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TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2018
Click HERE for Saturday's quote from William Manchester.
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ON BREXIT AND LEAVING MRS. MAY'S CABINET
"And frankly, if I don't believe in it, I am not the best person to do it."
David Davis
former U.K. Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
July 9, 2018
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We have been away from Brexit for some time. The last TTALK Quote on it was back in March, when the UK's Liam Fox declared that he didn't require a babysitter from the EU for his meetings with USTR Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. A lot has happened since, and we have a lot of catching up to do. But where to begin? The dramatic events of the last two weeks would seem as good a place as any. One of those was the resignation of David Davis late on Sunday, July 8, which was followed the next day by the resignation of Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary. Up until the time he sent his resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May that Sunday evening, Mr. Davis was the UK's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
The catalyst for both of these resignations - and the fury of well-known Brexiteers like Nigel Farage - was a new UK proposal on Brexit that was approved by Mrs. May's cabinet at Chequers the previous Friday.
On Monday, July 9, Mr. Davis did an interview with Robert Peston of ITV news. Today's featured quote is from that interview. Here is a bit more of the segment with today's quote:
MR. DAVIS:
I'm a supporter of the Prime Minister. I think she's a good prime minister. I just don't agree with her on this fundamental policy which, unfortunately, is central to my - my old - brief. It would have been me that had to carry it out; me that had to present it to Parliament; me that had to make it work in the European Union. And, frankly, if I don't believe in it, I'm not the best person to do it.
Earlier in the interview Mr. Davis had listed his particular points of disagreement with the Chequers proposal. In a nutshell, these were:
a) The proposal to accept "a common rule book," which, effectively would mean a continuation of the authority of EU regulations within the UK;
b) The customs arrangement under which the UK would be collecting some EU tariffs and vice versa. This and the notion of "a common rule book" imply a significant role in the UK for the European Court of Justice, Mr. Davis said, one not consistent, in his view, with what those who voted to leave thought they were voting for, and
c) A regrettable negotiating posture, that is, the likelihood that the Chequers proposal would simply set the stage for more EU demands.
Each of these is an issue worthy of more than a little explanation. And each has seen significant developments since the 9th of July. We expect to return to them soon, either in these pages or in some other format. We would note, however, that, with respect to the first of these, the so-called "common rulebook," Mr. Davis's letter of resignation brought the issue into even sharper focus than did his comments on ITV. He wrote:
The Cabinet decision on Friday crystallised this problem. In my view the inevitable consequence of the proposed policies will be to make the supposed control by Parliament illusory rather than real. As I said at Cabinet, the "common rule book" policy hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense.
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Two things caught our attention in Mr. Davis's ITV interview - three really: his generosity toward the Prime Minister, his calm but credible discussion of the meaning of the Brexit vote for the seventeen-and-a-half million people in the UK who voted to leave the European Union, and, most significantly, his emphasis on the need for those engaged in major undertakings to believe in what they are doing.
Mr. Davis himself had set the stage for his ITV comments in his resignation letter to Prime Minister May, writing:
Of course this is a complex area of judgement and it is possible that you are right and I am wrong. However, even in that event it seems to me that the national interest requires a Secretary of State in my Department that is an enthusiastic believer in your approach, and not merely a reluctant conscript.
The Wall Street Journal picked up the theme in an editorial published on line the following evening, July 9:
The lesson is that a party can't govern if it doesn't believe in its own policies. Britain needs either a pro-Remain government committed to negotiating soft exit terms, or a staunchly pro-Brexit government committed to free trade and domestic reform to make it work.
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From the ITV Interview is a link to the YouTube clip with the interview that was the source for today's quote.
Brexit Lesson takes you to The Wall Street Journal editorial cited above.
With Immediate Effect is a link to David Davis's July 8 letter of resignation, as published by Sky News. This article also includes the Prime Minister's reply.
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©2018 The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.
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R. K. Morris, Editor
Joanne Thornton, Associate Editor
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