Stonehenge campaign group sets sights on Moors path
THERESA MAY has been urged to grasp a “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” Canada style trade deal with the European Union by leading Tory Brexiteers.
The call came from Jacob ReesMogg at the launch event for a new Brexit blueprint by the free market Institute of Economic Affairs think tank (IEA).
The charity is calling on Ministers to seek a “basic” free trade agreement for goods and pursue “regulatory freedom and trade independence”.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who leads the powerful Tory backbench European Research Group (ERG), said: “So much of what we hear about these negotiations has been about managing decline, has been about how you have the least bad Brexit, this is about how you can have a fantastic Brexit that sets us up for the next generation and ensures our prosperity.
“This has been offered to us by the Commission, they have offered us the best trade deal they have ever done with any country ever in the world, so if you want to call it Canada plus, or super Canada or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Canada, that is what is being aimed and its being offered.”
Mr Rees-Mogg also hit out yesterday at those seeking a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, he said: “I’m afraid the Remainers who want another referendum hold democracy in contempt, they lost and they should grow up.”
The IEA’s launch, which was also attended by former Brexit secretary David Davis, saw proposals for a “Plan A+” deal with the EU which would see full reciprocal market access, no tariffs in goods including agriculture and maximum recognition of regulatory standards. The Haltemprice and Howden MP said it was time to “reset negotiations”.
He said: “We’re currently, bluntly, in a cul-de-sac, I’m afraid Salzburg was all too predictable.
“Now what we need to do is to use the original commitments made back on March 7 by both Tusk and Barnier to go for an advanced free trade agreement.”
He later added: “My last instruction, virtually, to my department was draft the legal text for the free trade plus arrangement so that you’ve got it to work from.
“If you’ve got that to work from the time spinning, time wasting activity of the European Commission which we’ve seen lots of over the last two years fail.” The IEA event came just hours before Mrs May was due to meet senior ministers in a bid to save her Chequers blueprint for Brexit.
There was expected to be a lengthy inquest into what went wrong at last week’s informal EU summit in Salzburg where Mrs May was bluntly told key elements of the Chequers plan would not work.
The Prime Minister insists her proposal, which would see Britain maintain a “common rulebook” with the EU for trade in goods and agriculture, is the only credible option on the table which would avoid the return of a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Mrs May’s spokesman ruled out moving towards a Canada style deal, saying: “Given a standard free trade agreement could not prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, the EU’s position is that their proposed Northern Ireland protocol would come into effect.
“So, the FTA would only apply to the Great Britain-EU relationship, with Northern Ireland effectively remaining in parts of the single market and customs union.” A GROUP fighting in the High Court to allow motorcyclists to ride on minor roads near Stonehenge has vowed to also battle a move to ban motor vehicles from an ancient North York Moors monument.
The Trail Riders Fellowship has warned North Yorkshire County Council it would challenge the lawfulness of a Traffic Regulation Order on the Kirby Trod, the only path in the county granted Scheduled Monument status by English Heritage.
As the highway authority, the council has been asked by the North York Moors National Park Authority to stop erosion by motor vehicles on the trod, a stoneflagged route built by the Cistercian monks of Rievaulx Abbey to transport their goods.
Trains of up to 40 packhorses would be a familiar sight taking the 12th century route across the moors near Great Broughton to the Tees, also once used by the alum and jet industries.
A section of the route planned for the ban runs through a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, which is the highest level of protection which can be given under European Law.
A report to the council’s Business and Environmental Services Executive Members Committee states there has been “considerable erosion to all sections of the route described above caused by wheel ruts, and water run-off channelled down the ruts”.
It adds: “It is considered that the wheel ruts have been caused predominantly by motor cycles as there are no parallel ruts which would be consistent with the use of four-wheel drive vehicles.”
However, the Trail Riders Fellowship has claimed the order would be unlawful because the council has failed to properly consider, or give adequate reasons for rejecting its proposal to exempt motorcycles authorised by the fellowship during events organised by the group.
A solicitor’s letter to the council adds the authority has also failed to give adequate reasons in respect of its duty to “secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular traffic on the route”.