Vocal Voices

And have a look at it from the other side.

Sky news are reporting that the UK planes are going to "remain flying" after Brexit because the UK wants to remain in EASA and accept ECJ judgements because otherwise the Americans want us to have an answer in "weeks" and they'll audit us and shut us down if we don't.

Then whilst making their "Remainer" case for why this would be a good idea, they start trotting out facts.

A senior source told Sky News the UK's proposal will be modelled as an "offer" to the EU, given the Government calculates 40% of the technical expertise behind EASA is from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Really? I'm not surprised. What I am surprised about is that the Government and others, are not standing tall and demanding to know how the EU and EASA are going to function when they lose 40% of their technical expertise post Brexit. The UK is fine, the CAA is one of the premier aviation authorities in the world, with huge standing. EASA?? They'd be screwed.

Next one. Spun as a negative.

Catherine Lang, the FAA's Europe Director, recently said: "It's very important that we point out that the US-EU safety agreement... when the UK exits the EU, their status in that agreement will be extinguished.

"This is wildly important to mitigate and urgently needed to be mitigated because half of the repair stations in Europe are in the UK."

So lets turn that around. If we aren't in EASA, post Brexit, the EU loses HALF of its Aircraft repair capability.

Just exactly who is suddenly going to step up with the repair capabilities to cover all of that. Those repair facilities are not in the UK because the airlines want them there. They are there because they can't avoid them being there, or, at best, they can't get it cheaper anywhere else.

If you turn this article around, if the EU does not do a deal and keep the UK in EASA, it will be the EU at EXTREME risk of not flying. Pay for it? Like hell!

Where are the politicians who will tell us the truth about that one??? The EU has 540 million people and 28 states. The UK has nearly half the regulation capability and half the repair capability to keep their aircraft in the air.

If we can't make a world wide deal based on that capability, we don't deserve to have an economy!!!!

And we were told that there would be no cherry picking nor red lines crossed.

The aviation sector is one cherry with its pip being squeezed where the UK has enormous influence. International law states that you cannot simply buy a plane and have it serviced at the local garage, it has to be done at a licensed facility, of which the UK has plenty. We service planes for airlines registered all around the globe and it makes us a lot of money so we need to keep it operating.

The ECJ is a bit of a red herring. Its role in the aviation sector is as arbiter for disputes within that sector. If it was removed another body would have to be set up to take its place. That would involve another set of negotiations and another set of rules - it could take forever. This is a case of leaving things as they are, for being pragmatic.

The other cherry with its pip being squeezed is the issue of the NI border. On that one the EU has become the immovable object. It is another case where one side or the other is going to have to let a red line be crossed.

Actually the ECJ is a sticking point because the EU wants to push the ECJ every time for everything for the UK. Sort of like Hotel California. Regardless of the reality that almost EVERY international deal the EU does excludes the ECJ from arbiting and there being an independent body for that. About time we told the EU that the ECJ is fine for "inside" but absolutely NOT fine for "outside".

As for NI, that is a very different issue. Essentially it is impossible for the UK to define the NI border when we do not know the restrictions and regulations that are going to apply to that border. The EU is utterly and completely wrong to try and force this issue without defining what the relationship will be like across that border. The UK has told them this over and over again. The lights are on but nobody is home.

Unfortunately the governmental instability which the EU rely on so much to deliver Brexit, on their terms, is supported by a party which is implacably opposed to what the EU is trying to do.

As you say, the pip is being squeezed hard. I wonder if all those meetings from Corbyn and Clegg have told the EU to hold firm on the NI border and they will bring the government down? Hopefully they don't think it is that easy? Corbyn only got the votes he did because he was seen as anti EU and likely to deliver a fairly hard Brexit. Something which he has, subsequently, reneged on in a large part. Much to the fury of those UKIP voters who thought they could just go back to Labour again and get the status quo.

If the EU and Corbyn think they will break the government over NI, have an election, Labour will win propped up by Lib Dem and then go for another referendum; they'd better start thinking again....