CONTINUITY TRADE DEALS SIGNED AT LAST

The government has sneaked out an announcement that a continuity trade deal, extending one of the forty or so that we already have inside the EU, has been agreed. As far as I know this is the second agreement actually signed and given the significance we might have expected a fan fare and a lead item on the main news. In fact it came out six days ago as if it the Trade department didn't want anyone to know.

FOX IN FUTURE U TURN THAT HE IS YET TO ADMIT

Liam Fox is offering hostages to fortune to anyone who will listen. Mixing with the movers and shakers at Davos, he is saying that delaying Brexit would be the 'worst outcome', worse even than leaving without a deal (HERE).  I look forward to him eating these very words in the not too distant future.

He is a medical doctor and I wonder if this was his attitude when he was practicing medicine?

THE PHANTASTICALLY USELESS DR FOX

Liam Fox, our utterly useless International Trade Secretary, has now admitted he hasn't quite managed to replicate the 40 trade deals the EU have with 88 countries around the world (HERE). I don't think anybody truly expected him to have all 40 signed and sealed, after all some of them might actually take over 'ten minutes' or not be the 'easiest trade deals in history'.  But exactly how many has he managed?  Errr..., none.

FOX ON THE ROCKS

The Sunday Times had some rich pickings yesterday, apart from the imbecile Davis writing under his own name, we had an article (HERE) about Liam Fox and his global trading fantasies. If I was Fox I wouldn't bother to read it, it is not good news. The title is: Liam Fox’s dream of a global Britain hits the rocks. The sub-title: Despite the hype, no country will make a trade alliance until our deal with the EU is clear. The writer is a Tony Stubbington.

INTRANSIGENCE v PRINCIPLED STAND - Spot the difference?

Isn't it strange when there is an impasse between you and another party, they are "intransigent" while you are determined to "stand by your principles". Of course, they see things in precisely the opposite way. Liam Fox, a medical doctor who occasionally does comic impressions of an International Trade Secretary, accuses the EU of intransigence (HERE) because of their unwillingness to dismantle the European single market to enable us to retain what we have recently voted to give up. How unreasonable.

DAVIS AND THE IfG

David Davis is like one of those blokes you meet in the pub occasionally. He can't wait to tell you how good he is.  He sees himself as a titan of the business world.  Everything he ever did was a doddle and to a man of his prodigious talent, things he hasn't yet done would come even easier - if he ever tried. In truth his colleagues probably all thought he was hopeless. Just after the campaign in July 2016 the little twerp told us (HERE) we would have trade deals sorted in no time at all:

FOX'S TRADE BOOSTING EFFORTS RESULT IN "SHOCK FALL"

One might almost feel sorry for Liam Fox (no don't worry, I only said might). He has been going round talking up Global Britain and globe trotting around the world to boost trade. He wants to see exports up to 35% of GDP, from about 30% now - an increase of about £100 billion a year. After a couple of years our exports are now going down. The latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) shows UK manufacturing growth at a 25 month low. This is after the pound suffered a serious drop after the referendum which supposedly made exports cheaper and should have boosted the export figures. Sadly, it didn't.

THE IDEOLOGICALLY PURE DR FOX

I don't know if Liam Fox ever listens to himself or if he has a trusted friend who can talk to him candidly, but he needs to seriously think about the way he comes across in interviews like this one with The Sunday Times (HERE). He is talking about "ideological purity" as something that infects EU thinking but can't see it in himself. So driven is he to be ideologically separate to the EU he is willing to lay waste to the British economy, destroy the  car and other industries drive farmers out of business and see food and medicine shortages. 

THE IDEOLOGICAL DR FOX

In what is thought will go down in history as the greatest ever example of the kettle calling the pot black, Dr Liam Fox, the Trade Secretary and hard line Brexiteer has accused the EU of "putting ideology before the well-being of citizens" (HERE). Speaking to the press wearing army fatigues and a balaclava, with a backdrop showing crossed AK47s and NO SURRENDER in giant letters, Fox, sitting alongside other members of the Brexit Army Council said:

FOX AND TRADE

Huge problems are becoming apparent in rolling over the 40 or so trade deals which the EU have negotiated and that we will no longer be a party to after Brexit, unless we come to an agreement with the 65-70 countries involved. The EU have expressed serious doubts about Liam Fox's ability to run the DIT effectively. He knows nothing about international trade and seems to believe the task is a doddle.

FOX REALISES BREXIT IS COMPLICATED

During questions after his speech yesterday, the Trade Secretary Liam Fox refuting suggestions from his former permanent secretary Sir Martin Donnelly, about Brexit being like giving up a three course meal now for a possible future packet of crisps said something that should be shocking but surprisingly isn't. He said: 

DIT CHAOS

Dr Fox's Department for International Trade (DIT) is coming under fire. The National audit office says the DIT is not fit for purpose (HERE) and it ‘has not yet defined the range of capabilities and level of capacity it will require to undertake its role in delivering an independent UK trade function’. In other words it hasn't even defined what it needs to do yet.  Stunning isn't it?

FOX NOW TOTALLY SPACED OUT

The International Trade Secretary Liam Fox had been at the mind altering substances again. Aides said that his latest article for The Telegraph (HERE) had been written and sent before they were able to wrest his laptop away and restrain him for his own safety. He was last seen, one eye blinking rapidly, laughing hysterically and being dragged forcibly out of his office with another aide carrying a strait jacket and sedatives, following behind.

TRADE DEALS

The New European (HERE) has an article about our globe trotting Trade Secretary Liam Fox and a visit he made recently to Australia. They report him saying he wants to "build a partnership" with Australia - a country on the other side of the world with a population roughly that of Romania - "for the 21st century". He used the occasion to attack us remoaners who he said were "wrong" and "unable to come to terms with the expressed will of the British people".