LIVE24SEVEN // Business THOUGHT S FOR OC TOB E R 2 0 1 7 Digby Lord "What part of 'NO' do you not understand?"
I have just been watching one of those press conferences with David Davies for the UK and Michel Barnier for the EU. I am left, in these early days of September, with an immediate choice: do I do irreparable harm to our TV and throw something at it or do I write to you, Dear Reader, with my frustrations and annoyance bordering on anger? The latter thankfully won.
Let me begin with a brief summary of some facts:
1. On 29th March 2019 the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. Period. (No matter what the Remoaner-riddled, often-deceitful Establishment might yearn for, no matter the historical ‘previous’ of the Capital of the EU,
Berlin...ooooops...
Jones
Brussels, telling countries (think Ireland, Holland and even France) who have the temerity to vote against what they want just to go back and vote again and again "’til they get it right". We are
leaving...get used to it.)
2. On leaving, the UK has to pay the EU the balance remaining unpaid of its agreed contribution to the 5-year EU Budget for the period ending 31st March 2020, i.e. a year's contribution – presumably less any funds that would have been paid by the EU to projects in the UK in that final year, although no-one mentions that!
3. Upon leaving the EU, the UK is free to negotiate and sign trade deals with any country as and when it likes; things look very encouraging with America, Australia and& Japan for starters. "Back of the queue" Mr Obama? I think not!
4. If no deal regarding a future trading and customs relationship between the EU and the UK is in place by 29th March 2019 then we assume the commercial arrangements of the World Trade Organisation. These currently dictate such things for the EU's two-way trade with the USA, China and Japan, which all goes very well indeed. (Of course, a free trade arrangement, especially regarding non-tariff barriers such as the delays and mind-numbing bureaucracy at our border with those ever-helpful free-traders in France would be preferable, as would some sort of transition period to allow everything to be in place after negotiations have been completed at, presumably, a minute to midnight on 28th March 2019, but all that is not essential nor a prerequisite – Remoaners please note.)
And now a brief summary of what I see on this bright September evening:
1. The Head Panjandrum, the wannabe Napoleon aka Michel Barnier, Chief Negotiator for the EU, has said that the British "had to learn"
...basically about the way the negotiations would be conducted. The sheer bloody arrogance of it! Why should we be expected to do it their way, how they want it played out? They need us just like we need them. We are NOT on our knees begging to be given some scraps from the
Berlin...er...Paris...er Brussels table. What is it about the unelected, unaccountable, cognac-swillers of the Commission et al that automatically assumes we are somehow to blame, to be punished, to be treated as if they are doing us a big favour by even talking to us?
2. There is a strong Remoaning phalanx of the Establishment, be they from the media (checked out the BBC lately?), politics or business that is approaching all this as if we are the empty supplicants, aching to be forgiven and treated to a morsel or two. Forgive me for sharing this terrible thought, but judging by statements I read and bias I perceive, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that there are many Remoaners who would love negotiations to end poorly for our country so they can smugly say, "We told you so!"
3. Every time one of ‘unaccountable glitterati’ come up with a Divorce Bill (€50 billion, €100 billion
...they'll soon be talking of sums big enough to buy the right leg of a footballer!) we hear those bleats of, "OMG! That will cost us our Education Budget!"
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