Backstop is Far From Only Problem May is Facing - Journalist

© REUTERS / Clodagh KilcoyneA general view shows an area near the Northern Ireland and Ireland border in Newbuildings, Northern Ireland August 16, 2017
A general view shows an area near the Northern Ireland and Ireland border in Newbuildings, Northern Ireland August 16, 2017 - Sputnik International
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With British Prime Minister Theresa May scrambling to re-negotiate her botched Brexit deal project fear has had a chance to rear its ugly head once more. And the remaining camp is now arguing that leading businesses are preparing to ditch the UK, should no divorce bill be arranged. But would departing the EU under WTO rules be as mad as many fear?

Sputnik spoke with journalist Marcus Stead the possible consequences of no-deal Brexit and the Northern Ireland border issue.

Sputnik: What do you think of claims of the stockpiling of supplies and businesses moving abroad in preparation for a no deal Brexit? Is project fear in full swing?

Marcus Stead: This is very much project fear. We had the bosses at some of the best known UK supermarkets signing a warning letter of the supposed dangers of a no deal Brexit, but what was interesting was that there were some who did not sign that letter.

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For example; the boss of Iceland supermarkets, Sir Malcolm Walker, he was actually a remain supporter but he has point blank refused to join in the scaremongering and has repeatedly said that Iceland is more than ready to get through the Brexit process.

Similarly, Morrison's boss David Potts also did not sign the letter, and he's made several media appearances in recent times to alleviate fears; the point being, I could not think of a single item of food that could not be sourced from outside the EU, if push came to shove.

There may well be a certain level of disruption in the supply chains the weeks immediately following a no deal Brexit; but the market would soon correct that.

No deal Brexit was never my preferred option, but in reality, a no deal would mean lots of little side deals, to keep various aspects of life in this country functioning. For example; the Grand National horse race is due to take place a few days after Brexit; the agreement that allows the racehorses to come in and out of the country is not in place.

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A very large number of Formula One motor racing teams are based in the UK, and the legal means by which they get their vehicles in and out of the country throughout the season, would cease to exist, and these are serious matters.

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In a no deal situation; the UK will have had to have replicated every EU body and agency by the morning of the 30th of March; chemicals, aviation, finance, everything, and no one is in place at the moment.

Preparations only even began for this in December last year; so why didn't preparations begin in the summer of 2016, shortly after the vote to leave? The lack of preparation from the UK government and the civil service has been utterly appalling.

Now business can handle bad news; a lot better than it can handle uncertainty and that's the big point.

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Marcus Stead: Something that's been lost from the narrative regarding the delay with the backstop, is that the backstop is far from the only problem Mrs May is facing.

It's an issue, it's an important issue; but even if that could be resolved, it won't be enough to get the deal through the House of Commons.

There are things in that agreement that have barely been mentioned at all by the mainstream media. For example; Article 101 states that the UK agrees not to prosecute EU employees who are or might be deemed criminals in the future.

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Article 104 states that EU employees are to be immune from UK tax laws, the UK must promise never to tax former EU officials based in the UK, such as former EU commissioners Peter Mandelson and Neil Kinnock.

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There are many more examples and I wonder how many of our MPS and mainstream journalists have actually read this agreement.

The backstop is not the only issue preventing this from getting through Parliament and one myth that's regularly banded about, is that a hard border would not be possible because of the Good Friday agreement.

In fact; at no point in that document does it say that there cannot be a hard border, but that's not to say that a hard border is desirable; it's not.

We were told that the backstop was only ever intended to be an insurance policy, unless technology could be found for customs checks, yet here were are less than two months before the UK is due to leave the EU, and where on Earth is this technology?

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The government seems to not have made any preparations at all for it; but that said are we seriously being asked to believe that in 2019, a website or an app couldn't be created, and that combined with regular customs checks at warehouses and so forth would be all that's needed.

If the app couldn't be created; all the UK government would need to say is look, we have no intention of putting up a hard border, however from time to time vehicles will be pulled over after they cross the border, spot checks will be done, and anybody found to be smuggling, will have their vehicle crashed. People would soon learn their lesson based on that.

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The issue is being weaponised by the remain supporting politicians, who are playing on the fears of those who dread a return to the bad old days in Northern Ireland, and it's so important that the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland, leave the customs union, because the point is that as long as we remain in the customs union; it will not be possible to make trade deals with the wider world, which is one of the big advantages of Brexit.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of Marcus Stead and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

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