Round 6 of the future relationship talks ended yesterday with no great progress although it does seem we have given up on the multiplicity of separate stand-alone agreements and shifted towards the EU's single over arching deal - as was always going to be the case. Barnier's statement is HERE. Frost's statement is HERE. The gap between the two sides can clearly be seen in that Barnier's is introduced as the end of round 6 (which it is) while the No 10 media blog is still on round 5 apparently.
Barnier said the two sides, "made progress towards the objective of a comprehensive and single institutional framework, which must include robust enforcement mechanisms" which I think means we are beginning the climbdown.
Frost approached it slightly differently, saying, "we have heard the EU’s concerns about a complex Switzerland-style set of agreements and we are ready to consider simpler structures, provided satisfactory terms can be found for dispute settlement and governance."
Next it will be the level playing field and finally a balanced agreement on fish - all of which will be to the EU's advantage.
Fishermen might note that Barnier said the "near total exclusion of EU fishing vessels from UK waters" was "simply unacceptable." Perhaps our fishermen should turn to fresh water fishing since they are soon to be sold down the river, again as was always going to be the case. Just like in 1973, they will never be any more than a bargaining chip.
Johnson was in Scotland yesterday apparently because he is getting nervous at polling showing a swing towards independence. Recent polls are putting the YES vote at around 54 per cent. However the visit only served to reinforce the shift in opinion since he is absolutely toxic and a gift that keeps on giving as far as the SNP are concerned. I think Scotland will be independent one day anyway and Brexit has only hastened it. Johnson is perhaps more responsible than any man alive for what is going to happen.
His problem in Scotland is that north of the border he is a remainer but past Berwick on the return journey he is back as a leaver. He is making his opponents arguments for them on both sides of the border and both sides of the argument. It sounds crazy and it is. In Scotland union is good, in England union is bad.
The SNP and Nicola Sturgeon are not daft. They will have learned a lot from the master during the 2016 referendum. The lies and the slogans, the social media blitz with targeted messaging all are no doubt being worked on as we speak. Every time I see Ms Sturgeon I image her talking about the "doomsters and the gloomsters" south of the border. Indyref2 will be a rerun of 2016 with Johnson playing Cameron and Sturgeon playing Johnson.
But now to other matters. One of the reasons I am certain we are going to be eating crow very soon is the sheer lack of preparedness on the part of business for Brexit and I'm not talking about a no deal version. No, we are not even prepared for a deal of the kind we are headed for. This comes out of a tweet by Anna Jerzewska who has been looking at the "advice" offered by the website smallbusiness.co.uk in an article by Ben Lobel. It is full of errors and misinformation as she points out in a long thread:
This is Britain's problem in microcosm. Nobody - but nobody - in this country wants to read the details. When I represented an Italian company (also applies to the French, Germans and the Finns) I would take visitors - customers and potential customers - to Italy where very often an Italian would have to explain the EU Machinery Directive 2006/42. or the latest ATEX (dust explosion regulations) to them. They always had someone go through any new regulations and would receive advice and training very early on.
In Britain, we want someone else to pre-digest it all and give us a quick three word summary of it and we then think we have got all we need. Mr Lobel probably thought he had done a good job - and at least he might have read something - unfortunately, almost certainly not from the original source but via a website with a misinformed summary itself.
This applies all the way through society. Engineers don't know the regulations. People don't know the coronavirus advice. Politicians don't read treaties. This is why we are in the mess we are.
She accuses the writer of "creating unrealistic expectation and giving businesses a false sense of security ('I don't need to do anything, my agent will take care of that')."Sigh... If there one thing that's worse than lack of information it's misinformation.— Dr Anna Jerzewska (@AnnaJerzewska) July 23, 2020
If you run a business, please make sure you are ONLY getting info from reliable sources.
/1 https://t.co/oh2DkhGv3j
This is Britain's problem in microcosm. Nobody - but nobody - in this country wants to read the details. When I represented an Italian company (also applies to the French, Germans and the Finns) I would take visitors - customers and potential customers - to Italy where very often an Italian would have to explain the EU Machinery Directive 2006/42. or the latest ATEX (dust explosion regulations) to them. They always had someone go through any new regulations and would receive advice and training very early on.
In Britain, we want someone else to pre-digest it all and give us a quick three word summary of it and we then think we have got all we need. Mr Lobel probably thought he had done a good job - and at least he might have read something - unfortunately, almost certainly not from the original source but via a website with a misinformed summary itself.
This applies all the way through society. Engineers don't know the regulations. People don't know the coronavirus advice. Politicians don't read treaties. This is why we are in the mess we are.
