This article (HERE) is about game theory and controlled recklessness in negotiations with our threat to walk away without a deal. It talks about the reputational damage to Britain if we fail to honour our commitments and asks who would sign a treaty with us ever again.
But it also got me thinking about the free trade deals that Liam Fox wants to sign. Let's consider a few things. It's clear to anyone who knows anything at all about international trade that Brexit is economic insanity. The Labour opposition prioritises the single market and the customs union. The referendum was a very close result and public opinion is already moving away from the vote last year. It's obvious that logically our best long term interests lay with Europe.
So, there is a big risk that we may quite quickly rejoin the EEA and the customs union. If the Labour party declared that single market membership was their official policy wouldn't this effectively block potential trade deals? Who would want to spend years negotiating thousands of pages of an FTA and the associated customs schedules only for them to be wasted if we rejoin the obvious trading bloc on our doorstep?
That would be insanity wouldn't it?
