1. An FTA does not provide for internal market concepts (in the area of goods) such as mutual recognition, the ‘country of origin principle’, and harmonisation. Nor does an FTA remove customs formalities and controls, including those concerning the origin of goods.

#Brexit

2. There are additional instruments such as mutual recognition of conformity assessment but that is contingent on a level of equivalence - essentially the same rules or better. This, though, is far beyond the "Canada style deal" asked for by the Tories.

3. For the EU to entertain any such requests they would need firm guarantees on LPF as well as the UK outlining what rules it will use and commit to direct consultation on any changes. This includes state aid.

4. Some Tory MPs are labouring under the illusion that an FTA would do away with the border down the Irish Sea. Not so. This is clearly stated in the Notices to Stakeholders. An FTA does not remove customs formalities.

5. That health warning was placed in every single Notice with a hope that it might sink in but it is doubtful a single Tory MP has read them. They just do as instructed by the party. Some think that an FTA replaces the NI protocol. May's deal allowed for this. Johnson's does not.

6. That, however, is with the caveat that the EU could not grant single market rights over and above what is in the most advanced FTA by way of the MFN principle. If haulage rights were granted to UK they must also be extended to Ukraine.

7. There was only ever one whole UK solution that would do away with border formalities and that was the EEA agreement. That would also have removed any direct ECJ involvement.

8. Had we committed to this in the beginning it would have changed the sequencing of the talks and would have made the WA a much slimmer document being that certain rights and obligations were carried over.

9. Tories, however, got carried away with the idea of mutual recognition of standards, despite the EU not doing this in any circumstances. It only does equivalence. They preferred the snake oil of Shanker Singham to reality.

10. This perhaps tells us why they thought they could play it fast and loose with the WA, believing they could side step it at a later date. They preferred their own tribal fictions over expert testimony. It's an insulated groupthink.

11. Now, though, they believe that the EU is so afraid of no deal that threatening to collapse the WA, thereby unsettling the NI question, the EU will simply cave in and make unprecedented concessions to a departing member that it would offer no other.

12. Quite simply, they are mad. They have no concept of how the EU functions or the wider system of trade rules, and somehow think that antagonising the EU makes them more inclined to cooperate. They have a distorted idea of negotiating.

13. The fact remains, though, that the WA was turned into a front stop rather than a backstop and it is permanent - deal or no deal. Johnson did that in full knowledge. Rowing back on it now just says we are not honest brokers.

14. The UK refuses to set out its state aid regime, offers no guarantees on food safety rules, continues to snub Barnier and routinely demonstrates that the UK cannot be trusted. Subsequently any deal is not worth the paper it's written on.

15. If the internal market bill goes ahead, the UK will be placing goods onto the single market without authorisation, in contravention of the NI protocol. That much is a complete departure from the rule of treaty law. Banditry.

16. In response to that the EU has to consider its options. It is bound by its own rules and WTO rules to equally enforce its third country controls. It cannot allow the UK to put goods on its market without an agreement. Yet the oaf calls this a "blockade".

17. But when you have the Speccie and the Telegraph doing your dirty work for you, and gullible, servile Tories willing to soak it up, the Tory party falls into line behind a UK government that has no regard for its own agreements let alone international law.

18. IF this is the way we are doing it then there is next to zero chance of an FTA, and what should have been a relatively amicable departure will turn into a hostile departure - making trade relations all that much harder to normalise the the future.