnier and 26 EU countries – they’re not up to Senior hurling and like all bullies back down when faced with a strong united force that is numerically greater – something nationalists in the north were never able to get together
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If the UK insists on a bespoke deal – the EU cannot grant its wish because other 3rd party countries that have certain standard EU trade agreements could then rightfully demand the same “special” conditions.
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Press is already reporting that 3rd party nations are kicking off, pointing out that EU cannot give UK preferential deal without risk of damaging the union’s 3rd party deals. The mess deepens.
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Dreadful. War is now inevitable, at some point, in the North, within a year of an actual BREXIT,, unless something is urgently done to fix things. The TORY-WASP regime in london is headed down the track to a hard BREXIT, care not for the horrible consequences for Ireland, and will do what they always do, which is to tear up and dishonour any agreement that they have made and signed, once they have got their way. Unless there are ironclad, internationally enforced guarantees, of a free border agreement, etc, with heavy duty sanctions on the UK Government if they break it. Even then, there would be no great safety for the Irish People.
To be blunt, as i have said before, the ultimate outcome has now got to be reunification. Even if it has to be done in stages, with re partition, and only majority Unionist Counties staying in the UK Union, and a hard border. The Irish Government must keep going down the track, but We need to think of contingency planning, and what to do, if and when, the London Government does what it usually does, in these circumstances. What a mess.
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