The announcement that @vonderleyen and @BorisJohnson will be speaking tomorrow afternoon "to take stock of negotiations" carries a weighty implication - namely that the EU wants to test whether the prime minister actually wants a free trade agreement and is prepared to...

negotiate in what EU leaders regard as "good faith". There is much suspicion, fuelled by the PM's decision to legislate to break the Withdrawal Agreement he signed, that the UK is talking only so as to find a way of blaming the EU for the absence of a deal, rather than...

because it actually wants a deal. As the former UK ambassador to the EU Ivan Rogers has said, the big sticking point still remains the UK's refusal to give legally binding commitments not to "unfairly" subsidise UK businesses, so-called state aid rules. But for the avoidance,...

of doubt and possibly to the annoyance of the UK's negotiator @DavidGHFrost, the @MichelBarnier and the EU negotiating side have taken a principled decision to just keep talking, and never stomp out. The EU does not want to be seen to terminating the talks. It is reserving...

that dubious privilege for @BorisJohnson.