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Viewpoint Stay in the Single Market
with Matthew Paul TWO NIL! On Tuesday (Jan 24),
the Supreme Court unsurprisingly confirmed that the Prime Minister is not allowed to wave a hazel twig, utter incantations in Latin or by whatever alternative mechanism she prefers invoke the Royal prerogative to overrule laws passed by Parliament. What Parliament has done only
Parliament can undo. This includes the bringing into UK law of every right, privilege and obligation that flows from our membership of the European Union. If we are to invoke Article 50, it must be by an Act of Parliament. The result should have surprised
Theresa May and her government. After all, following their defeat last November in the Administrative Court, May’s spokesman told journalists that she was ‘very confident we will win in the Supreme Court. We remain of the firm belief that we have strong legal arguments ahead of the case which will be moving to the Supreme Court next month’. Whatever
those strong legal
arguments were, the government chose not to deploy them in court. Attorney-General and sacrificial lamb Jeremy Wright stood blinking before 11 men and women with minds like bacon slicers, delivered himself of the same short speech that failed to persuade the lower court, and legged it before Lord Sumption could get stuck into him.
Eight to three, the Supreme Court
ruled against the government, who then (in contrast to the hissy fit in November) announced that they knew this was coming all along and it didn’t matter anyway because Parliament would vote how they were bloody well told. The Daily Mail did its Völkischer
Beobachter bit and attempted to get worked up about the ruling, but by and large all but the most wilfully obtuse (that being IDS, who grunted his disappointment at the result) have realised that there was nothing political about the case. It was also unsurprising that
interventions by the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland failed. Unlike the
Westminster Parliament, the Senedd, Holyrood and Stormont are not sovereign in themselves. They exist as creatures of statute, and the extent of their powers is defined by law. Dealing with the EU is a matter explicitly reserved to Westminster. Angry reports in the press howled
that Carwyn spent £90,000 on the Welsh Government’s legal challenge. This is very nearly as much as we pay the Future Generations Commissioner every year. It is terrifying to think that Wales might have to go without a Future Generations Commissioner for a year to pay for this extravagance. Although the devolved administrations
have no veto over Brexit, it would be wise for Theresa May to take the views of the Welsh and Scottish Governments properly into account (Nort Iron has no Government at present, since Sinn Fein picked up their suspicious package and stormed off after a tiff with the DUP). All the devolved administrations want
to stay in the European Economic Area and Customs Union, and to continue to trade freely with the 27 remaining members of the EU. The UK Government, banging on with the whopping lie that everyone who voted Leave was voting to leave the EEA and Customs Union, wants neither. The referendum campaign that
Brexiteers are now describing is not the one many of us remember. Last year, the complaint was that in 1972 the UK joined a common market, not a political union. Leavers wanted free trade, not federal rule. “Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market” said Brexit headbanger Dan Hannan, as he banged his moon-sized head. Nigel Farage himself comforted the
public that we would ‘find ourselves part of the European Economic Area, and with a trade deal’. It is, of course, correct that some voices on the Remain side warned that leaving the EU might well precipitate our departure from the Single Market. At the time, Brexiteers referred to these warnings as ‘Project Fear’. Still, at least we’ve got President
Trump, who is going to put us at the front of the queue for a trade deal, right? Anyone
who listened to The Donald’s beastly inauguration address and observed his first ugly days in office might have reason to doubt this. Amidst the wall building, Muslim
barring, approving of torture and other executive acts calculated to turn the USA into a stinking muckheap on a hill, Trump scrapped a free trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership, because he felt that it threatened American jobs. His first message to Americans as President was that ‘we will follow two simple rules. Buy American and hire American’. His priorities? ‘America first. America first. America first’. Brexiteers are optimistic that Trump
means well by Britain. After all, he put a bust of Churchill, not Hitler, in the Oval Office. Remainers are pessimistic, in the way that someone who has just seen a small child dash a Ming vase to shards is pessimistic when the child comes back with a tube of glue. In any trade deal, America first cannot
mean Britain first. To open our markets fully to American products, we will be clearing the way for the genetically modified products of million-cow hormone-stuffing Midwestern intensive beef units, heavily protected and subsidised steel and (to use some five tons of that steel up at once), the Chevrolet Suburban. If this sort of stuff starts flowing into
the UK, bang goes any Customs Union with the 27 EU countries. If we burn our bridges to the Single Market, we hold no cards at all when negotiating with Trump. Britain second in a trade deal with America is almost certainly going to mean Wales fourth at best, in the not unlikely scenario of Nicola Sturgeon screwing a better post-Brexit deal out of Theresa May than Carwyn can manage. The Supreme Court’s decision puts
power over the Brexit process back where it should be: with the Parliament whose restored sovereignty was supposedly the whole purpose of leaving the EU. Our MPs, particularly those representing constituencies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, must fight to stay in the Single Market.
Dr Simon Hancock: Welcoming Community Connectors Andrea Howard (left) and Tessa Fudge to Neyland
COMMUNITY CONNECTORS
- a free, tailored service for people and families across Pembrokeshire - has been launched, supporting people to take positive steps towards improving their health and well-being. Community Connectors is a
two-year program delivered by the Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS), working alongside the County Council and Health Board. The service will offer information
on local services and activities to suit individuals and widen their social networks. Four Community Connectors
will work in communities across the county and liaise with GP clusters and other preventative services. Neyland Town Council recently
offered free office accommodation to the local Community Connectors covering the town in a spirit of partnership working and enhancing services for local people. The Mayor of Neyland, Dr Simon
Hancock, said: “We warmly welcome a Community Connector to work in Neyland and district, working with statutory and voluntary services and afford them every possible facility to enhance their excellent and invaluable work.”
Fishguard Bay hold networking event GO FISHGUARD BAY is
holding a networking event on Tuesday, February 7, from 6pm- 8pm, offering local businesses the opportunity to promote themselves to other businesses that may not know how good they are. Take part in the B2B Networking Event for a fast-paced opportunity to
showcase your business, make useful contacts and found out more about fellow businesses in your area. The event will be held at
Fishguard Bay Hotel with limited spaces available. In order to guarantee attendance, please register now by emailing
co.uk.
chamber@gofishguard.
THE HERALD FRIDAY JANUARY 27 2017
Follow us on Twitter @pembsherald
AM welcomes Bowlers Club to Senedd
Local AM Paul Davies: With Olwen and Steve Whitmore of Pembrokeshire Disabled Bowlers Club
PRESELI PEMBROKESHIRE
Assembly Member Paul Davies met with members of the Pembrokeshire Disabled Bowlers Club at an event to promote the impact of lottery funding across Wales. Pembrokeshire Disabled Bowlers
Club received just over £7,000 from Sport Wales last year, which has allowed the club to a make a range of improvements. Mr Davies said: “I was delighted
to attend the National Lottery Senedd event to hear more about how lottery
funding has supported local clubs and organisations in Pembrokeshire. It was a pleasure to meet Steve and Olwen Whitmore to hear about how they’ve received funding to help them adapt wheelchairs to allow members to access the green and play more fully. Lottery funding can make a real difference to local communities and it’s great to see that funding being used effectively by the Pembrokeshire Disabled Bowlers Club to deliver wheelchair improvements and help widen access to the green for club members.”
New community well-being service
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