Any chaos will be in Kent ( and other UK lorry parks )

The UK Government  narrative is clear. If there's friction exporting to the EU and it's "all a bit slipshod and disorganised and there's therefore chaos because of failure of the EU to plan" then HMG is going to blame the direct consequences of leaving the Customs Union and Single Market on the EU. We've left the EU and at the end of the year we exit the Withdrawal Agreement's Transition Period that's been in place since the 1st of Feb. During the Transition Period we continued to be in the Customs Union and Single Market although no longer an EU member. That's what's kept our imports and exports flowing freely since then. It means we're yet to feel the practical effects of Brexit. Next year the EU will continue to exist and operate its Customs Union and Single Market. With or without an FTA, as we'll be outside the Customs Union and Single Market and a third country, all our exports to the EU will be subject to checks at the border. Wh
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No repudiation of the Withdrawal Agreement while Johnson is PM

The phrase "enormous political will" is doing all the hard work here.

In this Telegraph comment article by ex Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib an entrepreneur ( and Brexit-Watch assistant editor ) Jonathan Saxty they comment again on the recent 'Centre for Brexit Policy' report on replacing the Withdrawal Agreement.

They say:

The only way the UK may now get a good deal is if it is prepared to repudiate the WA including, crucially, the Northern Irish Protocol. To do so would not just require enormous political will, but enormous planning as well. For example, putting customs checks down the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland could not be achieved overnight. It would require months of both political and physical planning. There is currently no such planning taking place.

"enormous political will" here is, I think, quite an understatement!

No only would the repudiation of the WA really piss off the EU member states they're also expecting that repudiation to cause a hard border on the island breaching the Good Friday Agreement pissing off the US as well. We'd really start to know what it's like to be alone.

I do agree with their analysis of where the WA leaves Northern Ireland:

Unless the WA is repudiated, Northern Ireland will be left behind in the EU Customs Union, subject to EU state aid laws, as well as EU laws in respect of excise duties and VAT.

which why, in part, I'm so bemused by the plaudits Johnson got for agreeing the Withdrawal Agreement and then saddened by the way the Government Pushed it through the UK Parliament with hardly and review.

Has Johnson got Brexit done? Clearly not if you live in Northern Ireland!

They do try to shift the blame for the Withdrawal Agreement away from Johnson and the Tory Party:

The WA was negotiated by the Conservative leadership when its back was against the wall, thanks to Parliamentary arithmetic and the Benn Act.

but then bring them back into the firing line:

It was perhaps expedient for the Conservatives to promote the WA during the 2019 election but there was no need to do so once they won their landslide victory.

There was a golden opportunity for the Conservatives, after the election but before Brexit Day on 31 January, to demand a better deal. It is a shame that astonishingly few Conservatives, if any, spoke out before the UK was legally bound into the WA. The PD was never going to enable Britain to get a good future trade deal with full sovereignty.

and that's key. Having won an 80 seat majority Johnson had a free Parliamenty hand, if he wanted it, to start over with the Withdrawal Agreement. He chose not it go back to the EU but instead ratify the Withdrawal Agreement.

Perhaps Johnson feels bound by the General Election victory and 'Get Brexit Done' and ratify the Withdrawal Agreement. If he does, he's unlikely to then repudiate it.






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