In this Spectator article, they highlight all the issues facing a Brexit deal and the historical reasons why they are likely to fail.
I note some points in the article.
Barnier represents not France but the EU, and he has a negotiating position, the notorious European Council Guidelines, on which the veteran British diplomat Sir Peter Marshall has recently commented that ‘I have never seen, nor heard tell of, a text as antipathetic to the principle of give and take which is generally assumed to be at the heart of negotiation among like-minded democracies’.
Or, in plain English. He's never seen such a "negotiating document", specifically worded to stop any kind of negotiations at all, before.
Then we have a cracker on the Negotiations between Napoleon and Pitt...
This compromise could have given Europe a generation of peace. But after a few months of wrangling and bad temper, relations broke down, and 13 years of bloody and devastating conflict ensued. Napoleon tried to destroy the British economy by stopping its trade with Europe. Britain retaliated, evaded the restrictions, and hugely increased its global trade. The saga ended at Waterloo, and the defeated Napoleon blamed ‘all my wars on England’.
With the inevitable final consequence.
The final break came over Malta, which the British had liberated but were due to evacuate under the Treaty. They delayed both for practical reasons and as a precaution against the French threat to Turkey. This caused the French angrily to insist, with Napoleon shouting publicly at the British ambassador, that Britain must fulfil its treaty obligations in full and at once. The British, deciding that no deal was better than a bad deal, gave France an ultimatum and then declared war.
All sounding a bit Deja Vu ish?
The EU is trying to do to the UK exactly what Napoleon did. Bind us into a treaty which massively constrains us whilst they get to do whatever they like. When the UK did a "no deal" and walked away, the net effect was a MASSIVE increase in UK trade around the world.
The difference today? The UK is run by cowards afraid to take a step out into the world and do what we do best.
We are acting as if we're Luxemburg. Rather than who we really are.
