Dominic Raab was in Brussels yesterday for the start of the latest phase of the negotiations which will probably get nowhere again. Apparently, the talks are now set to be carried on continuously as if we just noticed there's a time limit. The Irish border is the same old sticking point but I noticed no one mentioned governance (unless I missed it) so perhaps some progress is being made on a role for the ECJ.
It was good to see Michel Barnier, in the press conference, come down hard on any idea that the EU would change its principles (HERE) to accommodate the UK which I assume is the final nail in the coffin of the Chequers proposal. Asked about talk in the UK of a no-deal outcome being blamed on the EU - essentially what Jeremy Hunt said recently - Barnier said (HERE):
"To be very frank with you I do see this blame game starting against the European Union in the case of no deal. But the European Union is not going to be impressed by that kind of blame game, everyone should understand that.
"On the first day of the first press conference I came before you as a negotiator, I said Brexit will have numerous consequences – human, social consequences, economic, financial, technical, legal – and I said that many people had underestimated those consequences."
I still don't think this message has got through and we are still underestimating the consequences. Which brings me neatly to this letter (HERE) in the Worcester press from a lady named Wendy Hands who voted to leave and isn't nervous about Brexit at all! She thinks Mrs May is making a mess of it but that something will turn up and our negotiators will get a good deal - whatever that is.
The problem is that a lot of influential people who should know better are claiming all will be well if we left without a trade deal. Peter Lilley's recent nonsense article, which first appeared on Conservative Home, is published in The Yorkshire Post (HERE) with its "facts" all wrong and meanwhile over at Brexit Central, Martin Howe QC has an article (HERE) about prices falling after Brexit because we'll be able to lower tariffs. This will hit EU trade, because they will then have to check imports are not leaking into the EU and it will hit farmers badly because the highest tariffs are on foodstuffs. Note how these articles begin in the right wing blogs and get re-printed in the mainstream media. It is all very damaging because they seek to disguise or hide the consequences that Barnier talked about.
