John Crace at The Guardian has a nice sketch covering Davis' appearance yesterday morning at the Exiting the EU Select Committee (HERE). It's all very humorous, until you realise he is talking about the man ostensibly in charge of the most complex negotiations ever undertaken by a British government.
You get the picture by the sub heading: "Even supporters at the Brexit select committee are beginning to worry that Davis’s air of stupidity may not be an act". This is, unfortunately for us, all too true.
It was as if he had deliberately gone out to demonstrate his utter cluelessness.
He actually thinks the political declaration on trade will be sufficiently detailed to allow a final deal to be agreed by March 2019, giving us about six months to define everything in what will certainly be the most difficult issue, when we are still floundering on Ireland, citizen's rights and judicial oversight. These are phase 1 matters, the phase we began back in March last year. Now he thinks we can settle a detailed political declaration in six months. I think most people will be totally incredulous.
He also does not believe we will need any extension period to remain in the customs union after December 2020 and thinks we will be able to negotiate and sign trade deals during the transition.
On the Irish border he is still talking about a comprehensive trade deal with no tariffs as the answer to the conundrum. This is the one where we collect EU tariffs and track every import to its final destination, something the EU will also have to do. Needless to say they have already dismissed it but Davis is still carrying on as if it's a viable option.
We had a lot of "I'll have to get back to you on that" and quite a bit of "I haven't given much thought about this" and "I'm still thinking about that". When someone suggested the Irish and the EU want the Irish border question resolved by June he said he didn't work to artificial deadlines. By his laid back attitude he didn't appear to even realise there was any deadline at all, artificial or otherwise,
He claimed the government was working on a legal text for the backstop option. And both he and the PM are furiously back pedalling on the regulatory alignment anyway. They are now talking (once again, the idea is like Lazarus - someone Davis likes to be compared with - it keeps coming back to life) about alignment of outcomes and not with the actual EU acquis. I think this will enrage Barnier and the EU side as well as Leo Varadkar.
And for the umpteenth time he mentions mutual recognition of standards. This just does not and cannot exist. The EU talk about Mutual Recognition of Conformity - with EU standards or with the standards of the third country. Whether Davis doesn't understand or is being wilfully stupid wasn't clear. Mutual recognition of standards only occurs inside the EU for members, not third countries.
One MP on the committee, Jonathan Djanogly (Con:Huntingdon), was worried about the legislative programme beginning to stack up with only about six bills "in play" and the 800-1000 Statutory Instruments needed. But if Djanogly was worried, Davis didn't seem to have a care in the world, leaning back in his seat and twirling his specs as if he was sitting glassy eyed in a corner of the snug at The Dog and Duck, putting the world to rights through the bottom of a beer glass just before closing time
He said the trade deal details needed to be substantial by October because MPs would want to know "what they were paying £39 billion for!" I must say this was a relief to me. I thought it was coming out of taxation. Anyway, barely had the words left his lips than the head of the NAO contradicted him and said we would have to pay whether there was a trade deal or not (HERE).
John Crace claimed Davis was barely on nodding terms with detail, but to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, Davis and detail are definitely acquainted, just not on speaking terms at the moment.
If ever there was a man totally out of his depth without realising it, it's David Michael Davis.
What a berk.
