Last week, in an effort to move things along, the UK apparently tabled a legal text for a free trade agreement. Brussels have been steadfast in rejecting the idea of a single, simple free trade agreement (and almost certainly it went much further than that in some areas where we want single market access) and now Barnier has confirmed to EU ambassadors that this British text has been rejected. It is an indication of just how deluded the government is. In any negotiation, at least all the ones I've been involved with, the larger, stronger party gets to set the terms and conditions.
If you buy a TV from Currys you don't set your own terms. But when Currys bought the TV from Toshiba or whoever, it will be the manufacturers T&Cs which are used. This is how things work on planet reality.
The fact the we thought the EU would ever sign a treaty drafted by a smaller entity like Britain shows they are still in the grip of a serious misapprehension about the relative strength of each side.
This was all reported in The Sun yesterday as you can see from the link above. The headline is: Brussels throws out Britain’s Brexit blueprint & urges EU nations to remain ‘cold blooded’ as deadline looms
EU 'sources' said the UK's "clear strategy" will be to "trade off" fishing access for freedom from EU rules at the last minute but said we seem to be "negotiating on game theory rather than substance". This is Cummings' doing surely?
The Sun says Barnier is now "braced for a major bust up with No 10 next month with fears of a bitter no deal Brexit growing in Brussels."
The mood in Brussels is "despondent" with the source telling The Sun: "Outsiders don’t realise how pessimistic we’ve become. We expect the mood to switch rapidly to contingency planning, in expectation the UK will throw itself into the blame game rather than the end game. The idea that if we do end up with no deal it’ll be because the EU underestimated the UK’s determination is misplaced.
"If it happens it’ll be because there was no overlap of interests allowing a landing zone."
A second source said the UK's reliance on access to its waters as a bargaining chip is "risky" and went on "Coastal states won’t be allowed by others to undercut the integrity of the single market for some fish. That's too high a price."
As usual we over value our own relative strengths (fish and finance) while systematically underestimating those of the other side (the single market and sheer size). Johnson is the third Tory prime minister to try and negotiate better terms and really only Cameron got something tangible but it was dismissed by the Brexiteers as nothing.
May tried but couldn't get anything agreed by parliament or even her own side.
Johnson tried playing hardball last year but made no progress. On Sunday Tim Shipman at The Sunday Times reported someone close to the WA negotiations saying the revised deal was "crap! and "99% the same" as Theresa May's.
So, three prime ministers and we have made no impression at all on the EU27. Rest assured that there will be a deal - of sorts - highly asymmetric with all the benefits on the EU side, and the Brexiteers, already unhappy with the WA, will be absolutely livid about the trade deal but will blame it all on the EU.
We must not let them get away with it. Taking back control cannot under any circumstances mean we can be 'bullied' by anyone - can it? If that's true we haven't taken back control but rather we have given it up.
Exactly as we said in 2016.
We are getting to the business end of Brexit when real decisions have to be made about our future and at the moment it's very hard to see any of the promised upsides to Brexit ever materialising. This must soon become obvious in Downing Street but how they 'sell ' the disaster as a triumph will be fascinating.
As for British fishermen - they are going to be betrayed again, nothing is more certain.
