Pete North Profile picture
Oct 3, 2018 20 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1. It is not conspiratorial to say that both Johnson and Rees-Mogg are front men for a very narrow set of interests. they are relying entirely on the IEA think tank set for ideas - which sees #Brexit only in terms of how their financial backers can advance their interests.
2. I have never heard JRM or Johnson give a detailed and convincing anti-EU speech. They know how to drop in buzzwords and eurosceptic terminology but they have stolen the clothes of anti-EU scholars who used to make up the eurosceptic movement.
3. Very skilfully they have cleaved euroscepticism away from Ukip which has freed itself to concentrating on grunting about Muslims. Most of the founders have either gravitated to the Tory fringes or bowed out completely.
4. What's left are a pack of quasi-libertarian "thinkers" hypnotised by "free trade" matras while having precisely zero comprehension of how modern trade works. For them it is a religion. Offer up sacrifices to "the market" and we shall be blessed.
5. Johnson doesn't know or car what's going on or who he is even representing. He's just happy to have the endless media attention. He doesn't even care about voters who like him, not least because he is seldom likely to even speak to an average voter.
6. Rees-Mogg, however, is a serpent who has very particular designs for his own portfolio - and not much else. His public image is a nurtured one to give off an air of a family values man with a bit of Francis Urquhart thrown in - The Tory that Tories pray for.
7. Through the use of relentless propaganda they have managed to co-opt the eurosceptic movement as a figleaf of grassroots support for what is a radical ultra-free market agenda largely beholden to US corporate interests (the source of their financial backing).
8. Here is where JRM is more gifted than the Johnson thug. Johnson blethers, evading detail, addressing audiences who don;t care about detail. JRM though likes to be seen as a scholar - so has become a magpie of terminology which he deploys to a largely clueless media.
9. To the average person it sounds like he has a grasp of the issues, but any trade professional will tell you that what comes out of that man's mouth is a jumble of contradictory nonsense and outright lies.
10. It goes down well with the Brexit herd because they do like to be told that Brexit is simpler than it looks and can be accomplished faster and without compromises or trade offs. Populism 101. I shouldn't even call them Brexiters because they aren't.
11. And being that MPs are generally sheep and go along with whatever idea has momentum, otherwise well intentioned have signed up to some of the most ludicrous ideas. Hearing Kate Hoey, supposedly a socialist parroting IEA free market dogma is astonishing.
12. Most of the genuine eurosceptic "thinkers" don't actually do any thinking anymore. Much of their rhetoric is over 25 years old and it hasn't been updated since - even though the EU is a very different animal now with a whole new array of faults and problems.
13. In fact I'm not sure there are any genuine eurosceptic thinkers left in the Commons. There may be one or two in the Lords who ironically see the democratic deficit, but in the main modern Brexitism is about advancing far economic right ideas with no regard to democracy.
14. It's actually not surprising at all that the eurosceptic movement has been so easily hijacked. That essentially was the function of the IEA sockpuppet thinktanks like the TPA. Ukip voluntarily surrendered its ownership of the issue long ago by refusing to invest in planning.
15. So this power struggle in the Tory party is not a fight for "the one true Brexit". Really it's just a grubby little clan of self-servers making a grab for high office. The have support having (successfully) painted May's plan as "BINO" through their "BrexitCentral" organ.
16. Being that their gophers and functionaries are teenage girlies (of both sexes) none of them have a clue as the the agenda in play and they genuinely believe the crap they spout. Not least because obedience is richly rewarded. See Grimes, Darren.
17. Brexit means that the ultra economic right are closer to power now than at any time in the last thirty years. They are considerably more radical than thatcher ever was and not in any way conservative. They are money men through and through.
18. Now we are at a stage where Brexit is now synonymous with the Johnson-Mogg agenda where thanks to the bovine stupidity of their followers, anyone who isn't singing from the script isn't a real Brexiter. British politics is regressing into tribalism like never before.
19. Like a pack of lemmings, unquestioningly following the leader, are charging straight over the cliff to the the accompaniment of all the pleasing rallying songs of Brexit. What awaits them is far from what was promised but JRM and Co don't care. It doesn't affect them.
20. So as you clamour for the resignation of May, keep in mind that the ERG brigade don't have a viable plan not least because they are not interested in a negotiated Brexit. They are using you. They don't give a shit about Britain or Brexit. This is just a bank heist.

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More from @PeteNorth303

Oct 5, 2018
1. Today in #Brexit tedium: You all saw the Barnier tweet reiterating that a Canada+++ is available and has been from the beginning. The ultra brexiters have taken that to mean an FTA plus whatever fiction they want tacked on to it.
2. They are dishonestly claiming this as a vindication of their position, conveniently ignoring that the EU will not agree to begin talks on any such agreement unless the UK signs up to an NI backstop. The EU is entirely consistent on this.
3. The ultas claim that a Canada+++ deal where they get to define what the plusses mean means that we don't need a backstop, Two problems here. The EU won;t agree to it and secondly, the details of their proposal has the same basic flaw as Chequers which the EU already declined.
Read 20 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
1. All the solutions to the various technical #Brexit concerns are to an extent sub-optimal, complicated and require a degree of compromise. Tories, though, would rather queue up round the block to be told life is simpler than it is.

#CPC18
2. Anyone can blether about sovereignty and self-determination but in the real world, regulation and rules are the WD40 of trade and without agreed norms trade simply doesn't happen. All trade agreements to one extend or other place constraints on sovereignty.
3. Brexit requires of us that we seek a balance between isolationism and subordination but since the EU is the regional and global regulatory superpower in this equation, to a larger extent it will call the shots. This is a simple fact of life. They are bigger than us.
Read 14 tweets
Oct 2, 2018
1. For the benefit of the hard of thinking and for possibly the billionth time, there is only ONE way to ensure the UK maintains its current trade with the EU and that is by joining Efta and retaining the EEA agreement. (#Brexit thread)
2.There are means to ensure the bare minimum essentials continue but the EU is a major market actually on our doorstep so there is no way we should even be considering options that only maintain the bare minimum. The UK as a matter of fact needs a fully comprehensive relationship
3. As pointed out by the European Commission, a customs union covers only those functions listed in red and is not EVEN required to address those issues. The majority of border concerns are regulatory issues covered by the EEA.
Read 10 tweets
Oct 2, 2018
1. So if reports are correct it looks like Mrs May is going to go with a customs union as her next move along with those rules necessary to keep the trucks rolling. No doubt this is going to upset the #Brexit Taliban. (thread)
2. As ever she's got it ass backwards where the the differences then between NI and mainland will be more profound than if we'd stayed in the EEA and ditched the customs union. This is what happens when you equate customs controls with customs unions.
3. So the plan, if we can call it a plan is a Turkey Plus sort of arrangement - or maybe the Jersey Option. Whatever ti is, it certainly is turkey - but it's bordering on workable which is closer than we've been before. It will probably fall over on the details.
Read 19 tweets
Sep 29, 2018
1. Time of a thread on this Toryboy dribble. The problem with a #Brexit FTA+++ ("with maximum recognition") is that the EU does not do mutual recognition where it has already has harmonised rules. it is never going to agree to an equivalence system. ...
2. Put simply if we go for an FTA+++ then the EU gets to decide the terms of those plusses. It can can look at maximum facilitation for revenue issues in relation to VAT and tariffs and technology can help but that pertains only to the customs union. The bits in red.
3. As you can see it doesn't even begin to address the issue of regulatory controls and though the EU does do MRAs on conformity assessment, they are never universal and only if there are exactly matched standards. The belief we can unilateral diverge is a fantasy.
Read 18 tweets
Sep 29, 2018
1. I very rarely say something is a must read because very little is, but the new report "Power, Platforms and The Free Trade Delusion" from @UNCTAD is essential to understanding political trends in the wake of hyperglobalisation. (thread)

unctad.org/en/Publication…
2. Essentially globalisation has created the conditions for corporates to tilt markets in their favour and evade tax. It argues that the loss of legitimate revenue along with rent seeking is a driver of inequality and exacerbated by e-commerce.
3. The report in places gets quite technical and if you are at all normal your eyes will glaze over some of it but it is worth a skim read at the very least. Interestingly it talks about increased markups, ballooning profits and a decline in wages. Globalisation exacerbates this.
Read 15 tweets

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