You're never happy

The President, I think it was, of Luxemburg said this week that Britain when it was a member of the EU wanted numerous opt-outs, now its leaving wants numerous opt-ins. Simply because the task of replicating all that the EU does, or has been done for us in hundreds of trade areas is impossible for Britain to set up and implement in the 13 months left. Ignoring the facts that if May and co went down the hardest Brexit route meant these things would have to be sorted mattered little. Details don't matter, just leaving. Which it is possible that Britain may leave the EU in name only. If that. Or it will crash out. without a deal.

The EU has now said no further talks on anything until the situation with the border in Ireland is sorted out. I say sorted out, I mean agreed by all sides; Britain, both sides in NI, the Republic and the EU. To have no border, and yet a border that conforms to whatever deal or situation the Uk is left with. There are going to be some angry people on both sides, and either broken promises of broken supply chains. The choice is, well, difficult. But the time for muddling through, hoping something would turn up is now over. Nothing else until real solutions for the real world are found and agreed.

And then there is the Brexiteers great trade hope; the USA, which under Trump's orders imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, but hinted it would waive these for friendly nations. Or should we bear in mind that Mr Trump breaks deals as often as he does his promises, and is this the sort of leader we should be trusting with our trading and children's future? Probably not.

The UK Government yesterday published its top secret impact assessments that did not exist, after spending the last few months defending court cases and FOI requests for them to be released. I guess the biggest disappointment was that none, I mean none, of the newspapers lead with the news that any kind of Brexit was bad news, and the STA Brexit we are heading towards makes Britain nearly 10% poorer by 2030. Who votes for that kind of hit, actually wanting a depression?

As the EU President stated, this will be the first FTA in history that makes trade harder, more expensive. Madness on stilts.

And at the same time, Russia has apparently launched a terrorist attack in Britain, using a nerve agent to try to kill a dissident. But the attack has so far failed to kill Sergei Skripal, nor his daughter. The attack in Salisbury also injured 19 other people, including a policeman who went to help. This is one of 14 such attacks around the world that Russia has launched, apparently with impunity. On top of the annexation of Crimea which the world was powerless to stop or reverse.

At the same time, Britain is having to import Russian LPG to fill in the gaps in supply, so best not rock the boat lest the country freezes. So, the country's ability to to what is morally right is now tempered with having to tow down or else we don't get the energy we need. What a world we live in today.

Finally, it is suggested that there is a huge market in Russia for British exports, new data suggests that the Russian economy is just the same size that of Italy's, meaning that pinning any hopes of replacing EU trade with that to Russia isn't going to fly.