Pro-EU Lords will not be able to block Brexit measures that are set out in May’s programme for Government.
It wouldn’t take much to bring our ports to a grinding halt. Here’s how we can plan ahead to secure smooth-running free trade as we leave the EU.
The EU’s draft document suggests broad agreement on most of what we want. And the three bones of contention are surmountable.
“No deal means no winners – everybody will lose.”
The self-interest of both sides lies in maintaining friendly and productive relations with the other.
We must not allow Brexit to force us to make lucrative deals with repressive autocracies, even as they commit human rights violations and possible war crimes.
In Tusk’s draft negotiating mandate, the seeds of a deal can already be found.
The Government must try to build from the essentials out – security, legal certainty, frictionless trade. Zero tariffs would be the icing on the cake.
We are keen to gather views from interested parties (such as businesses, industry groups, politicians, academics and others) about what would happen.
There is much more to politics than an affordable state and competitive taxes. But both will be indispensible for survival, let alone prosperity, after we leave the EU.
Our Executive Editor also pays tribute to those Remainers who have “done the grown-up thing” by accepting the result.
It was a British invention. But it makes no sense to subject ourselves to its rules once we have left the EU.
As a former Eurosceptic turned Remainer, I have adjusted to the new reality. Others – pro- or anti-EU – should do the same.
I write this as possibly the least nationalistic member in the Houses of the Oireachtas, and one of just three members who wants to see Ireland re-join the Commonwealth.