Time to scare off the newbies…
What was that saying? Many a true word spoken in jest?
So this rowing back on the withdrawal agreement
Genuine attempt to rewrite the deal or a bit of positioning prior to the October round of talks?
Possibly the latter.
Vibes in Europe that Barnier wasnt cutting it and being a bit anti, gave Boris a window to stick the knife in.
All assumes UK PLC has someone with a brain involved…
Nah it’s a Clusterfvck
I don’t think it’s a bluff, and while it does break international law, on the scale of international law breaking it’s not going to treated that seriously.
From the external perspective of any normal functioning state, it’s not going to look that bad because the EU has been so inflexible and what is being asked of us just seems extreme.
Before Varadkar got in, British and Irish civil servants were already quietly working in the background to get isses sorted out.
It was the EU that made it a peace in Northern Ireland thing, shamefully, imo.
I think what we’ve managed to do here is unearth the true meaning, on an international scale, of a Catch-22 situation.
With the intertwining of the UKs relationship with Europe, separate countries (NI/Eire & Spain) and waterways, I literally cannot see a way out of this.
Couple that with clowns to the left, and jokers to the right, this is never really going to sort itself.
The Irish will be united eventually. I’d wager they’d come out of the EU when or after that happens. If the EU is still around.
First trade deal done with a major nation - Japan
No level playing field
No unrestricted access to UK waters
No ECJ primacy
Who would have thought it.
99% of exports between the two countries to be zero rated.
Cool. Do we get the used knickers vending machines?
Not sure but we are all good on tamagotchi’s
High tech components. Particularly useful for the likes of Nissan.
And suspiciously we’ll be in exactly the same financial position as we are at the moment. From the BBC:
“… But ultimately, this deal largely mirrors the agreement which already exists between the EU and Japan. And with trade with Japan accounting for just 2% of the UK’s total, the expected boost to GDP of 0.07% over the long term is a tiny fraction of what might be lost from leaving the EU…”
Having vowed to stay off this thread I shall say “laters” and go and have a stern word with myself 
Clutching at straws springs to mind!
About right, it’s basically the same as the deal the UK already has through the deal between the EU and Japan.
Except it appears to make it easier for cars built in Japan to be imported into the UK, meaning Nissan and Toyota might not need their UK factories which employ thousands of people.
What a result!
Who’d have thought it?
Does it? I’m not sure why.
Whether you choose to believe it or not, the UK was a big deal in the EU, simply because it was a large voice listened to by the duopoly.
As much as I take the piss out of @Map-Of-Tasmania by saying ze Germans are in charge, it’s actually the French that are among the most wide-eyed zealosts of the EU project, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Permanently contaminated in the First World War, utterly humiliated in the Second World War, which they were in large part a contributing factor (the diktat at Versailles was the the “gift” that kept on giving Nazis their early propaganda).
Absent the UK, it will be these two countries leading the way. France wants the project more than ever. Germany won’t mind. Much of the rest of the Union will.
Bit of background on the international law breaking from Spiked. If you can’t be arsed listening, the law itself is in contradiction.
You can’t have “unfettered” access between NI and GB if the EU is making “fetters”
Some more detail from David Frost concerning the international law breaking. Much of this has come from an EU threat not to list us as valid importer. This means that importing food into NI from GB would be technically illegal.
So it seems Operation Yellowhammer was good preparation for the reality of Brexit.