Bully for you

Yesterday's headline in the Daily Mail was that if the EU doesn't stop bullying the UK in negotiations, then the UK will walk away.

Are these the same negotiations that Brexiteers said would be the easiest in history and for which the UK held all the cards?

Odd then that it emerged this morning that the UK's chief negotiator wrote in 2016 that the EU would always dictate terms to the UK, due to its size. A tad embarassing, that. But also true.

Size and leverage is everything, and once the EU had closed the WA and PD, it is every bloc for itself onwards. It should surprise no one that in these negotiations, the EU is soley looking after its own interests. And if Johnson and the rest of his Government think any other serious potential trading partner will be any different then they are fooling themselves.

No other country will give us a better deal than we can negotiate because we used to be a member state or they like our popular music, or any other reason equalling they feel sorry for us. Leverage is everything, and in order to get something you want, you would have to give up something of equal importance to the other side.

On Sunday, George Eustace made comments on TV that if a company like Lurpak wanted to continue to sell its product in the UK after Brexit, it should move its production here.

Meanwhile, the Sun's Westminsiter reporter, Harry Cole, reports that Ministers judge a thin deal will be only 20% better than no deal, so are thinking on taking the hit of no deal when such a impact could be hidden by COVID.

Detailed guidance for how the UK border is going to work in January has been published. In France. By the owners of Calais and Dunkirk. Is available in English, as well as French. And does try to explain the flow of goods and required aperwork, but much of what is needed is still under development or unclear, its a bit incomplete. But is a whole lot more than what the UK Government has gone, which is little more than a series of TV, newspaper and internet ads about needing to get ready.

I would lie to, but I don't know if I need a visa for all of the EU or each country I want to work in. I am guessing, as each member state is sovereign (who knew?), that a visa for each country will be needed.

So far, so good.

But Lurpak tweeted that its product has geographical protections as it uses Danish milk and fats, so cannot be made anywhere else.

And another Brexiteer embarassing himself this morning, crowing about how much money the UK can make in applying tariffs, apparently fails to understand that tariffs are paid by the importing company, not the exporting one. So the Government would be taxing our own insutries and companies.

Wonderful.

Meanwhile our conviently isolating PM apparently made a comment about Scottish devolution and how disasterous it is, in a meeting to Minsiters last week. Follow up comments by Minsisters on TV this morning talk of constant talk of independence and break up of the Union of the UK. That clearly is Central Government's job, to break up the Union with the repeated trashing of conventions regarding asking for consent from the devolved institutions.

But do go on......