Britain is said to be accelerating preparations for "all eventualities" when it leaves the European Union but both sides are hopeful that an agreement on stepping up talks to unravel more than 40 years of partnership will be sealed soon. According to Reuters (HERE), negotiators from the EU and UK met in Brussels yesterday to agree a schedule for more rounds of talks. Both sides are said to be confident of agreeing a schedule but it says a lot that after seven months and deadlock this is greeted as good news.
The government has also announced a big spending programme starting next year to get the country ready for Brexit, hard or soft (HERE).
Davis was in front of the Lord's Brexit committee and tried to give the impression the EU have been dragging their heels and playing awkward about agreeing a date for the next negotiating round. I think this is an attempt to shift the blame.
There is no doubt some talks are continuing behind the scenes but progress is painfully slow. No new documents have been published on the DEXEU website since the 24th of August. And the EU have not published anything since the joint EU/UK letter on 11th October.
As far as I can see, no one thinks the two year negotiation set out in Article 50 is long enough for a trade deal and one might have thought every day was precious and not to be wasted but what we are seeing is the two sides very relaxed about the ticking clock.
I suspect this is a ploy on the part of the UK. Make it appear we are not unhappy to leave in March 2019 come what may, and demonstrate our confidence by spending huge sums on new infrastructure and staff to handle extra customs checks after Brexit day. The way I see it, no amount of money will ready the country for Brexit and spending taxpayers money is not enough, what about all the private businesses, freight forwarders and the like, who also need to be prepared. And even this is dwarfed by the money needing to be spent on the other side of the Channel. I don't see any funds being committed in the private sector or in the EU without anyone knowing what is actually needed.
Davis' comments are all for home consumption only. Nobody in the EU believes us.
The UK government's laid back attitude to the ticking clock is all the more surprising given the message that banks are just a few weeks or months from making irreversible decisions about relocating operations into other EU countries (HERE). Unless they have clarity about the future relationship many thousands of jobs in banking and finance will go. The EU will be the beneficiary and they have no incentive to speed things up. One would think David Davis would be pressing hard but he seems extraordinarily relaxed. Either this is all part of a cunning plan or he hasn't got a clue what he's doing. My money is on the latter.
He has conceded in front of peers (HERE) that Britain’s Brexit withdrawal agreement will “probably favour“ the EU. The Brexit Secretary said: “In the infamous – or famous – words of the European Union, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The withdrawal agreement on balance will probably favour the union in terms of the things like money and so on".
I am not even sure what Davis means by saying this. Presumably it is softening up the other Brexiteers like Rees-Mogg for the handing over of large sums of money. And as for claim that the future relationship will "favour" both sides, this goes against virtually every economic forecast. Brexit will negatively impact both the EU and the UK. There will be no winners, only losers with the UK losing the most.
