Understanding the problem

A Lib Dem MEP wrote an article for the Independent newspaper today, in which she describes how people, MP's and Ministers in the UK fail to understand what the EU is, and why rules matter so much.

In shot, every country likes a bit of protectionism, and so the EU solves this not only by having rules, standards but a arbitration process, through the UCJ, which addresses and solves and perceived breeches of the rules and standards. It is this that makes the EU work so well, as without it, it is possible for a country's word to be broken and there be no comeback.

Which is why there is no choice than with May's red line about not being under the rule or decisions of the UCJ the only real option left to UK is to be a third country to the EU, either on good terms or bad. As rejecting the UCJ means rejecting the trust that has to be between 27 or more EU countries from east to west, north to south.

And, sadly, May and DD have shown how important the role of the UCJ is as both have tried to reinterpret agreements in their favour, or to muddy waters to keep the DUP happy. This is shocking behaviour in the EU's eye's, and yet the UK thinks this will have no effect.

So the hard and soft Brexiteers have long believed that they can cherry-pick what they want and don't want from the EU, when in fact, the reality has always been, you're either in or not. And to be in, you accept all that comes with it, the payments, the standards, the four freedoms, and the UCJ.

To pretend otherwise to the electorate, the public at large, the media and even to themselves is deceiving and lying.

Being outside the EU means more red tape, checks, obtaining UK's independent trade deals, and al this costs money, far more than any pretend Brexit bonus was supposed to deliver. And trade negotiations, like the one with the EU will never end; there will always be news standards and rules to accept or adapt to, and Britain will be treated as any other 3rd country, like North Korea, no special treatment, not out of the EU.

The cabinet are to meet on the evening of next Friday for a sleepover at Chequers, no really, in order to thrash out the final details of what Brexit might mean. But as I wrote earlier, those same Cabinet members are more fractured and warring than ever before, and the idea of Joint Cabinet Responsibility is something apparently only found in history books or Hansard.