BoJo is still talking about having our cake and eating it (HERE). In the Sunday Times he gives an interview to Tim Shipman in which he demonstrates he still believes in six impossible things before breakfast. He tells Shipman, in connection with the "deep and special relationship" that we and Michel Barnier know as an ordinary free trade deal:
“What we need to do is something new and ambitious, which allows zero tariffs and frictionless trade but still gives us that important freedom to decide our own regulatory framework, our own laws and do things in a distinctive way in the future”.
The two things he talks of, frictionless trade and the freedom to decide our own regulatory framework, are mutually exclusive. You can have one or the other, not both. The cabinet discussion which is planned for today (HERE) and billed as the "to diverge or not to diverge" meeting will be fascinating.
Incidentally, in the Sunday Times, Johnson also says about the potential loss of trade with Europe cause by tariff and other barriers that "Britain should grin and bear that while making the case for global free trade". The man who once told us we would prosper like never before now says we should grin and bear it. I assume this doesn't refer to prosperity?
