Remainingfolk joy as Biden influences Brexit

 Remainerfolk have hoped for this for a while, and now the Observer crystallises their hopes:

Boris Johnson will be under even greater pressure to strike a Brexit deal with Brussels when Joe Biden enters the White House, senior Tories and diplomats said on Saturday, amid fears that a no-deal outcome could seriously threaten relations with a new Democratic administration....Pro-EU Tories and diplomats are concerned that a no-deal outcome would cause early and serious tension between London and Washington and put the special relationship at risk [ha!] , given Biden’s stated opposition to Brexit, support for European integration and support for the Good Friday Agreement....Biden, who has Irish ancestry, has made it clear that there will be no agreement on a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal if a no-deal outcome threatens the Good Friday agreement that he holds dear.

The issues are the same old:

Barnier has told diplomats that the “gap” on fishing is big regarding quota [who wrote this stuff?]  and that “access to the 6-12 mile fishing zone” remains a sticking point for France and Ireland, who point to their fishing fleets operating in those stretch [sic] of seas for centuries.

 

In Brussels, the greatest concern is the lack of progress on the issues of standards and domestic subsidies, or state aid...The EU has proposed high-level principles on state subsidies to which both sides would agree. The UK would also establish an independent competition authority and there would be a dispute settlement mechanism with both sides able to take swift retaliatory action during an arbitration period if there was a clear breach of the rules...Downing Street has suggested, however, that the threshold for unilateral action needs to be a clear impact on trade from a subsidy rather than a mere risk.

'Principles' versus pragmatism -- that old difference again. One side supports neo-lib policy which hands over practical decisions to lawyers endlessly arguing what principles are involved, while smuggling in a conern to defend 'market forces'. The other wants the ability for politicians to take practical decisions.Neither approach is exactly democratic, but the second gets closer and this is a struggle over small steps in the right direction.