Boris Johnson Mustn't Destroy What Can Be Saved From Brexit
If a dispute over state aid really does lead the U.K. to break a Brexit treaty obligation, the damage will be incalculable. It doesn’t have to end this way.
Wrecking crew.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeThe painstakingly negotiated Northern Ireland Protocol was the linchpin of the Brexit deal signed by Britain and the European Union last year. So Tuesday’s statement from a U.K. minister that his government is ready to break international law “in a very specific and limited way” in order to change that agreement will echo for a long time, and not just in Britain.
It resonates in the same way that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s casual assertion of “alternative facts” did back in 2017. It upends our notion of the existing order of things. In this instance, the way Boris Johnson’s administration regards the rule of law.