The neverending war

For the past five years, Brexiteers and the Conservative Party have been engaged in a war with reality.

Denying reality at every turn, denying the consequences of their policy decisions, denying anything that might hurt their precious Brexit.

"Project Fear"

There will be no new border infrastructure in NI.

There will be no downsides to Brexit, just considerable upsides.

This will be the easiest deal in history.

German car manufacturers and Italian prosecco makers will force the EU to change course.

The EU will blink first.

The entire manifesto of Vote Leave.

The Conservative Party manifestos of 2017 and 2019.

Every time the PM opens his mouth.

And so on and on, ad infinitum.

Yesterday, a letter fro Liz Truss to the PM and Chancellor outlined her three concerns:

1. Ports might not be fully ready

2. NI protocol unlikely to be either

3. UK plans could be challenged at WTO

I am sure she is right on all counts, but this has been constantly denied by Johnson and his band of brave Brexiteers.

This week Brexiteers have been raisig doubts about the WTO as they realise as one of over 160 members they would have very little say in its rules. Also, the WTO structure is slow to change, and even if, say, the UK were to feel the need to raise a complaint against another member, that process can take years, and in the end the other country can just ignore it and face little or no sanctions.

Even under WTO rules, leverage and size is everything.

A couple of years ago when Trump put massive tariffs on aerospace parts, affecting NO industry worse than most, even as Brexit was happening, the EU backed the UK and the US backed down. 28 instead of just one is a whole lot more leverage.

Time is now short, just 5 months until the transition ends and this all should work. The Tories and Brexiteers have had five years for this to prepare, to understand what it is they were pushing and its consequences. Now that the point of apply for an extension has passed, a lot of pain is now inevitable, and the less that we prepare and mitigate the worse it will be.

Winter is coming..........