Barnier is beginning to lay it on the line as you can see from his speech in Lisbon (HERE). The Brexiteer cry of "taking back control" and June 23rd 2016 being our "independence day" is slowly being exposed for the delusion it is. Unless we accept the European Court of Justice as the final arbiter of the withdrawal agreement and the backstop solution to the Irish border we won't have an agreement or a transition period. The EU chief negotiator is always clear and logical and I imagine the British tactics of obfuscation, ambiguity, fantasy, double think and confusion must be incredibly irritating.
It's clear May and Davis have a touching belief that the European Council, the heads of government of the 27, will be more amenable to our unrealistic demands and Davis seems to think he gets a more sympathetic hearing as he travels around the capitals.
I am afraid he has probably never been involved in this kind of negotiation. It's so easy for a foreign minister or even a head of state to appear sympathetic and to blame the Commission or Barnier. It avoids any unpleasantness doesn't it? You can easily hide your true position behind the EU, as the British government has been doing for years, so it shouldn't be surprised by this.
I've never been involved in international negotiations in any way, but as a salesmen the position is not dissimilar to the client who appoints a consultant to oversee a project. The consultants say the client doesn't like your equipment so you call the client and he says the decision is down to the consultant. See how it works? A decision is made but it's almost impossible to find out who made it or why. Each party hides behind the other. This is how it will work with the Commission and the European Council.
Merkel, Macron and the others will all be perfectly nice to Davis' face and even sympathise with him - "This isn't what we want but it's the Commission that is insisting" - but when they get together who will want to break the unity of the 27 in order to side with an awkward soon-to-be ex-member of the group who is demanding to be allowed to have all the benefits and none of the obligations?
They won't. It's another delusion that will soon be destroyed.
