The Guardian - 21.08.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:9 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 20:34 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019 The Guardian •

9

▼ Angie Wooding and Beth Kiteley,

right, staff of the gift shop Unikorn,

whose owners mainly fear a recession

PHOTOGRAPH: SEAN SMITH/GUARDIAN

‘The backstop is

an insurance to

avoid a hard border

unless and until an

alernative is found’

Donald Tusk

European council president

Frances Perraudin

A

li Ahmed, pointing

across his display of

fruit and vegetables

at his greengrocer’s

shop in the centre of

Stevenage , says: “You

see the melons over there? They

come from Spain. Most of the apples

come from Poland. The tomatoes are

from Holland.”

Ahmed, who has been running

Star Groceries for about fi ve years,

gets most of his fresh produce from

New Spitalfi elds market, in London.

“We’ve spoken to the wholesaler and

[if there is a no-deal Brexit] they say

it’s going to be very, very, very hard.

But we have no idea what’s going

to happen. I don’t know what I can

do. You can’t stock up on fresh fruit

and veg, so I’m just hoping they get a

[Brexit] deal.

“When we are in the English

season we bring the produce from

farms here, but the English season is

short. I couldn’t stock my shop from

just English produce. I’d only be

working for part of the year.”

Jeremy Corbyn yesterday visited

the Hertfordshire town to speak

to small-business owners about

the possible impact of a no-deal

Brexit. He said those whom he had

met were “appalled” at the idea of

a no-deal Brexit. “I think the prime

minister should go and talk to them.”

Ahmed seems to agree with the

Labour leader. “I’ve got lots of

friends who own small businesses

and they’re not happy at all. They’re

not happy with a no-deal Brexit. It’s

going to aff ect almost every small

business in the UK.”

Nearby is LC Beds, Furniture and

Carpets, one of a chain of four shops

in Hertfordshire. The manager, Naz

Miah, says this year has been the

toughest of the 10 years the business

has existed. The fi rm had an initial

dip in sales in 2016 after the EU

referendum, then a slight recovery,

but was now experiencing another

fall. Miah says they are seeing

a decline in “bread and butter”

business, such as new home-owners

looking to furnish properties, due to

the housing market slowdown.

While most of the beds they sell

come from the UK, a signifi cant

chunk of the business is the sale

of large wardrobes made in

Germany. At the beginning of the

year deliveries had arrived very

slowly because businesses were

over-ordering and the manufacturer

could not keep up with demand.

“We’ve been looking for a UK

option for about two years because

it means you get them more quickly

and it’s good to go local,” he says.

“Maybe a company will pop up after

Brexit but it’ll take time because

Germany has factories with the right

machinery and infrastructure .”

At Limited Edition Comix, around

the corner, Wesley Hills says the

world of comic books is separate

from the everyday economy. “ It’s

a collectors’ market. If they want it

they will pay for it.”

One thing that has aff ected his

business is the exchange rate with

the dollar, which has made imports

more expensive, though comic

books are more popular than ever.

Also relatively unconcerned was

Sapphia Nicholson, whose family

runs the Unikorn gift shop and

piercing studio. “Most of our stock

is from the UK so we’re only really

worried about the economy going

into recession and people not having

enough money to spend in our shop.

We usually bulk order twice a year so

we’re just hoping it improves by the

time we put in the next order. ”

Naseer Saeed, who has run Fone

+ PC Fix for about fi ve years, says

his Southall wholesaler thinks that

prices might rise. “At the end of the

day that means we have to charge

customers more. Our rents and

things like that aren’t falling .”

As for the Brexit speculation, he

seemed fatigued. “It’s all been going

on for a long, long, time ... In the end

something will happen and we can’t

stop that .”

Stevenage

Waiting and

guessing, the

anxiety grows

▲ Wesley Hills, manager of the shop

Limited Edition, which sells comics

 Continued from page 1

Johnson heads to

Europe after rebuff

over Irish backstop

visits to Paris and Berlin, he would

have been well advised against writing

this letter.”

Tusk, who is also expected to meet

Johnson this weekend, wrote: “The

backstop is an insurance to avoid a

hard border on the island of Ireland

unless and until an alternative is

found. Those against the backstop and

not proposing realistic alternatives in

fact support re-establishing a border.

Even if they do not admit it.”

In a sign of the EU’s carefully co or-

dinated response, the European

commission issued a statement min-

utes later saying it shared Tusk’s view.

A spokeswoman for the commis-

sion welcomed the UK government’s

“engagement and commitment to

an orderly withdrawal” while mak-

ing clear its objections. “We also note

that the letter does not provide a legal

operational solution to prevent the

return of a hard border. It does not

set out what any alternative arrange-

ments could be and in fact it recognises

that there is no guarantee that such

arrangements will be in place by the

end of the transitional period.”

Johnson admitted the EU’s posi-

tion was “a bit negative” but suggested

Brussels must acknowledge the deal

had been summarily rejected by par-

liament. “I saw what Donald Tusk had

to say, and it wasn’t redolent of a sense

of optimism,” he said. “But I think,

actually, we will get there. I think

there’s a real sense that something

needs to be done with this backstop.”

He said the UK had no intention of

introducing new checks or infrastruc-

ture at the Northern Irish border. “It’s a

bit of a paradox because it is the other

side, a bit odd, the other side of the

argument, the EU, who seem to think

it might be necessary to have checks

for them to preserve the integrity of

the single market,” he said.

Johnson had dashed any prospect

of an early compromise in a letter on

Monday when he called on the EU to

scrap the backstop, which he called

anti-democratic and “ inconsistent

with the sovereignty of the UK as a

state”. The letter was addressed to

Tusk, with copies sent to EU27 leaders

and the head of the European commis-

sion , Jean-Claude Juncker.

As the EU made its first public

statements, diplomats from the 27

countries were sent an analysis that

described key arguments in Johnson’s

letter as incorrect and misleading.

The internal document seen by the

Guardian states it was “incorrect” to

suggest the people of Northern Ireland

would have no infl uence over EU laws

that applied to them, pointing to pro-

visions in the Brexit agreement.

Officials had already strongly

rejected Johnson’s claim that the back-

stop was anti-democratic, pointing to

the fact Northern Ireland had voted

to remain in the EU and non-unionist

parties were in favour of the backstop.

Johnson’s claim that it would be

possible for two separate legal and

economic jurisdictions to exist on the

island of Ireland with an open border

was judged “misleading” as “EU law

provides the common framework

needed to enable frictionless trade

between member states today”.

While the EU has said it is ready to

look at alternative arrangements to the

backstop , offi cials have said no such

options exist anywhere in the world.

Neale Richmond , an Irish senator,

said the claim that the backstop posed

a threat to the Good Friday agreement

was “very disappointing language”.

“The negotiations ended in Novem-

ber,” he told BBC Radio 4. “The British

government in good faith agreed the

withdrawal agreement. And the back-

stop isn’t impossible to get out of ; that

is simply misleading. However, it can-

not be unilaterally exited by one state.

What’s the point of the backstop if one

side can simply just rip it up?”

He ruled out a time limit on the

backstop. “It is an insurance policy

to protect a very fragile peace deal,

therefore it needs the buy-in of both

sides, because both the British and

Irish government are co-guarantors

of that Good Friday agreement.”

An Irish government source played

down the signifi cance of Johnson’s let-

ter, calling it a “disappointing” rehash

of London’s demand to renegotiate the

withdrawal deal – a demand Dublin

and the EU would continue to reject.

Additional reporting: Rory Carroll

Dublin Philip Oltermann Berlin

PM’s letter to Tusk

What does it mean?

Is there anything new in Johnson’s

letter to Tusk?

Boris Johnson is repeating his

familiar demand for the EU to scrap

the backstop – the mechanism to

stop a hard border on the island of

Ireland by potentially keeping the

UK in a customs union.

But he lays out three specifi c

reasons why the UK believes the

backstop is bad. First, that it is

antidemocratic because the UK

may not be able to exit a customs

union and Northern Ireland could

be kept in some areas of regulatory

alignment without a say over them.

Second, a new argument that it

defeats a key aim of the leave

campaign – regulatory divergence

from the EU – which departs from

Theresa May’s position. And third,

another new argument that the

backstop actually undermines the

Good Friday agreement , rather than

protecting the peace settlement as

the EU claims.

Another new aspect of the letter

is that Johnson proposes some

vague steps for a way forward. He

demands new alternative customs

arrangements to be put in place

in the two years of transition,

then off ers the possibility of

“commitments” to prevent a hard

border instead of the backstop.

How will the EU react?

At fi rst, there were negative noises

from EU sources saying Johnson

was trying to move the goalposts.

The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar,

has said changing the backstop

by reopening the withdrawal

agreement will not be possible.

And then the verdict came in from

Donald Tusk, the outgoing European

council president, who poured cold

water on the idea that Johnson’s

letter could lead to the backstop

being revisited.

“The backstop is an insurance to

avoid a hard border on the island

of Ireland unless and until an

alternative is found. Those against

the backstop and not proposing

realistic alternatives in fact support

reestablishing a border. Even if they

do not admit it,” Tusk tweeted.

Johnson is due to meet the

German chancellor, Angela Merkel,

today and the French president,

Emmanuel Macron, tomorrow, so

there will be more of an idea how

his ideas have gone down with EU

leaders then. Most probable is that

they will criticise the ideas for being

so vague as to be meaningless and

demand a more specifi c plan.

Is Johnson really serious about a

renegotiation?

There are some hints in the letter

that Johnson m ay still be open

to compromise. By setting his

demands so high – total abolition

of the backstop – there could be

a remote chance there will be a

landing zone where both sides give

a little and agree to rebadge the

backstop with another name and a

time limit, allowing each to declare

victory and no -deal averted.

Could it be yet another bluff?

Another strong theory is that

Johnson does not really believe

the EU will back down because his

demands are too excessive. This is

the charge levelled at him by the

former chancellor Philip Hammond

and 19 Tory colleagues. If this is

the case, the purpose of the letter

appears designed to persuade the

public that he is at least trying to

get a deal. He would go on to paint

the EU as intransigent in an election

campaign and try to blame the bloc

for forcing the UK into a no-deal

Brexit. Rowena Mason

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