>Most could see that that border could not be on the island of Ireland, separating the Republic from the north, without reopening the wounds of the Troubles. That left only one option: Northern Ireland would retain some of the old European arrangements, and the border would run down the Irish Sea. But that would distinguish Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, striking directly at unionism’s defining creed: that Northern Ireland and Britain are one.
>
>No British prime minister would do such a thing, said Theresa May. “[Under no circumstances](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/johnson-under-no-circumstances-will-there-be-a-border-on-ireland-1.3944179),” agreed Johnson in July 2019. But a few months later, he broke that promise. He did it so he could get a deal with the EU, claim it was “oven ready” and win a general election on that basis. Which he duly did.
>
>Even at the time, [the government’s own official documents](https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1525054013191880704) showed how this new bargain would entail the very border checks that Johnson now describes as unacceptable. One senior mandarin had patiently spelled it all out to the prime minister, in detail. But he couldn’t have cared less, that official tells me. All that mattered was being able to say a deal had been done. Johnson thought he would deal with the consequences later. After all, it was only Northern Ireland. And so here we are.
Will park this here at the moment as there be no mods around to clear it:
Whitehall insiders accuse ministers of ‘opinion shopping’ to mollify pro-Brexit MPs
–
The UK government has taken legal advice from a US-born lawyer who worked for Donald Trump’s administration to build its case for unilaterally tearing up post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Senior Whitehall insiders said the government had “sidelined” its previous team of external legal advisers on the Northern Ireland protocol. They added that it wanted to establish a case in international law for UK legislation to override parts of the deal signed in 2019 to avoid a return of a north-south trade border on the island of Ireland.
Suella Braverman, UK attorney-general, is [reported](https://archive.ph/DVuad) to have legally greenlighted the government’s proposed unilateral action on the basis that it is necessary to defend the higher-priority 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended conflict in Northern Ireland and which the Johnson government argues is being endangered by the protocol.
The FT [revealed](https://archive.ph/NcVbr) in November that the government was looking for fresh legal advice — described by Whitehall insiders as “opinion shopping” — to support its case for legislation to “switch off” parts of the protocol in UK law.
Three people with knowledge of the process said ministers had engaged Thomas D. Grant, an international lawyer based at Cambridge university who was a political appointee to the Trump administration state department and worked on the US national security strategy.
Grant, who has been on a leave of absence from Cambridge since taking up his appointment in Washington DC, [lists](https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/td-grant/114) “sovereignty” and “state immunity” among his legal interests on the website of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Grant did not respond to a request for comment.
At the height of the debate over Brexit in June 2019, Grant also co-authored [a pamphlet](https://www.politeia.co.uk/avoiding-the-trap-howe-aikens-grant/) for the Politeia think-tank with the leading Brexiter lawyer Martin Howe QC, arguing that the UK should opt for a “no deal” Brexit over a deal that left Northern Ireland with legal ties to the EU.
Among the arguments advanced in the pamphlet, [according to](https://www.politeia.co.uk/avoiding-the-trap-howe-aikens-grant/) Politeia, was that there was “no insuperable problem” about the Irish border, given that it was already a border for VAT and excise purposes.
The advice has caused disquiet in some corners of Whitehall. Insiders said it was being described as “stooge opinion” to mollify pro-Brexit Conservative backbenchers and justify the Johnson administration’s determination to confront Brussels over the protocol.
The threat to neuter the protocol has echoes of the 2020 UK Internal Market Bill, when the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson tabled legislation to unilaterally disapply the arrangement in what it admitted at the time was a “limited” breach of international law.
That admission caused an outcry, including among some Tory backbenchers and prominent peers. It also triggered the resignation of Sir Jonathan Jones QC, then head of the UK government’s legal department.
Jones told the Financial Times this week that the government’s renewed threat to tear up the protocol was “wrong and counterproductive”, and warned that any such move would damage the UK’s international standing.
“Why would any other country want to do deals with the UK, listen to anything we say about the rule of law internationally, or trust us to keep to our commitments in future?” he asked.
Downing Street said that the government continued to take advice from a broad range of legal sources, but declined to comment specifically on the opinion Braverman had given over the Northern Ireland protocol.
“It is longstanding government policy, accepted by governments of all parties, not to comment on whether the attorney-general has given legal advice or the contents of any advice,” a spokesperson said.
*Peter Foster in London*
*Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo*
Friday May 13 2022
David Frost
@DavidGHFrost
I’m very pleased and proud to have led a great UK team to secure today’s excellent deal with the EU. Both sides worked tirelessly day after day in challenging conditions to get the biggest & broadest trade deal in the world, in record time. Thank you all who made it happen.
3:21 PM · Dec 24, 2020·Twitter for Android
MPs have overwhelmingly approved the Brexit trade deal to pave the way for the UK-EU agreement to come into force at 11pm tomorrow.
The House of Commons backed the agreement, struck between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU on Christmas Eve, by 521 votes to 73 – a majority of 448.
Little more than an hour after the vote, Mr Johnson added his formal signature to the EU-UK trade deal in Downing Street.
Thursday 31 December 2020 00:39
The deal is done,” Johnson wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of him celebrating.
whatever this Govt says, the opposite is the truth.
If you want to do some quick revision:
>[BBC Reality Check team: NIProtocol: What did Boris Johnson say?](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58001530)
>
>Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland – called the protocol – “is turning into a political problem” that needs to be rectified.
>
>The deal – which he negotiated and signed up to – came into force in January 2021 and means Northern Ireland (NI) still follows some EU rules.
>
>It was aimed at avoiding checks on goods crossing the border with the Republic of Ireland, but it has led to checks on goods arriving in NI from Great Britain (GB).
>
>The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) oppose this because it has created a trade barrier with the rest of the UK. It won’t allow the formation of a new government in NI unless there are significant changes. However, following the recent elections, a majority of assembly members accept the protocol.
>
>Mr Johnson is pushing for changes to the deal – and the government is considering whether to override parts of it – but this is in marked contrast to what he said about the protocol at the time he negotiated it…
He’s never taken any responsibility for his monumental fuck-ups. I cannot get my head around how so many numpties voted for brexit and then the tories
Oven-ready.
Fucking clown… “jobs jobs jobs” then talks about reducing the civil service by a fifth.. especially when you consider it had already shrunk by the same amount post-coalition
This situation with Ireland/Brexit is squarely on him too
Boris yet again blames someone else for the consequences of his own actions shocker.
>Johnson blames today’s Brexit woes on Brussels – that’s a load of old bull
Man who has made an art out of avoiding responsibility, AVOIDS responsibility for his incompetence SHOCK!
FTFY in the manner of a Daily Heil headline.
My god, feels like he is the same as Putin when he replies… Blaming the other countries rather than his own decision / actions…
The EU, Remainers, poor people, immigrants, footballers etc…
It’s always the same hitlist.
It was well known at the time he was throwing Unionists under the bus with the deal he signed to put the trade frontier with the EU in the Irish sea – he asked for it from the EU and they agreed. The alternative was and remains having the frontier in Ireland and the US amongst others essentially vetoed such an idea on the grounds of it inevitably leading to the troubles returning. His media outlets may have short memories but it really wasn’t that long ago this all happened.
the man that put his name to what others had negociated, claimed was the best oven ready meal in history and bullied the commons to vote for it.
It’s incredible that significant numbers of people still fall for his nonsense. But they do.
“The club we left won’t give us member benefits any more! Why would they do this to us?”
– A sociopathic chancer who thinks we’re stupid enough to believe his bullshit, and has repeatedly been proved right.
The Tories need a bogeyman to make themselves appear good.
In the 80s, it was the troubles and Argentina.
More recently, it was the EU and Corbyn.
This fucking mess is solely the responsibility of the Tory party and the puce-faced little Englanders that are too thick to see beyond their own kneejerk emotions.
“WE GOT BREXIT DONE”
Brexit woes are due to Brexit.
Blaming Brussels for a deal he negotiated and signed, held an election on where all his MPs agreed to the deal. This isn’t Brussels at all, this is a Johnson Tory party failure. None of them are fit to be leading us.
They all need sacking and put on universal credits.
Of course its Brussels fault!! How can you blame the brexiteers
Brussels is the new previous Labour government boogey man then?
The only people to blame for today’s Brexit woes are the Tories. I would hope that anyone with even an ounce of sense would understand this.
Meanwhile right up until we actually left, the EU has always been like: “Are you sure about this? Really? You can change your mind, y’know. We’re totally fine with you staying if you change your mind. Really? No? Well, okay then.”
Brussels has no duty to pander to Boris’ silly plans. We put ourselves in the situation where the EU could put their foot down, and we’ve only ourselves to blame
“I’m going to leave school with no qualifications because they’re holding me back.”
“I can’t believe I can’t get a job because of my lack of qualifications! This is clearly my school’s fault!”
“Gosh darn it, why did the EU force us to have a non-binding referendum on whether to stay in or leave, tell lies to make us leave, force us to implement the non-binding referendum result, make us do a crap deal and give us no time to read it, and generally fuck everything up?”
Boris is a serial liar who can’t be believed in any situation. He will lie, distort, misinform, to name but a few. As an individual he is probably the most awful prime minister since Thatch.
You’d think the EU forced Britain to leave the way they whine.
He’s constantly been blaming the EU for everything for decades and this is all to keep the distraction in the headlines of “EU is at fault for everything”
It’s just the same tired propaganda and yet the right wing media will trumpet this from their headlines and convince the public that the deal Boris wrote and signed is now all the fault of the EU.
Convenient distraction yet again from the only sitting PM to be fined for breaking the law, constant corruption and lies to everyone, but roll out the old “EU at WAR with the UK” and everything is conveniently forgotten about yet again
29 comments
Highlighting:
>Most could see that that border could not be on the island of Ireland, separating the Republic from the north, without reopening the wounds of the Troubles. That left only one option: Northern Ireland would retain some of the old European arrangements, and the border would run down the Irish Sea. But that would distinguish Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, striking directly at unionism’s defining creed: that Northern Ireland and Britain are one.
>
>No British prime minister would do such a thing, said Theresa May. “[Under no circumstances](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/johnson-under-no-circumstances-will-there-be-a-border-on-ireland-1.3944179),” agreed Johnson in July 2019. But a few months later, he broke that promise. He did it so he could get a deal with the EU, claim it was “oven ready” and win a general election on that basis. Which he duly did.
>
>Even at the time, [the government’s own official documents](https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1525054013191880704) showed how this new bargain would entail the very border checks that Johnson now describes as unacceptable. One senior mandarin had patiently spelled it all out to the prime minister, in detail. But he couldn’t have cared less, that official tells me. All that mattered was being able to say a deal had been done. Johnson thought he would deal with the consequences later. After all, it was only Northern Ireland. And so here we are.
Will park this here at the moment as there be no mods around to clear it:
–
[*Trump lawyer advised UK on ditching Northern Ireland protocol*](https://www.ft.com/content/06d00c1a-aeec-4f64-ad85-9b5fd844deed)
Whitehall insiders accuse ministers of ‘opinion shopping’ to mollify pro-Brexit MPs
–
The UK government has taken legal advice from a US-born lawyer who worked for Donald Trump’s administration to build its case for unilaterally tearing up post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Senior Whitehall insiders said the government had “sidelined” its previous team of external legal advisers on the Northern Ireland protocol. They added that it wanted to establish a case in international law for UK legislation to override parts of the deal signed in 2019 to avoid a return of a north-south trade border on the island of Ireland.
Suella Braverman, UK attorney-general, is [reported](https://archive.ph/DVuad) to have legally greenlighted the government’s proposed unilateral action on the basis that it is necessary to defend the higher-priority 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended conflict in Northern Ireland and which the Johnson government argues is being endangered by the protocol.
The FT [revealed](https://archive.ph/NcVbr) in November that the government was looking for fresh legal advice — described by Whitehall insiders as “opinion shopping” — to support its case for legislation to “switch off” parts of the protocol in UK law.
Three people with knowledge of the process said ministers had engaged Thomas D. Grant, an international lawyer based at Cambridge university who was a political appointee to the Trump administration state department and worked on the US national security strategy.
Grant, who has been on a leave of absence from Cambridge since taking up his appointment in Washington DC, [lists](https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/td-grant/114) “sovereignty” and “state immunity” among his legal interests on the website of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Grant did not respond to a request for comment.
At the height of the debate over Brexit in June 2019, Grant also co-authored [a pamphlet](https://www.politeia.co.uk/avoiding-the-trap-howe-aikens-grant/) for the Politeia think-tank with the leading Brexiter lawyer Martin Howe QC, arguing that the UK should opt for a “no deal” Brexit over a deal that left Northern Ireland with legal ties to the EU.
Among the arguments advanced in the pamphlet, [according to](https://www.politeia.co.uk/avoiding-the-trap-howe-aikens-grant/) Politeia, was that there was “no insuperable problem” about the Irish border, given that it was already a border for VAT and excise purposes.
Braverman’s new legal advice, first reported in [The Times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-can-rip-up-northern-ireland-protocol-attorney-general-rules-3xmcv8ws8), argues that the UK government has the legal right to act to defend the Good Friday Agreement, which the advice says has “primordial significance”, in effect trumping the protocol.
The advice has caused disquiet in some corners of Whitehall. Insiders said it was being described as “stooge opinion” to mollify pro-Brexit Conservative backbenchers and justify the Johnson administration’s determination to confront Brussels over the protocol.
The threat to neuter the protocol has echoes of the 2020 UK Internal Market Bill, when the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson tabled legislation to unilaterally disapply the arrangement in what it admitted at the time was a “limited” breach of international law.
That admission caused an outcry, including among some Tory backbenchers and prominent peers. It also triggered the resignation of Sir Jonathan Jones QC, then head of the UK government’s legal department.
Jones told the Financial Times this week that the government’s renewed threat to tear up the protocol was “wrong and counterproductive”, and warned that any such move would damage the UK’s international standing.
“Why would any other country want to do deals with the UK, listen to anything we say about the rule of law internationally, or trust us to keep to our commitments in future?” he asked.
Downing Street said that the government continued to take advice from a broad range of legal sources, but declined to comment specifically on the opinion Braverman had given over the Northern Ireland protocol.
“It is longstanding government policy, accepted by governments of all parties, not to comment on whether the attorney-general has given legal advice or the contents of any advice,” a spokesperson said.
*Peter Foster in London*
*Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo*
Friday May 13 2022
David Frost
@DavidGHFrost
I’m very pleased and proud to have led a great UK team to secure today’s excellent deal with the EU. Both sides worked tirelessly day after day in challenging conditions to get the biggest & broadest trade deal in the world, in record time. Thank you all who made it happen.
3:21 PM · Dec 24, 2020·Twitter for Android
MPs have overwhelmingly approved the Brexit trade deal to pave the way for the UK-EU agreement to come into force at 11pm tomorrow.
The House of Commons backed the agreement, struck between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU on Christmas Eve, by 521 votes to 73 – a majority of 448.
Little more than an hour after the vote, Mr Johnson added his formal signature to the EU-UK trade deal in Downing Street.
Thursday 31 December 2020 00:39
The deal is done,” Johnson wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of him celebrating.
whatever this Govt says, the opposite is the truth.
If you want to do some quick revision:
>[BBC Reality Check team: NIProtocol: What did Boris Johnson say?](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58001530)
>
>Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland – called the protocol – “is turning into a political problem” that needs to be rectified.
>
>The deal – which he negotiated and signed up to – came into force in January 2021 and means Northern Ireland (NI) still follows some EU rules.
>
>It was aimed at avoiding checks on goods crossing the border with the Republic of Ireland, but it has led to checks on goods arriving in NI from Great Britain (GB).
>
>The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) oppose this because it has created a trade barrier with the rest of the UK. It won’t allow the formation of a new government in NI unless there are significant changes. However, following the recent elections, a majority of assembly members accept the protocol.
>
>Mr Johnson is pushing for changes to the deal – and the government is considering whether to override parts of it – but this is in marked contrast to what he said about the protocol at the time he negotiated it…
He’s never taken any responsibility for his monumental fuck-ups. I cannot get my head around how so many numpties voted for brexit and then the tories
Oven-ready.
Fucking clown… “jobs jobs jobs” then talks about reducing the civil service by a fifth.. especially when you consider it had already shrunk by the same amount post-coalition
This situation with Ireland/Brexit is squarely on him too
Boris yet again blames someone else for the consequences of his own actions shocker.
>Johnson blames today’s Brexit woes on Brussels – that’s a load of old bull
Man who has made an art out of avoiding responsibility, AVOIDS responsibility for his incompetence SHOCK!
FTFY in the manner of a Daily Heil headline.
My god, feels like he is the same as Putin when he replies… Blaming the other countries rather than his own decision / actions…
The EU, Remainers, poor people, immigrants, footballers etc…
It’s always the same hitlist.
It was well known at the time he was throwing Unionists under the bus with the deal he signed to put the trade frontier with the EU in the Irish sea – he asked for it from the EU and they agreed. The alternative was and remains having the frontier in Ireland and the US amongst others essentially vetoed such an idea on the grounds of it inevitably leading to the troubles returning. His media outlets may have short memories but it really wasn’t that long ago this all happened.
the man that put his name to what others had negociated, claimed was the best oven ready meal in history and bullied the commons to vote for it.
It’s incredible that significant numbers of people still fall for his nonsense. But they do.
“The club we left won’t give us member benefits any more! Why would they do this to us?”
– A sociopathic chancer who thinks we’re stupid enough to believe his bullshit, and has repeatedly been proved right.
The Tories need a bogeyman to make themselves appear good.
In the 80s, it was the troubles and Argentina.
More recently, it was the EU and Corbyn.
This fucking mess is solely the responsibility of the Tory party and the puce-faced little Englanders that are too thick to see beyond their own kneejerk emotions.
“WE GOT BREXIT DONE”
Brexit woes are due to Brexit.
Blaming Brussels for a deal he negotiated and signed, held an election on where all his MPs agreed to the deal. This isn’t Brussels at all, this is a Johnson Tory party failure. None of them are fit to be leading us.
They all need sacking and put on universal credits.
Of course its Brussels fault!! How can you blame the brexiteers
Brussels is the new previous Labour government boogey man then?
The only people to blame for today’s Brexit woes are the Tories. I would hope that anyone with even an ounce of sense would understand this.
Meanwhile right up until we actually left, the EU has always been like: “Are you sure about this? Really? You can change your mind, y’know. We’re totally fine with you staying if you change your mind. Really? No? Well, okay then.”
Brussels has no duty to pander to Boris’ silly plans. We put ourselves in the situation where the EU could put their foot down, and we’ve only ourselves to blame
“I’m going to leave school with no qualifications because they’re holding me back.”
“I can’t believe I can’t get a job because of my lack of qualifications! This is clearly my school’s fault!”
“Gosh darn it, why did the EU force us to have a non-binding referendum on whether to stay in or leave, tell lies to make us leave, force us to implement the non-binding referendum result, make us do a crap deal and give us no time to read it, and generally fuck everything up?”
Boris is a serial liar who can’t be believed in any situation. He will lie, distort, misinform, to name but a few. As an individual he is probably the most awful prime minister since Thatch.
You’d think the EU forced Britain to leave the way they whine.
He’s constantly been blaming the EU for everything for decades and this is all to keep the distraction in the headlines of “EU is at fault for everything”
It’s just the same tired propaganda and yet the right wing media will trumpet this from their headlines and convince the public that the deal Boris wrote and signed is now all the fault of the EU.
Convenient distraction yet again from the only sitting PM to be fined for breaking the law, constant corruption and lies to everyone, but roll out the old “EU at WAR with the UK” and everything is conveniently forgotten about yet again