EU CAVES IN!

[Workingman]

Get the flags and bunting out: WE WON!

Or so claim every news outlet in the Gleedia in their "exclusive" insights into things EU/Brexit.

It all comes from a draft paper of 'conclusions' of a summit meeting not yet held - the meeting is due next Friday. The paper is also "exclusively" available to anyone and his dog.

We can leave any time we like with no divorce payment. We can stay in the single market and customs union as long as we like whilst still doing WTO deals with any other country willing to trade. EU workers can come here whenever they like, but we can kick them out - no questions asked. We can drive on the left, keep the £ and the Queen(King, gender neutral monarch) and work in Imperial measures (did we ever stop?) and have our Sovereignty in full. Luvvly Jubbly.

Only joking. The paper, in its opening paragraphs, is quite optimistic about what 'could' happen if progress is made. The issues it raises will be discussed in a full summit of EU leaders next Friday and the results passed on to Barnier. However, if you dig a bit deeper the old rifts remain - EU nats, FOM, divorce and NI/border. Yes, there has been progress, but it is still not enough. Yes, the 27 will discuss amongst themselves what Brexit might be and how it will effect them. And yes they will make preparations for all eventualities, but at the end of the day little has changed and we are not invited to take part.

These 'exclisives' are little more than a guesstimate of what might happen at a yet to be held future event and they appear to offer something to everyone, but offer nothing to anybody.

The Brexit disaster will continue apace, and it will still be the fault of the EU and us Remainers.

[Suff]

Yep just about as disgusting as the Remoaner press going their mile about the "Brexit Deadlock" statement by the EU and their ranting about the fact that the banks drove the £ through the floor yesterday, despite good economic news, only to find that the £ bounced back over the line (when the real investors took over).

Let's face it we have two sides of this argument, in the UK, being presented by two entrenched and unmoving parties spinning the communication to meet their own prejudices.

Pretty much what we have on the negotiation teams except the only one who is negotiating is the UK...

Given the way it's going, everyone would be served right if we bang out with no deal at all in march 2019 and the EU communities act is repealed without a replacement, forcing the government to sit for the next 6 months just to sort out how many of the 1,800 laws, governed by the EU communities act, actually need to go back into UK law, regardless of how they say they are championing the people of the UK.

[Workingman]

I sort of agree.

It is staggeringly bizarre, to say the least, for conclusions to be drawn from something yet to take place, especially when things could easily change between now and then. I see it as pretty much a PR stunt, but one with a message.

The EU Council or its commissioners are not idiots. They will have been looking at various options for trade deals since the referendum was promised - not when the result was in, not when it was officially announced, but way before that. Some of those options will now be in the pending tray, but one or two will be active. It already has some preparations.

The message the EU is sending is that the UK has moved and that it (the EU) is prepared to open a few doors if the UK wants to talk, but the divorce bill, NI border and EU nats and ECJ are still miles (kilometres) from being settled.

My personal take is that we will pay a divorce bill so just get on and agree. In the long term we can just about work with any reasonable figure. On the other hand I believe that the UK has moved more than enough on EU nats and ECJ, especialy during an implementation period (the new term for transition). When it comes to the NI border my solution is pretty simple.

The Good Friday agreement opened the border mainly to people to allow families the freedom to become whole again. A secondary effect was to also open the border to goods and trade, but we had that between the EU and UK since the EEC days so no problem. With that we have decades of data of goods and services flows between Eire and NI.

What we could do is keep the border open to individuals, cars, tour coaches, planes, ferries, etc, while at the same time monitoring the flow of goods and services via data collection and technology. If either side notices a spike, or even a dip, in flows they could jointly act at both end points. Given that both sides have CCTV and ANPR cameras it should also be possible to track the movements of vehicles that appear to be doing one thing but are actually doing something else. My bet is that in one form or another a lot of the above is already going on.

Just get on with things.

Remorons and Brexidiots, pro and anti-Brexit media, Uncle Tom et al can bang on all we like and pretend that we are influencing the negotiators, and the Universe, when we are not; but the truth is that Brexit will mainly be settled behind closed doors by people we have never heard of and who we would not recognise if they belted us with a frying pan.

[cromwell]

It just gets dafter. You have this on the one hand and then a story in the Telegraph saying the Brexit bill is going to be blocked in the commons by Tory rebels.

[AliasAggers]

I'm beginning to think I don't give a damn what happens about Brexit.
I'm fed up with it all.
In or out of the EU, I think the future for G.B. looks pretty grim....

I think it won't be long before:
a) Muslims will be running this country.
b) Crime will soar and become the norm in all walks of life.
c) World War No 3 will thin-out the overgrown world population.
d) There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Aren't I glad I won't be here then.

[Suff]

d) There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Followed by blaming someone else for the problems of the UK/world.

Such is life nowadays. It's always someone else's fault and there is no personal responsibility to help fix it.

Ah well. I only have two to three decades left and the worst of it will be for my children and grandchildren to deal with.