Windsor Framework being 'grossly misrepresented' by government, claim

In an online article ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the NI Protocol deal, Caroline Bell said the UK Government has “grossly misrepresented” the post-Brexit trading arrangements.​

“In a functioning democracy, one could be forgiven for believing that a sovereign Parliament would have the final say on whether foreign laws could be imposed on British citizens. But Rishi Sunak intends to bypass Parliament and use the Royal Prerogative to implement an international agreement,” Bell said.

“The new NI Protocol has been grossly misrepresented by the British government, to disguise the fact that it has now agreed to implement in full a whole range of checks and controls on GB-NI trade which have not been enforced to date under current grace periods. which allows the EU to make new laws directly applicable in all parts of the UK.”

Caroline Bell is the pseudonym of a former civil servant who wrote her first article about Brexit in November 2018, The Seven Deadly Sins in the draft Withdrawal Agreement, which was about the then prime minister Theresa May's deal to leave the EU. It was published on Briefings for Britain (then Briefings for Brexit) briefingsforbritain.co.uk/.

The latest article goes on to say: ”The Windsor Framework drives a coach and horses through the Protocol’s affirmation of the EU’s and the UK’s ‘shared aim of avoiding controls at the ports and airports of NI, to the extent possible in accordance with applicable legislation and taking into account their respective regulatory regimes as well as the implementation thereof.’ There are three new EU regulations to enforce the new rules agreed in the WF on GB-NI trade. EU regulations have direct effect in member states. But the UK is not an EU member state, and nor is Northern Ireland, even though NI is subject to the EU regulations listed in Annex 2 of the Protocol.

“The Windsor Framework materially alters the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, curtails trade freedoms granted by primary legislation, and breaches the rights of British citizens to democratic self-government”.