EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

From BBC:

1. Britain will uphold NI's status as "integral" within the UK

2. The UK will protect Northern Ireland's position in the British single market

3. There will be no new borders in the UK and no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland

4. The UK including NI will leave the customs union and the EU single market

5. The Good Friday agreement will be upheld

6. Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK will no longer be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice

I don't understand? How?

I think they've commited the whole UK to full alignment with the CU/SM. Is that right? So they're nominally leaving, but will never actually be able to diverge?

^ yeah, looking at the wording, May may have just agreed to a soft Brexit?

https://twitter.com/LibDemPress/status/939032330202525699

This is going to play out in a very strange way. If the UK is being constrained by the agreement here to accept EU law, they may be able to twist an FTA deal out of the wording without the four pillars being imposed, as it will be seen as a necessity being imposed by the EU via Ireland.

I.e., the EU can't demand the UK both maintain harmonization in Ireland and deny them the market access which that harmonization requires after leaving.

(not saying this will happen, but it seems like an obvious negotiation strategy from the British side).

I'd imagine this is what they are going for.
I alluded to this a few days ago.
Would be quite the coup for them...

I'm very skeptical with everything that's happened so far...on the surface it's great news but what had been agreed exactly on citizens rights?

https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-theresa-may-northern-ireland-border-talks-brussels-eu-jean-claude-michel-barnier-a8098396.html?amp&amp_js_v=0.1#webview=1

Independent suggests it's a bit of a fudge potentially.

I don't understand the upside for the UK from this. Am I missing something?

If they're not allowed to diverge from EU regulations, then they'll never be able to realise any advantage from not being in there, whilst at the same time being the subject of whatever changes the EU could impose. Why would a business prefer to be in the UK (where they can't influence govt regulatory changes) as oppose to an EU country (where they can)?

I'm guessing they'll try to remove freedom of movement or heavily restrict a quota might be a compromise.

I'm not too sure here but maybe we could be used as a stepping stone to trading with the EU for others outside the EU. Could benefit both parties then?

I'm guessing they'll try to remove freedom of movement

At which point they'd no longer be in regulatory alignment though?

I guess we'll see. It does sound like one of the first things that they'll try to get rid of.

Without which, they'd be placing firms at a significant competitive disadvantage by not being allowed to recruit from around Europe, whilst still not being able to take advantage of less strict regs as they're in 'alignment'

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13991347/

What if Davis has been working out on what that number might be?
Obviously they'd need to keep that pretty close to their chests....

I'm not too sure here but maybe we could be used as a stepping stone to trading with the EU for others outside the EU. Could benefit both parties then?

Being a member of the single market and customs union makes us the EU border, in all but name - to trade with us would be to trade with the EU, so no point using us as a stepping stone for routing goods into Europe for any new reason - access to ports, shipping infra etc still the same as it ever was.

At which point they'd no longer be in regulatory alignment though?

I guess we'll see. It does sound like one of the first things that they'll try to get rid of.

Without which, they'd be placing firms at a significant competitive disadvantage by not being allowed to recruit from around Europe, whilst still not being able to take advantage of less strict regs as they're in 'alignment'

This has never, ever been about logic - look at what Dov posted as his reasons for voting leave for a snapshot.

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What the dithering fuck is going on?

We've now moved into a position where no deal is very unlikely - it's now going to be exit talks, then once we have got that sorted, the discussion will move to do we want Norway or Canada.

And services?

What the dithering fuck is going on?

A classic 'punt it down the line' fudge from both sides, it would appear.

The EU, in the person of Michel Barnier, have become bored with the inability of the team led by David Davis to adress the impossibility of TMay's version of brexit, (leave the Single Market. leave the Customs Union, withdraw from the ECJ, but have no hard border bewteen NI/Eire), but have secured sufficient agreement on the rights of EU citizens remaining in the UK, and the monies the UK will pay to fund agreed EU28 expenditures,
to proceed to the Trade Agreement discussions,
with the very optimistic, indeed charitable hope that Davis will perform better.

Not looked at detail, but on the surface "regulatory" sounds goods/ services based as opposed to people.

People are the goods / service for a huge number of businesses though. This is why they're given free movement alongside the trading goods.

Hi there, large European multinational trading company, UK company here. We'd love to sell you our latest software product [Goods]. We'll be happy to install, maintain and run it for you [Services]. We have consultants [People] who can do all this for you...

Oh. They won't be able to help you as they can't get in and work in your country. Shame.

Maybe we can find another company here in the UK we can work with. Oh. They've all gone to Frankfurt.

So we just scraped the warm-up test?
Reads like the real negotiations on trade might be, erm, quite a bit harder:
https://www.politico.eu/article/tusk-puts-forward-guidelines-for-phase-2-talks/

I heard this on the radio early this morning as Theresa May made her announcement, and thought to myself that it was utter meaningless bollocks

Yep,
There's not even a mention of blue passports.

Please, please, please let the red passport rule be an EU reg that we have to align too...

Is the outcome of yesterday/last night's talks, as well as the general Ireland/NI issue, indicative of a possible/probable move towards a Norway-style system?

If so, I can't help but think, then what's the bloody point (I mean, I thought that before...).

So little will have changed; the harder of Brexiters' desires and grievances won't have been satiated; and we will have just spent a few years pissing away money and pissing people off.