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I& #39;ve delved into the UK& #39;s negotiation correspondence with the EU and its various draft proposals.
I& #39;m afraid I remain unconvinced by David Frost& #39;s bullish approach. It& #39;s based on a series of profound misconceptions. I will explain in this THREAD. ~AA 1/X
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/886168/Letter_to_Michel_Barnier_19.05.20.pdf">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...
I& #39;m afraid I remain unconvinced by David Frost& #39;s bullish approach. It& #39;s based on a series of profound misconceptions. I will explain in this THREAD. ~AA 1/X
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/886168/Letter_to_Michel_Barnier_19.05.20.pdf">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...
The UK& #39;s approach to its exit is mired by the same problem its entire membership was: a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between the EU& #39;s framework of rules and its institutions. Rules are the Institutions& #39; core DNA - not a superfluous inconvenience. ~AA 2/
The Institutional EU response to a proposal is: "Show me a way I can do it within the rules." It& #39;s not shy of creativity, even stretching them to breaking point, but asking bodies populated by lawyers and technocrats to simply ignore the rules never works. And won& #39;t now. ~AA 3/
This passage is typical of the tone.
We& #39;re not asking for anything unusual, claims Frost. This is all off-the-shelf. We want goods like Canada, services like Japan, fishing like Norway, visas like CETA, data like NZ, and harmonisation like TTIP (which doesn& #39;t exist). ~AA /4
We& #39;re not asking for anything unusual, claims Frost. This is all off-the-shelf. We want goods like Canada, services like Japan, fishing like Norway, visas like CETA, data like NZ, and harmonisation like TTIP (which doesn& #39;t exist). ~AA /4
Who is the intended audience? Is this just for the Express to fist-pump and exclaim "WE STUCK IT TO THEM"? Or is it intended to advance the negotiation? If the latter is even part of its objective, I& #39;m afraid it just makes the UK look like a petulant toddler. ~AA /5
Frost could walk into John Lewis and DEMAND a device that combines all the best features of a telephone, an oven, a vacuum cleaner and a fridge. He can stamp his feet and point out all those things exist separately. It doesn& #39;t make The Telecuum Ovenidge any more likely. ~AA 6/
Then there& #39;s the issue of timing. For the UK to demand all of the EU drop the management of a deadly pandemic, killing tens of thousands, drop its efforts to revive its own economy and talk about UK fishing quotas NOW, is frankly indecent. It makes a good deal less likely. ~AA 7/
Add to that the bizarre notion that any refusal by the EU to grant everything the UK wants is somehow an offence, a snub, a refusal to accept it as a "sovereign equal". Tuvalu is sovereign. It doesn& #39;t make it the UK& #39;s equal in a trade negotiation. ~AA 8/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9mkooJP6go">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
And *that* is the most tragic misconception of all, because it betrays a lack of understanding of what the EU is and how it works. The very reason 27 sovereign states chose to pool some of that sovereignty is PRECISELY so that in a trade negotiation they& #39;re not your equal. ~AA 9/
All this reeks of half-baked game theory and & #39;madman& #39; strategies, typical of current No.10 weirdos and misfits. Trouble is & #39;madman& #39; strategies are less useful outside a war. In commerce, if you convince the other side you are actually mad, they simply won& #39;t want to trade. ~AA 10/
