Brexit has revealed further the rottenness of the British political Establishment, but I am still truly shocked now to see the Government of the United Kingdom negotiating a major international treaty on the acknowledged, discussed and now published basis that it has every intention of breaking that treaty once it is in force. Officially published by the Attorney General, no less.
The Westminster Government’s contempt for international law was fully demonstrated just two weeks ago when it repudiated the International Court of Justice – an act which is the ultimate disavowal of the rule of international law – over the decolonisation of the Chagos Islands. So in one sense it is no shock that they are prepared to sign a treaty with no intention of honoring it.
But what is quite astonishing is that the discussions with the DUP and ERG on how to sign up to the backstop and then dishonour it, have been carried out fully in public, and with the potential other party to the treaty looking on.
I simply do not see how the EU can now sign the Withdrawal Agreement which was negotiated with May, when they have been given firm evidence that the UK intends to cheat on that Agreement.
I especially cannot understand the pusillanimous attitude of the government of Ireland to this development. The UK has published in advance that it is taking Ireland and the Irish people for fools and has no intention of keeping to the Irish backstop. The reaction of the Government of Ireland is to pretend not to notice. That is an astonishing dereliction of its duty to the people of Ireland, North and South.
The more so as Geoffrey Cox’s “advice” is an unsubtle hint to the DUP, should the backstop become effective, to restart the Loyalist violence with which they were for decades so closely associated, in order to provide the pretext for cancelling the backstop. In reading this, it is essential to remember that this legal advice was written, as a matter of definite fact, directly for the DUP audience to try and influence the DUP in the next “meaningful” vote. To signal to an organisation as steeped in blood as the DUP that the way out of the “Backstop” arrangement which they so hate, would be to demonstrate it is having a “socially destabilising effect in Northern Ireland”, clearly gives a very direct incentive to Loyalists to restart violence.
Anybody who knows anything about the history and politics of Northern Ireland must be aware that what I have just written is true. At the very best reading, Cox’s “advice” is grossly irresponsible and reckless.
It is also very poor legal advice. Unlike Geoffrey Cox, I have actually negotiated a number of international treaties, including most of the UK’s continental shelf boundary agreements, the Protocol on Deep Seabed Mining to UNCLOS and the Sierra Leone Peace Agreement. Cox’s interpretation of Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on Treaties is complete nonsense. To start with, Article 62 is designed not to facilitate but to prevent treaties being dishonoured under the excuse of “unforseen circumstances”. It reads:
Article 62
Fundamental change of circumstances
1. A fundamental change of circumstances which has occurred with regard to those existing at the
time of the conclusion of a treaty, and which was not foreseen by the parties, may not be invoked as a
ground for terminating or withdrawing from the treaty unless:
(a) the existence of those circumstances constituted an essential basis of the consent of the parties to
be bound by the treaty; and
21
(b) the effect of the change is radically to transform the extent of obligations still to be performed
under the treaty.
2. A fundamental change of circumstances may not be invoked as a ground for terminating or
withdrawing from a treaty:
(a) if the treaty establishes a boundary; or
(b) if the fundamental change is the result of a breach by the party invoking it either of an obligation
under the treaty or of any other international obligation owed to any other party to the treaty.
3. If, under the foregoing paragraphs, a party may invoke a fundamental change of circumstances
as a ground for terminating or withdrawing from a treaty it may also invoke the change as a ground for
suspending the operation of the treaty.
Very plainly indeed, neither 1 a) nor 1 b) apply to the situation Cox outlines. Just not working out the way you intended is not grounds to dishonor a treaty. Social discontent in Northern Ireland would not radically transform the obligations under the treaty nor is social content the essential basis of consent to the treaty.
The second, and frankly hilarious, point is that Cox’s advice is demonstrably nonsense. To permit the dishonoring of the treaty, a change in circumstance must not only be “fundamental” it must also be “unforeseen”. Yet in his legal advice Cox foresees and specifies the “unforeseen” event that might lead to cancellation!
I rest my case.
It is worth reminding you – as the MSM refuse to do – that the Tory Brexiteers oppose the Good Friday Agreement, and destroying it is to them a potential gain from Brexit rather than a disaster to be averted. Remember this by Michael Gove, asserting that the British military option would be better than the Good Friday Agreement?
Ulster’s future lies, ultimately, either as a Province of the United
Kingdom or a united Ireland. Attempts to fudge or finesse that
truth only create an ambiguity which those who profit by violence
will seek to exploit. Therefore, the best guarantee for stability is the
assertion by the Westminster Government that it will defend, with
all vigour, the right of the democratic majority in Northern Ireland
to remain in the United Kingdom. Ulster could then be governed
with an Assembly elected on the same basis as Wales, and an
administration constituted in the same way. Minority rights should
be protected by the same legal apparatus which exists across the
UK. The legislative framework which has guaranteed the rights and
freedoms of Roman Catholics and ethnic minorities in Liverpool
and London should apply equally in Belfast and Belleek…In such circumstances, resolute security action, the use of
existing antiterrorist legislation and the careful application of
intelligence could reduce the IRA to operating as it did in the fifties
and sixties. Combining such security measures with a political
determination not to allow Ulster’s constitutional status to be altered
by force of arms would rob the republicans of hope.
It can be done. But does any Government have the will?
Interestingly enough, after I published an article on Gove’s 58 page pamphlet attacking the Good Friday Agreement, the Tory think tank which published it, the Centre for Policy Studies, immediately took it down from the web. I have, however, copied it to my own website.
By chance, my next couple of speaking engagements are in Northern Ireland. This is not the subject I was intending to discuss, but I never know what I am going to say when I stand up anyway. Happy to answer questions on anything.
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If one looks at the spread of votes in Northern Ireland, it’s clear that an overwhelming majority of Catholics voted to remain in the European Union as well as an awful lot of Protestants. This doesn’t look too good for the future of the DUP and must have put the fear of God into them. Also I was unaware of the rapidly changing balance between the Catholics and Protestants, because of their higher birthrate the Catholic minority will soon not be the minority anymore, this could happen within ten to fifteen years. What the DUP do then, will be interesting.
Don’t forget the new migrants who have, like in anytown-U.K, changed the demographics in the last 10 years. I mean from students to all these businesses that are going to take advantage of the GFA remaining in force,as well as overseas and EU. Also I wonder how easily the nextgen yoof will takeon the sectarian indoctrination. Are as many of the ‘boys’ still marching every summer?
Under the motto ‘Thugs ‘R US’, after Bolton, now Pompeo threatens the ICC over US and Israeli war crime investigations.
https://www.rt.com/news/453951-pompeo-icc-visa-revoke/
bj
Thanks for that, we should not forget the “Hague Invasion Act” which allows the US to attack the Hague should a US citizen be taken by them, or indeed a citizen of any ally of the US.
What a filthy, corrupt, warmongering nation.
Sky News’ political editor is fairly astute. He writes on Theresa May’s Brexit shenanigans.
Theresa May has the Brexiteers where she wants them
Sky News’ political editor looks at what awaits Theresa May after a historic week in the Commons capped by a Brexit delay.
https://news.sky.com/story/theresa-may-has-the-brexiteers-where-she-wants-them-11666038
‘Undoubtedly the clock has not yet been reset – it is subject to the EU’s help at the summit later next week. The size of the challenge has not, also.
Ultimately passing motions of this week’s importance on opposition votes against several of your Cabinet is unstable and unsustainable.
But it has created a platform for one last throw of the dice.
There is no irony in the fact that the biographical note for the author of this article in today’s Guardian, headlined as ‘The Islamophobia that led to the Christchurch shooting must be confronted’, reads as follows –
‘HA Hellyer is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and the Atlantic Council, and the author of Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans.’
!!
[ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/15/islamophobia-christchurch-shooting-anti-muslim-bigotry-new-zealand ]
You will know of the antecedents of both RUSI and of the Atlantic Council.
What kind of person:
(a) travels to the likes of North Korea and Pakistan;
(b) is a weapons and explosives expert;
(c) claims to be a “white supremacist”; yet,
(d) attacks a foreign country?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-15/brentont/10907176
Special services mercenary who likes shagging Asian girls when he’s not doing false flags for 5 eyes and the Atlantic supremacists?
Do you have any source to the statement “travels to the likes of North Korea and Pakistan”?
I could not find one.
The belt and those buttons don’t look particularly Korean –North or otherwise– or Pakistani to me.
one of the tabloids had this ‘travel’ as a click-bait headline yesterday, whether the article actually referenced the itinerary correctly, I dunno.
writeon
March 15, 2019 at 19:52
Says
” In a well-functioning democracy, this kind of detailed analysis, shouldn’t be left to individuals like Craig Murray; where’s the rest of our ‘free and independent’ media with all their substanitial resources? Where’s the BBC and the Guardian? ”
The shocking thing is, that this is No surprise to most readers of Craig’s Blog..
On or a day or two after the 21st February, I was read this Prophecy –
” .. Here’s the great secret truth about the Brexit cliff edge: It’s not on March 29th. It’s actually pretty easy to extend that deadline by a few months and there is something close to consensus in Whitehall, Westminster and Brussels that we’ll have to. The real cliff edge is on July 1st, the day before the inaugural plenary session of the newly-elected European parliament.
That’s the dead zone. If you haven’t taken part in the upcoming European elections, there’s no way to extend the deadline any further. So something is becoming increasingly clear. If Labour really is committed to ruling out no-deal, if moderate Tory Cabinet ministers really mean it when they say they refuse to allow it to happen, they must support British participation. This is, by far, the most important aspect of the whole Brexit debate. And there is almost no mention of it at all..
https://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/02/21/the-real-brexit-cliff-edge-is-not-on-march-29th-it-s-july-1s
Nothing of substance has changed, and May’s WA is going down for a third time next week, IMO. Actually, I suspect these ‘talks’ and Cox’s massaged legal opinion are merely part of a ruse to waste more time before March 29, when we legally leave the EU with no deal.
I suspect that far from being the ‘Remainer’ that hardliners try to paint her as, May is most likely a puppet of the ERG, using her ‘deal’ as cover to avoid the kind of true soft-Brexit compromise proposed by Corbyn and to shield the government from blame for the gross irresponsibility of leaving the EU with no deal. It is hard to think of any other good explanation as to why she has continually pandered to the ERG and DUP when there were other options for uniting the country.
Here’s a problem I think.
The only way MPs can prevent an accidental or otherwise No Deal is to wrestle legislative power
away from May and her majority less government.
Usually – these are not normal times – a government which couldn’t get its legislation through.would
go to The Queen for a chat.
These are not normal times however and May has no intention of having tea and biccies with Liz.
There are two ways of doing this possibly and a vote of no confidence is one.
The second is to change the leaving date.
If the first one fails then the second becomes extremely urgent.
So for all May is going back to Brussels for an extension then if the legal leaving date is still the 29/3/19 then is
this extension just for show?
I don’t know the answer to that.
To my mind the date needs to be changed.
All the talk is about a referendum but if the UK falls out on the 29th then are all bets off for everything?
Anyone got any answer?
Ken
Chloroform followed by Lithium injections for May. White suits with knotted long sleeves for the ERG.
Dominic Grieve to be interim PM
Gove and Boris to meet and greet the public on college green under BBC protection from being skinned alive
Ken,
The little man in the big green chair invokes Erskine May…tells her she’s had two chances both have been heavily defeated. There’s no substantive change in the body of the bill. Game over.
He’s all swagger and no bollocks…he won’t do it.
Well, well. I take it back. He’s grown a pair over the week-end.
If the UK attorney general is going to argue that the Vienna convention enables the UK to terminate the withdrawal agreement in the event that there has been an “unforeseen and fundamental change of circumstances”, then couldn’t that particular can of worms have impact elsewhere.
Couldn’t for instance Spain argue that the “unforeseen and fundamental change of circumstances” line might also apply to the ceding of Gibraltar to England in the terms of the Peace of Utrecht. Perhaps its a line Nicola Sturgeon might use vis-a-vis the act of union.
The general view seems to be that Cox’s view will be comprehensively rubbished, not least by the DUP’s Nigel Dodds, who was a member of the ERG’s star chamber.
FranxB
If the government understands the rules of the EU why does it always fail to make political traction against the EU
Answer because the UK bends the rules of international law so it prefers not to play by a rules system for fear of being accused of wrongdoing itself
Retired British ambassador Peter Ford is a good example of what is meant when it is said that an ambassador “has gone native”.
He must have fallen in love with Baby-Assad when he was in post in Damascus.
One of the reasons why the office moves people around is precisely to prevent them from “going native”. I guess some “go native” more quickly than expected. Very unfortunate but you can’t win them all.
Your chagrin over the lack of anything of substance that might be held against Peter Ford is shining through in this infantile comment.
There’s plenty of substance to be held against the old fool. His attempts to defend and justify Baby-Assad, for example.
An unprincipled charlatan like you Charles, calling Peter Ford a fool. Says it all really.
The posters on this forum are, by an large, not impressed with your ‘arguments’ still less your peurile insults.
:
You probably don’t see it – but that post of yours is repulsively racist; I’m not surprised, I’ve suspected all along that among other huge faults you are also repulsively racist.
As much as I’m tempted to put here what I really think of you, I know that that would require all the profanity I could muster – which is considerable, and Craig Murray or the ‘minders’ of this blog seem to frown on that sort of thing and nuke the comment..
Well that should give the picture anyway; who knows, with “luck”, perhaps we might bump into each other some day?
.
Only to add … in the meanwhile good luck with the book burning.
Revell
“Well that should give the picture anyway; who knows, with “luck”, perhaps we might bump into each other some day?”
I do hope so. The next time I come across someone muttering (or perhaps shouting) in a supermarket car park I’ll ask him if it’s you.
All mouth and no trousers – and no Facebook either.
Revell
“I know that that would require all the profanity I could muster – which is considerable, ”
At last – you have written something believable! Keep it up!
Further to what I wrote about Ray McGovern earlier on (perhaps it’s been deleted), I have now read his Wikipedia entry. Despite having been rather obviously edited by someone favorabe to the old fool, that entry makes it abundantly clear that McGovern is a serial hooligan who has attempted to disrupt many a meeting, speech or whatever. He either was never taught manners or has a gigantic sense of entitlement.
i noticed a complete failure to support your smears; understandable.
“…is a serial hooligan who has attempted to disrupt many a meeting, speech or whatever”.
Anyone who doesn’t follow the Western diktat is automatically silenced and treated as a pariah or apologist for this, that and the other. Ironic that you state that such people have never been taught manners or have a gigantic sense of entitlement. I think you’ll find that those who promote the establishment narrative are the ones who “have never been taught manners etc….” in their determination to silence those voicing alternative views. Hence the need to make oneself heard through being ‘disruptive’. McGovern is to be congratulated for not conceding defeat and for seeing it as his moral duty to stand up against the warmongering establishment.
For another example of the blatant quelling of alternative views:
https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/04/media-on-trial-event-banned/
At least this white supremacist racist murderous dog has done us the service of reminding us that Nazi scum are our most major concern.
Sorry to bring up QT – really! – but they quoted a point made on social media that all this was payback for Muslim instigated violence, all of which was apparently started by them for no reason at all, at the turn of the millennia.
Never mind that right-wing Nazi white supremacist scum have been responsible for most of the terrorist attacks – particularly on Jews and Muslims recently. We apparently want to ignore that far-right white supremacists and Imperialism generally was ever a problem to these groups before the turn of the millennium.
Are you sure about this? Since 2003, an average of almost 1000 civilians have died in terror attacks every month in Iraq alone.
I would genuinely be surprised if the total worldwide Jewish/Moslem body count from “right-wing Nazi white supremacist scum” comes anywhere close to the Iraq number over that 16-year period, or any part of it.
You are citing 2003, and yet fail to mention the grave war crime that was perpetrated in that very year, that precipitated the chaos in Iraq that has lead to the situation you so selectively describe.
Those that perpetrated that war crime may or may not have been Nazi’s, but they sure as hell were “right-wing white supremacist scum”.
I’m more than happy to acknowledge the role that Tony Blair and his fellow scum played in unlocking the asylum gates, handing out the weapons, and telling the loonies to get out there and party.
But I’m not intellectually dishonest enough to pretend that it’s not the loonies who have been carrying out the slaughter during the sixteen years since.
And you have a baldarsed cheek accusing me of being “selective”. Does a bomb blowing up forty innocent women and children in a marketplace only count as a terrorist act if (1) it didn’t happen in Iraq and (2) it was whitey who did it?
That certainly appears to be the way that glenn_nl massages his numbers.
:
THe terrorism in Iraq and the rest of the middle east invaded/bombed by the West is WESTERN TERRORISM you idiot.
The ‘nitty-gritty’ details of who or which group commits this or that heinous act is irrelevant – those cases are Western Terrorism BY PROXY.
There was NONE OF IT before drunken teenager George W. Bush and his fellow Mass-Murdering serial War-Criminal pal Tony Blair began the long so far ceaseless destruction of one secular state after another.
.
Nobody radicalised more people than Bush and Blair, and bearing in mind Bush said God told him to end the tyranny in Iraq (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa), it is Christian fundamentalism that began the slaughter and pillage which continues to this day in several more places; it’s not five or six wars now, it’s the same war but in five or six theatres. They killed more people in Iraq than Saddam ever did. People in Iraq said not even Saddam did this to us.
Never mind The Hague we should reconvene Nuremburg for those two, the biggest killers and thieves alive.
It’s much easier to till the land where the soil is fertile. Let’s suppose drunken teenager George W. Bush and his fellow Mass-Murdering serial War-Criminal pal Tony Blair had made their way north to Drumnadrochit, say, and whispered to the locals there “Hey. Here’s some really serious weaponry. How about you go out and start slaughtering a couple of hundred thousand of your fellow countrymen…”
I very much doubt that the response would have been: Oh wow… Yeah! Let’s DO IT!”
It might not fit your simple worldview too well, but if those people who have slaughtered so many helpless civilians in Iraq over the past 16 years had the power and reach of Tone and Dubya, and access to the armaments they had under their command, then we wouldn’t be looking at a couple of million dead in MENA.
The whole planet would be a smoking ruin.
(1) You seem to be defining “terrorist attacks” as only those carried out by non-military. Ask the people of Fallujah for their definition.
(2) Regards Drumnadrochit, let’s suppose Bush and Blair sent the SAS there with orders to bomb a packed ceilidh on a Saturday night and make it look like Fort Augustus folk had done it. Then the SAS bomb a wedding in Fort Augustus and leave a note saying it was revenge for the Drumnadrochit bombing. Then they arm both villages and let them get on with it, occasionally intervening with a well timed atrocity to keep the pot boiling. Unending carnage ensues. Please note there was no previous history of violence between the two communities.
https://www.facts-are-facts.com/news/the-real-terrorists-british-terrorists-caught-in-iraq
Never mind that right-wing Nazi white supremacist scum have been responsible for most of the terrorist attacks – particularly on Jews and Muslims recently
Just swap Islamist for Nazi and you much closer to the truth. They are pretty white in my book; their Book makes them feel far superior than all others; count the number of Muslims killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen and Christchurch is just a blip. Anybody wants to call the Wahhibi or Deobandi left-wing or center? During WWII specific Islamist units were created amongst the Nazi troops so both are birds of a feather.
Christchurch mass murderer Brenton Tarrant did go to Pakistan recently…… https://www.samaa.tv/news/2019/03/new-zealand-mosque-shooter-visited-pakistan-in-2018-confirms-hotel-owner/
A Kiwi journalist complains in this article that the 5EYES security matrix have often been illegally looking at everything, except terrorists. Suzie Dawson is a Kiwi journalist, activist and current president of the Internet Party of New Zealand. She specializes in writing about whistleblowers, intelligence agencies, geopolitics and technology. She demands to know why she and Nicky Hager have been spied upon as independent investigative journalists?
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/03/15/misguided-spying-and-the-new-zealand-massacre/
Pakistan is a mayor non NATO alley of the 5 EYES. – terror central.
Shows that terrorism was and is a fig leaf to enable Mass surveillance on their own Anglo populations to keep dissent low. Only an extravagant billionaire who made it to US president has a chance against this run US Cabal. The good old times of FBI Edgar J. Hoover is their ideal but now there is Internet two way observation.
Terrorist attacks are launched regularly from Pakistan. On India recently, Afghanistan, Iran. They have their semi-official training bases (india bombed one after the recent attack by a suicide bombing teenager trained there) and military/sis protection and western/Arab funding and control. Their DS.
Khan has got a job on his hands.
It’s a sad fact that not a single one of those masquerading as “journalists” in our MSM ever have asked or ever will ask of any senior politician the simple and obvious question: “Did the British authorities ever finance, train, arm or in any other way provide support to Salman Albedi?”
The already know the answer, and we’re not allowed to know.
Ref Five Eyes
NZ
Agency/Abbr/Role
Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security/ DDIS/ Defence intelligence
Government Communications Security Bureau/ GCSB/ Signal intelligence
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service/ NZSIS/ Human intelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes
I already stated this on p.1 of this thread, but yes — the surveillance state is foremost a tool of the right trying to stay in control of the left.
What about ollie robins working WITH barnier to go against the democratic will of uk citizenry?
Nobody in Britain ever voted for Barnier, not even one Remainer. Him calling the shots here is even less legitimate than an unelected Lord. But how do we get rid of him? Ooh! I know! We leave the EU, just like the majority voted to do.
Mr Murray
I am following the Brexit debate with great concern for the peace in NI, tho I have no personal stakes in the matter. I am very worried about the news that Stormont has been involved in the latest “negotiations” with the DUP. I fear a blatant power grab, giving the DUP the rule of NI as a price for their vote. Some people say I am paranoid, but considering the current government’s lack of integrity I don’t see what would stop them.
Is it legally feasible, that May will try to overrule the current rules for democracy in NI ? Her government has done nothing to facilitate change to the current political situation, and I am sure it would suit her well to have the DUP as NI leaders (as they have been for the last years).
I wish I knew what the ‘backstop’ means. I can understand what ‘Brexit’ means, but every permutation and combination of Irish border panjandrums just leaves me with a conundrum. I’ve looked it up on the Internet and got nowhere. What does backstop mean exactly can anyone say please?
Auntie in Portland Place explains:
Q&A: The Irish border Brexit backstop
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-northern-ireland-politics-44615404
Any help?
Mention of the word brings back childhood memories. There is a ‘backstop’ in the game of rounders. Do children still play the game?
‘backstop
(in rounders) a player who stands directly behind the player from the opposing team who is trying to hit the ball, and attempts to catch the ball after it has been thrown if the person does not hit it.’
@ramblingidiot, the backstop seem, to this poor soul anyway, to be everything you imagined it to be, anything you imagined it to be, nothing you imagined it to be.
It exemplifies the craft of management speak at its best, a gob smacking example of how to turn words upside down.
It’s also going to provide for the biggest smuggling operation the world has ever seen. Parsons will get ample brandy, and clerks will get their vape oil…_
It is simply the assurance policy built in the Withdrawal Agreement that the Belfast Agreement (GFA) will carry on being guaranteed by Westminster and other partners to that GFA.
NI is a legally created ‘unicorn’!
Its peoples have guarantees to be British, Irish or BOTH; as well as no hard border (the military towers and patrols in the fields and lanes)
So even after brexit these peoples will be able to have rights to EU nationality (Irish) as well no hard border with Eire as guaranteed by the GFA.
The backstop is that assurance given by May in the WA – it was her idea!
N.I. is a unicorn…. the tourist board will have a winning campaign with that one.
Putting the craic to one side, that’s as good an explanation I have read of what the backstop is, or isn’t…_
Further hypocritical and cynical action from the Tories.
An about turn to keep the universities going.
‘Visa extension to boost numbers of overseas students in UK after Brexit
New measures will allow international students to seek employment for up to a year
Sat 16 Mar 2019
International students will be given visa extensions of up to a year to look for work in the UK as part of a package of government measures to boost numbers of overseas students after Brexit.
The move represents a break with current policy, where students are allowed to stay for just four months after graduation.’
/..
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/16/visa-extension-overseas-students-uk-brexit
Re the recent terrorist attack in NZ.
Last month the terrorist and racist OPM massacred 19 Indonesian workers in Nduga. It was obviously coordianted with the political wing and their propaganda wing which both used it for immediate political advantage. Terrorism of course wasn’t invented by AQ. Below is an example of how UK Labor parliamentarians disseminate hoax stories to capitalise on the physical act of terrorism. Not a few in NZ, including in the mainstream media, are doing it too. Corbyn and far too many in his party support terrorism. You will notice not a word of the OPM massacre of the 19 labourers, no a parliamentary motion to condemn that crime against humanity, but disseminates OPM propaganda faithfully copied by two Australian ‘activists.’ The recent call for violent rightwing terrorist images and social media accounts which distribute them to be taken down permanently should apply equally to leftwing racist terrorism. Police should now investigate those who fund the OPM.
United Kingdom: Parliamentary motion demands action on chemical weapons.
An Early Day Motion demanding action by the British Government on chemical weapons has been launched by Alex Sobel MP.
Supporters of the Free West Papua campaign in the UK may contact their MP via our website to register support for the motion.
Early Day Motion # 2074
Early Day Motions for all parties, to show their support for a statement or concern, and call on the Government to act. It demonstrates to the Government, the strength of feeling in the House of Commons about issues. In effect, they’re a petition which only MPs are allowed to sign.
The Early Day Motion Motion West Papua Chemical Weapons Use in (EDM # 2074) can be supported by all Members on Parliament and many MPs. It will support EDMS when asked by their constituents of MPs.
The EDM says:
That this House is deeply concerned with the use of chemical weapons by the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) in the West Papuan regency of Nduga; notes that the Nduga Regency is a significant increase in Indonesian military and police activity; further notes that Indonesia is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention; and wishes to draw attention to witness testimony and journalistic reporting that the Indonesian military has made use of potentially burning chemicals including white phosphorous; believe there is sufficient documentary evidence to warrant OPCW investigation; and calls upon the Government, together with members of the international community, to push for a full investigation.
There have been 6 EDMs on West Papua since March 1990, three of which were tabled by Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Opposition.
Alex Sobel MP
Alex Sobel is the Member for Parliament for Leeds North West. He was sent by the six other MPs and then accepted by the Parliament as EDM.
Chemical Weapons in West Papua
For further information about chemical weapons use in West Papua please see this article which contains disturbing graphic images
https://www.ipwp.org/…/united-kingdom-parliamentary-motion…/
Indonesia doesn’t have chemical weapons.
@ certa certi March 16, 2019 at 07:37
The Indonesians have been in brutal occupation of West Papua since 1962, thanks in large part to the Yanks and the UN.
Massacres, torture, repression colonising have been endemic.
The OPM have a perfect right to resist the repression in any way they see fit.
As for Indonesia not having Chemical Weapons, how the f*ck do you know? A huge country like Indonesia can easily produce or procure Chemical Weapons – even the cut-throat Jihadis in Syria have Chemical Weapons, and use them as False Flag ‘Red Lines’ to draw Coalition air attacks on Assad’s forces.
‘History of West Papua’: https://www.freewestpapua.org/info/history-of-west-papua/
‘Like’!
Better than a riposte I’d figured I’d make to this supporter of fascists. Thanks for saving me the trouble!
.
‘The OPM have a perfect right to resist the repression in any way they see fit’
They do not. They have no right to terrorism. They have become the oppressor and surrendered the ethical and moral high ground. They had no right to the racist massacre of 19 civilian workers in Nduga. They do have a right to peaceful political advocacy – Indonesia is a democracy – and diplomacy. That included propagnda, but not the sort that provokes hate speech and racist violence. Your justification for terrorism ie the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure to achieve a political advantage is abborrhent.
‘The Indonesians have been in brutal occupation of West Papua since 1962, thanks in large part to the Yanks and the UN.
Massacres, torture, repression colonising have been endemic’
My you have swallowed the koolaid. Why don’t you go there. Frequently. Start in Raja Empat. Apart from a few places in the central highlands, it’s as peaceful as you could expect in a place where 94% of violent deaths are domestic violence and alcohol related. BP is doing a great job in Tangguh and Bintuni. World best practice. The Western Birdshead Province is the envy of others and would vote for Indonesia if asked to.
‘As for Indonesia not having Chemical Weapons, how the f*ck do you know’
Everyone knows. But just for you – https://www.nti.org/learn/countries/indonesia/
Linking to propganda masquerading as ‘history’ from activist sources is never a good idea. Your link is rubbish propaganda.
The NEI used the historical claims of sovereignty by Ternate and Tidore to claim Papua, which was part of the NEI until WW2, administered from Ambon. After the war Sukarno declared independence and KIM was founded by the Indonesian political exiles association in Melbourne, including Papuans. Papuans immediately opened branches of KIM in Papua and it’s leaders were both ethnic Papuan and non Papuan. Their strength was in the Colonial police and the Papuan Battalion and they planned an uprising. The few white Dutch who had returned were so fearful they asked Australia to send troops from Rabaul to preempt it. They detained over 200 suspected rebels. KIM had in a short time already won the support of more than a third of Papuans. Here’s a bio of one of the leaders, a Papuan who’d been a Dutch policeman and soldier who’d fought against the Japanese. The first independence movement postwar was to join Sukarno’s republic. Had the planned uprising succeeeded they would have done so in 1946.
http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/7607/1/BIOGRAFI%20PAHLAWAN%20NASIONAL%20MARTHIN%20INDEY%20DAN%20SILAS%20PAPARE.pdf
certa certi
“Corbyn and far too many in his party support terrorism”
Obama created the Islamic State and Trump continues to oversee the rehabilitation of its members back into mainstream Middle Eastern societies, limiting his proxies’ activities to US’ strategic objectives.
Islamic State is required for future use against Myanmar, China and other Muslim countries like Uzbekistan,
The terrorist Muslim Brotherhood supporter Erdogan stands next to Trump at the G20 summit. Erdogan’s objective being to normalise the false evidence for fighting Muslims and takfir on which the terro creed is founded.
Corbyn opposes all of the Zionist terrorism listed above, and not listed above .
And your point is?
‘And your point is?’
Corbyn and far too many in his party support terrorism.
I used the recent example of the recent terrorist, racist massacre of 19 workers by the OPM in Nduga Indonesia to illustrate. So much for defending workers huh. Elements of SNP culpable too.
Clearly the bitter, brutal and savage failures and bankruptcy of US/UK/IS tactics in the Middle East and Afghanistan have created a polar opposite world in which gangsters in power call for lies deceit and subterfuge to legitimise and protect their disciples.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/15/mike-pompeo-us-war-crimes-investigation-international-criminal-court
This whole concept of having the AG “change his legal advice” leaves me completely baffled.
If I am negotiating a contract, and lets say I don’t like a clause in the contract. If I browbeat my lawyer, or perhaps even call in some goons to intimidate my lawyer, in order to get a different legal opinion from my lawyer about the contract, then that is still just a charade to make myself feel better when I sign the contract. After all, the terms of the contract won’t have changed a bit. Thus, should the case ever come up in court, its those terms of the contract that will matter. If I then try to wave before the court a copy of a letter from my lawyer saying what his advice on the contract is (after I twisted his arm), then I’d expect the court simply to laugh at me and tell me that I should have gotten a better lawyer.
This is obviously all just a charade to try to give some people some political excuse to change the way they vote. PM Mayday couldn’t get the actual agreement changed. So now she’s trying to get the government’s lawyer to “change his legal advice.” How completely absurd.
:
Well Blair did that with Goldsmith, ref: the “legality” of the Iraq “War”.
“We have to find a way to make it legal”, Blair said to Goldsmith, after Goldsmith had told him it would be illegal without a 2nd. UN resolution in the War-Mongers’ favour, and after it became clear that a 2nd UN resolution would indeed go against said War Mongers; and Goldsmith, to his shame, complied. I don’t know if Blair used the Mafia to get Goldsmith to change his opinion; I doubt it, Blair being much scarier than the Mafia.
.
And simply changing an opinion from illegal to legal shows just how lawless the west has become. If Al Capone or the Krays had been able to decide what was legal none of them would have broken any laws either.
Perry Mason
Did you read the link on the previous page to the British constitution under which subjugation of the UK to the EU and supporting terrorist armies against sovereign states is unconstitutional on the grounds that these proxies can, and do, backfire?
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/brexit-constitutional-position
The legal advice of the bombastic Mr Cox is intended to restore British sovereignty back from the EU while we continue to commit unconstitutional war crimes on a grand scale abroad for the benefit of another country. If Liar General had given his reasons and original evidence, it would have blown the lid on all our 30 years of unconstitutional and illegal zionist terrorist crimes.
At the moment we are poodle to our essential partners US, IS and KSA. And currently unable to fire one sausage out of a converted water pistol against our enemies because our radar is jammed by Russia and or China. hence the ridiculous bombast and fake posturing by the guy.
The attitude of top Tories towards murder of innocents by NI loyalists or the British army are of a piece with their attitude toward sadistic child rape by Establishment eminences. That sounds extreme but it is actually true, very clearly evidenced once again this week. These are the great and the good running the country. The fact nobody highlights it on the telly does not make it less true.
‘Jess Phillips Emerges as Establishment Pick to Replace Corbyn’:
https://off-guardian.org/2019/03/15/jess-phillips-emerges-as-establishment-pick-to-replace-corbyn/
Another traitor bites the dust, hopefully….
The sooner Jess Phillips’ constituency party deselect her the better. Then she can join the party where she’ll be most at home, the Tories. She likes posing as coming from a working class background rather than the safe middle class one of reality. She is from the same reactionary petite bourgeois background as Margaret Thatcher and is just as reactionary.
What is going on here? The US warning the UK and Europe that we are in danger from Iranian terror attacks. I am struggling to think when Iran last launched terror attacks in Europe.
Are the US/UK about to launch a big “false flag” attack?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/15/britain-eu-risk-iranian-terror-attacks-home-us-counter-terrorism/
When has the Iranian government carried out any terrorist attacks anywhere?
France, 1986?
France 1986?
Can you elaborate ?
Eurodif, what else?
The attacks Iain seems to be alluding to is referenced in Wiki at: :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Lorentz “Eurodif and Iran’s nuclear program” which report seems to be based on a TV documentary : “Lorentz, Dominique and Carr-Brown, David, La République atomique (“The Atomic Republic”), diffused on November 14, 2001 on Arte TV, about Tehran’s blackmail to Paris in the 1980s”
What actual evidence is cited is not clear, the documentary refereed to is apparently not available online. Perhaps Iain can cite some reliable source
Didier Bigo, « Les attentats de 1986 en France : un cas de violence transnationale et ses implications (Partie 1) », Cultures & Conflits [En ligne], 04 | hiver 1991, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2002. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/conflits/129 ; DOI : 10.4000/conflits.129
Didier Bigo reckoned the case was not proven (1), but gives a detailed background to the amateurish but very deadly 1986 Hezbollah bombings in Paris and their possible, plausible or probable links with the Iranian embassy, in the context of French support for Irak at the time, with hostages being held in Lebanon.
(1) Not guilty but don’t do it again.
Exactly. Iran has a history of not attacking/ going to war for over 250years.
That they had to defend themselves is not here or there.
This is a scurrilous assumption that raises a sceptre of talking somethink up, creating a narrative of danger that can later guide other actions/assumption/violence.
Like chickens we peck this daily gruel, fattened up with nasty precepts we are walking towards the rotisserie nightmare.
Iran has just received its final basting with paprica, next it will be forced on to the spit by crooks and criminal psycos who do it cause they can and it makes them money/ keeps them in power/ means another steal of resources.
It’s the zionist push for war, plain & simple.
Grayling has not been sacked but he will still be responsible for squandering our £millions on ferry contracts.
Brexit ferry contracts could cost government millions more
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47592812
‘The government will be forced to spend tens of millions of additional pounds to keep its no-deal ferry contracts in place if Brexit is delayed.
In December the Department for Transport contracted three suppliers to provide additional freight capacity on ferries for lorries.
That was in case a no-deal Brexit led to congestion on roads to the coast.’
Tory run council in Torbay forcing young vulnerable people to sleep rough.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/03/15/a-conservative-council-is-forcing-young-disabled-people-to-sleep-on-the-streets/
Meanwhile DWP minister Amber Rudd is doing more harm than good the OBR points out her failings.
https://universalcreditsuffer.com/2019/03/15/rudds-lies-exposed-the-real-reasons-for-dwp-changes/
Despite reports of at least two shooters in Christchurch only one has been named, and the other three arrestees remain unnamed too.
Were two of the other three high fiving each other and dancing with joy, like those men in the New Jersey carpark who enjoyed watching the attacks in New York on 11 September 2001?
The early reports of at least two shooters will probably get blamed on the fog of war, but the making of four arrests may not be, given that it was announced by NZ police commissioner Mike Bush. It has since been stated in dickheadese that one of the four “was a member of the public who was in possession of a firearm with the intention of assisting police” and has now been released. That person has not been named but may be the “armed congregant” who reportedly fired two shots at the shooters. That leaves two arrestees who have neither been named nor declared to be uninvolved in the crime.
Brenton Tarrant made a lot of money “investing” in Bitconnect. Cryptocurrencies are a useful way to transfer money to those operating in certain fields. Perhaps we will soon learn that he benefited from a small but international “business” network as Anders Breivik did.
UN Secretary General to hold world summit later this year to try and find a way to recduce carbon emmissions.
“That is why I am bringing world leaders together at a climate action summit later this year. I am calling on all leaders to come to New York in September with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over the next decade, and to net zero by 2050.”
http://archive.is/iVjNZ
Although the Earth does go through cycles of heating up and cooling down naturally. I believe and so do many others that by our actions we are speeding up this process.
Could one way to reduce carbon emissions might be to hold less summits?
While the climate has always changed through natural forces it is silly of those who claim because of those forces humans aren’t affecting it. That’s like saying we all die so there can be no such thing as murder. Many don’t care because they make money out of it, and because by the time the problem becomes acute they’ll be dead so won’t be affected.
The Elephant in the room everyone is ignoring is that the hour and date of our departure is set in Statute Law and all these motions amendments and wild ideas have no affect on that. Unless Parliament changes the Law or endorses May’s deal before the 29th we are out on our ear.
Ralph
Nobody’s going to vote for May ‘s stupid deal. If we don’t agree with what happens next we kick out these parts and get Corbyn to find an alternative. There’s always an easy way and a hard way. Thebillionaire gamblers in Mays cabinet make more money out of a hard crash.
Or in insurance terminology, a total write off
Well yes amongst all the “parliament has voted against no deal or for an extension” stuff, that is a fact – wouldn’t it have to be repealed pronto if May’s third vote doesn’t work?
I understand the idea is that some minister could change the law by means of a Statutory Instrument.
I do not think that is correct; as far as I am aware, the only legislation that can be changed by means of Statutory Instruments stipulates that that is the case on the face of the underlying Act of Parliament, which also specifies which clauses are subject to such ministerial amendments (the other clauses therefore cannot be so amended).
In this case, as far as I can see the entire act would have to be revoked; I’m not sure that can be done by a ministerial stroke-of-the-pen. The EU Withdrawal Bill famously embodies sweeping powers for ministers, known as the ‘Henry VIII Powers’. But I seriously doubt that a minister can change the core meaning of the Act: that we’re leaving on the 29th.
So there would have to be a Bill, a First Reading, a Committee Stage, a Report Stage, a run through the Lords, and Royal Assent. Not likely to happen in 13 days.
And yet if you listened to the media you would be under the impression a delay was done and dusted!
Looks like there _are_ provisions for ministers to alter the withdrawal date in the Act; but only if the withdrawal date in the Act differs from the date in the Article 50 letter. But they are the same date. So it looks to me that on the 30th March, we are out of the EU, whatever ministers claim; companies and individuals could sue and so on, if the government refused to accept the provisions of UK law.
Given that anything could happen, this is the way I think it will go:-
Tuesday 19th – MV3 – lost by 120
Thursday 21st – May goes to EU council gets offer of two year extension to A50
Tuesday 26th MV4 – lost by 100
Wednesday 27th – HoC votes on 2 year extension – lost by 20
Friday 26th Exit
Sat 27th Trump pardons Manafort, who gets a UK passport and becomes UK negotiator for US-UK trade deal
Wings over Scotland has another take https://wingsoverscotland.com/what-the-hell-now/
“Independent” NZ senator Fraser Anning has blamed the Christchurch massacre on “Muslim immigration”. “Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?” he asks, using a US advertising company’s communications network to spread his words. He continues, “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.”
Sadly, many will say “Yeah Fraser u said it rite its Muslim’s r respponsibl 4 this,,, smh”
Have any European politicians praised or defended the slaughter yet, as they did after Utøya in Norway?
Just to add to the craziness, the good young lad who egged Anning was holding a smartphone with his other hand.
Anning is an Australian, State Senator. Australia is not on a constructive trajectory. A succession of increasingly right wing and xenophobic PMs, adept at the “white Australia” dog whistle. Happy to expend Australian capital bombing in Iraq in solidarity with Western powers, with whom they are sympatico. Reluctant to assist their neighbors to combat AQ in the Far East.
The egg thrower now has a crowd fund site to pay for his legal costs and more eggs. I deplore the waste of eggs and don’t approve of violence against people who are merely deluded. But, having watched the recording of the event I don’t feel that a court case would be the best way to resolve this particular expression of an opinion, so while I won’t be funding him, nothing should stop anyone else deciding differently: https://www.gofundme.com/money-for-eggboi
Comes to something when you have to read the Express or Russia Today if you want to find out what is going on in Paris.
“The UK has published in advance that it is taking Ireland and the Irish people for fools and has no intention of keeping to the Irish backstop. The reaction of the Government of Ireland is to pretend not to notice. That is an astonishing dereliction of its duty to the people of Ireland, North and South”.
It never ceases to amaze me when Craig (as he regularly does) reveals that he expects politicians to perform their duty to the people who elected them.
I am reminded of the film “The Mummy Retruns”, in which – at a critical point in the action – Baltus Hafez, who has devoted himself utterly to the unquestioning service of Imhotep, cries out in fear, “My lord! Save me! Save me!” To which Imhotep, with genuine curiosity, replies monosyllabically, “Why?”
Here are a few explanations of how things really are.
“[The State is] an institution run by gangs of murderers, plunderers, and thieves, surrounded by willing executioners, propagandists, sycophants, crooks, liars, clowns, charlatans, dupes and useful idiots – an institution that dirties and taints everything it touches”.
– Hans-Hermann Hoppe
“Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom”.
– Ludwig von Mises
“The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime . . . . It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants, whether the property of citizen or alien”.
– Albert Jay Nock, “On Doing The Right Thing”
“Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class”.
– Albert Jay Nock
“The state—or, to make the matter more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods”.
– H. L. Mencken, “Sham Battle”, Baltimore Evening Sun, October 26, 1936 (included in “A Carnival of Buncombe” edited by Malcolm Moos)
“Government is the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex”.
– Frank Zappa
“Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed”.
– I. F. Stone
“Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue. Pity, benevolence, friendship, are things almost unknown in high stations”.
– Edmund Burke (A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind (1756))
“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all”.
– Adam Smith (“The Wealth of Nations”)
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it”.
– Frédéric Bastiat (“Economic Sophisms”)
“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of reasons will somehow work for the benefit of us all”.
– Anon
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich”.
– John Kenneth Galbraith, “The Age of Uncertainty”, Chapter 1, page 22
“Automatically when someone assumes an elected position his Pinocchio nose grows extremely long since his entire purpose is then to be all things to all men in order to be re-elected. This is why virtually no elected official has a backbone nor any morals or principles. Because if they had, telling the truth would make them unelectable”.
– Egon von Greyerz, “Will Printing Half A Quadrillion Dollars Save US?” https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/egon-von-greyerz/printing-half-quadrillion-dollars/ https://goldswitzerland.com/will-printing-half-a-quadrillion-dollars-save-us/
“In a well-governed country, those who discuss policy must be in accordance with the law; those who carry out official matters must be regulated. Superiors evaluate actual performance; officials carry out their work efficiently. Words are not permitted to exceed reality. Actions are not permitted to overstep the law.
“In a disordered country, those who are praised by the multitudes are richly rewarded though devoid of accomplishments. Those who stick to their duties are punished, though free of guilt. The ruler is in the dark and does not understand. Worthies do not offer proposals. Officials form factions; persuasive talkers roam about; people embellish their actions. Those who are taken to be wise devote themselves to artifice and deceit; high officials usurp authority. Cliques and factions become widespread. The ruler is eager to carry out projects that are of no use, while the people look haggard and worn”.
– Huainanzi, 221 BC
@Tom Welsh, in days of old, the state was better known as “bodies of armed men” And a pox on all you identity wafflers…_
And then there is Robert Michels 1911′ the iron law of oligarchies’.
Any structure and system is weak to the power of oligarchy regardless of left and right.
Thanks for your research, Tom, just add him and to your list of wise individuals.
Integrity has long ceased to be a feature of politics or statesmanship. Once ‘an Englishman’s word was his bond’. As you say, what is the point of a treaty that you have no intention of keeping?
If we need the EU for our economic survival, we need to recognize that and keep our current alliances, snd accept our loss of sovereignty and the end of empire. But if we consider that our independence is vital as a nation, we must accept the economic consequences. If we are to be honest in our dealings this probably means a ‘no deal’ Brexit, for the EU simply will not agree to a deal that has no ‘backstop’, which device is a restriction on UK sovereignty.
I think that to characterize the DUP as having blood on its hands will be seen as unfair by many, as it has always opposed violence. The history of conflict with foreign influence in Ireland goes back to the Normans at least, and disentagling the mess has defeated generations. A solution was almost reached by the great statesman Gladstone, defeated by greedy landowners – and it needs a person of similar calibre to find a lasting solution.
“Once ‘an Englishman’s word was his bond”.
I wonder when that last was true, if indeed it ever was.
British history is literally awash with evidence of our rulers’ broken, pledges, promises, pensions, manifestos and the failure to repay debts.
I’d guess at least as far back as England’s existence.
As to the DUP opposing violence, well, they may claim that but I don’t think it would stand up to any sort of scrutiny; the shallowest Google search reveals quite the opposite.
https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19041-ian-paisley-and-the-dup-the-violent-history-of-theresa-may-s-new-best-friends
It was a gentleman whose word was his bond, not an englishman. The english, on the contrary, have a long-standing reputation for perfidy.
Maybe it means an Englishman’s bond isn’t up to much, and he’s just giving you due warning ?
“the United Kingdom negotiating a major international treaty on the acknowledged, discussed and now published basis that it has every intention of breaking that treaty once it is in force.”
That’s why they don’t want the backstop and that’s why Ireland/the EU have to insist on the backstop.