>>5687150
Lastly, why the reluctance to consider, even as a transitional arrangement, re-joining EFTA and following Norway’s example? At a stroke, on 29th March, we could have regained control over fishing, extricated ourselves from about 75% of the total acquis, solved most of the Irish border problems and ended the supervision of the ECJ. The “Norway Model” was never popular with the majority of Leavers, but it is infinitely superior to the arrangements which will be in place on 30th March if Mrs May’s deal goes through. What is more, for all its shortcomings, the Norwegians prefer their arrangement with the EU to membership. Even if we had left via this unpopular route, there is no reason to doubt that within a couple of years, the issue of EU membership would have died a natural death in the UK with travel and trade flowing smoothly and no one except a handful of incorrigible Remainers regretting our exclusion from the federalist project.
The EU has been accused of everything from persuading the Norwegians to discourage our following their example to dissuading the Chinese from starting trade negotiations with us. There is no doubt that they don’t like Brexit and have done nothing to help us leave. However, the repeated pattern of failing to stand up for the UK’s best interest and overlooking a given option in favour of a worse one leaves me in little doubt that the transcript of the May/Merkel meetings, as seen by my source, is trustworthy. Why, when Mrs May dismissed both “Canada” and “Norway” options in her Florence speech saying “We can do so much better than this” has she ended up with something far worse? Such an appalling exit deal for the UK could not have been obtained by accident or through sheer incompetence.
The absence of documentary corroboration for the transcript will inevitably lead to these claims being dismissed as conspiracy theory, but veracity is bolstered by contextual evidence. We know May met Merkel before Chequers – that is not disputed. My informant was shown the document but was not allowed to take it away, due to the risk of severe consequences for the exhibitor. However, it would be justifiable for a British parliamentarian, perhaps from the ERG or DUP, to request a copy of the minutes from the German administration. Of course, Berlin might refuse, but there is a strong moral case here. The British people have a right to know what was discussed about their future with a foreign power, and whether there is any truth in these scandalous allegations.
If this account of the meeting is true, the Withdrawal Agreement was written within the German administration, and our ministers and MPs are being bullied and cajoled into passing this into law by a Prime Minister who seems far more interested in pleasing Chancellor Merkel than the 17,410,742 voters who delivered their verdict on the EU in June 2016.
UPDATE: In response to comment Number 6, the author writes:
My attention has been drawn to a comment (No. 6,apparently) to my article about the May/Merkel collusion (German Brexit) , which points out that a draft withdrawal agreement text was published in March of last year, the conclusion being that this invalidates the argument.
It is true that a draft withdrawal agreement did indeed appear in March, but the text is very different from Chequers, and both are again different to the final Withdrawal agreement. This does mean that the phrase “the original draft completed in Berlin in May” is somewhat misleading and I will admit this. What is actually meant is that following on from the Draft withdrawal agreement appearing in March, the first draft of what became “Chequers” was then drafted in Berlin in May – in other words, after the draft WA was published, the process of turning it into “Chequers” was essentially a German operation.
My apologies that the terminology (which came verbatim from my contact) is rather confusing here. In no way does it invalidate the main point of the article that essentially, the Germans were driving the process at this critical time working in close collaboration with the PM.
https://www.politicalite.com/brexit/brexit-bombshell-a-german-brexit-a-scandal-of-subversive-statecraft/
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