The Government has been telling businesses that “time is running out” to prepare for the end of the transition period. For at least 4 of the remaining 9 weeks before the end of the transition period, those businesses are going to be severely restricted by the COVID lockdown.
— David Gauke (@DavidGauke) November 1, 2020
It's a reasonable question. The answer of course is that the transition end date will have to be moved back - even if we have to beg the EU to give us a few more months. There really is no alternative,
But I noticed among the replies to Gaukes tweet this one from someone with the Twitter handle The_RealTruth18:
Why?It is the best time to make changes to give us the best chance of a high octane recovery. Without EU rules getting in the way.How about a bit of patriotism?— WhatIsTheTruth (@The_RealTruth18) October 29, 2020
What do they expect? What rules would be scrapped? I suspect he (it must be a he surely) is among those likely to suffer the biggest shock. I assume he truly believes that EU rules "get in the way" but would be unable to give a single example. He clearly believes Boris Johnson's 'boosterism' speeches although I suspect Johnson couldn't give an example of Brussels holding us back. If anything, they've been holding us up!
What happens next summer when there has been no "high octane" recovery? Will The_RealTruth18 look around and see the unemployment, the sinking pound and all the signs of an economy in desperate trouble and think Brexit was a mistake? He may do or he may think the government haven't had enough time or haven't handle it as well as another government might. He may make excuses for Brexit or be one of those who would prefer to to starve rather than admit the belief in Brexit has been totally unfounded.
The problem is the politicians say Brexit is "the will of the people" while the people look to the politicians, the people who sold them the idea in the first place, principally Boris Johnson, to make a success of it - because they said they would. But Brexit is like trying to turn base metal into gold - impossible. It is the semi-blind alchemist leading the blind.
The trade talks continue in Brussels today with Nick Gutteridge tweeting a link to a Bloomberg article claiming negotiators are closing in on a solution to fisheries. However, when you read it the 'solution' turns out to push the problem into the future:
EU and UK negotiators are closing in on a fishing compromise that would see decisions on the exact quotas European boats would be able to land in British waters kicked into the long grass to avoid disagreements torpedoing a trade deal, reports @IanWishart https://t.co/owWA8HpmKV
— Nick Gutteridge (@nickgutteridge) November 1, 2020
There is no official word yet so we have no idea but it sounds like the issue is too difficult to resolve.
Professor Chris Grey thinks there will probably be a 'breakthrough' this week. I'm not so sure that it won't run into next week but I do believe there will be a deal before very long.
Of course, it will be dramatically different to what we have now and I think future historians will look back on the last four years as a period when Britain's global pretensions were finally destroyed along with any notion that we were fit enough to govern ourselves.
Brexit was sold as the solution to a great problem and the referendum won on that basis. There followed three years of internal Tory party argument about what the people actually wanted before Johnson set a time limit to get a Withdrawal Agreement which he later decided was no good - partly because it was negotiated against the clock.
The trade deal is now going the same way. Bleary eyed negotiators working seven days a week to get a trade deal agreed which will have devastating consequences for many industries.
On that topic, I note we have heard nothing about the Nissan plant in Sunderland for a few weeks but almost certainly they will be hit with rules of origin issues and even if they achieve the 55% local content by including EU sourced parts, they will have to prove it and this will take a lot of work. It will also limit them in the future.
