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?
It's as if you're about to be wheeled into the operating theatre for a triple heart bypass and your surgeon tells you he hasn't got his surgical instruments back from the sterlisers. All he's got is a tin opener and two grapefruit spoons but he knows the 'worst outcome' for you would be to delay the operation so he's going ahead anyway and not to worry.
Fox is urging MPs to reject any move to extend Article 50 (HERE). In a few weeks he will either resign or will be part of a cabinet urging MPs to extend Article 50 or even revoke it altogether. Either way it will be a humiliating U turn for him.
In Davos he is desperately trying to get trade ministers from non-EU countries to roll over their trade deals with the EU. An RTE report (HERE) claims deals with New Zealand and Australia have been signed although I see no confirmation of either and I am quite certain they are wrong.
He said there was "a pipeline of agreements" to be signed in the coming weeks. We wait with bated breath as do all the companies trading under those agreements. I do hope Dr Fox has got his drain rods with him (hold baggage on most international flights), because if the pipeline gets bunged up they might not think delaying Article 50 is the 'worst outcome'.
From the RTE report :
"I will be meeting with my counterparts in key countries as we look to finalise continuity trade agreements to ensure our exporters do not face disruption as we prepare to leave to the EU," Fox said in a statement.
But he said today that some deals would not be in place by March because trade partners were underestimating the chance of a no-deal Brexit. "No deal is a genuine possibility, and they need to prepare for that, because if they don't prepare, there could be a break, even if it's a temporary one, in the trading relationship that we have on those countries on a preferential basis," he said. His department said his meetings in Davos would include ministers from South Korea, Hong Kong, Canada, Colombia and Israel.
"The department also said
telecoms firm BT would announce this week that it has been granted new domestic
licences to operate in China following talks between the British and Chinese
governments.
"With my
international economic department already working on our independent trade
policy after Brexit, we will be able to place the UK firmly at the heart of the
world’s fastest growing regions," Fox said.
Note it is 'they' who have to prepare, as in the 88 countries impacted by the 40 odd FTAs. And they have to prepare because 'we', as in former masters of the world, want to pretend we might leave the EU without a deal.
BT by the way, use Huawei equipment,
a Chinese multi-national company which is a massive player in telecommunications worldwide, with products and services in more than 170 countries, and counting 45 of the 50 largest telecom operators as its customers. However, BT and others countries providers are stripping Huawei out of their 4G networks and banning them from 5G because
of security fears (HERE). Quite what benefit BT will get from a Chinese license
isn't clear. It is one of the most advanced telecommunications market in the
world. Perhaps it's a secret plot on Fox's part to cripple the Chinese telecoms network.
When a car collided with a telegraph pole outside our house a couple of years, we were incommunicado for about two weeks! How BT could ever manage anything properly in China is a mystery.
When a car collided with a telegraph pole outside our house a couple of years, we were incommunicado for about two weeks! How BT could ever manage anything properly in China is a mystery.
