10 reasons why it's pointless to talk about an "Australian solution" - a phrase we'll hear a lot from government in the coming weeks.

Reason 1: The context matters. When it comes to trade, Australia is really really different. The UK trades 7x more goods with the EU than AUS.

Reason 2: The UK's deficit in goods trade in 5x higher than Australia's. (See the previous chart - for the UK, it was 113bn EUR in 2019; for AUS, 22bn EUR that same year)

Reason 3: When it comes to trade in services, Australia is really really different, too. The UK's trade in services in 15x greater with the EU than with AUS

Reason 4: Australia is 8700 miles away from the EU; the UK is 25 miles away from the closest EU member state (France). Gravity matters in trade.

Reason 5: Australia doesn't have a trade agreement with the EU, but it really wants one. Indeed, AUS has been negotiating one with EU since 2018 - and its draft chapters actually look very similar to EU-Canada FTA (yes, *that* Canada deal, Prime Minister).
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1865

Reason 6: The PM will be delighted to hear that Australia *does* have a few bilateral agreements with the EU. Includes preferential access to tariff quotas specifically for Australian agricultural exports. Britain's exporters wouldn't have access to the same quotas under no-deal.

Reason 7: Australia also has a "Framework Agreement" covering cooperation on foreign policy and institutional cooperation. Ironically, this is exactly the type of deal on foreign policy cooperation the UK has said it does *not* want to sign with the EU.

Reason 8: Thankfully, as @GregHands helpfully said, Australia also has a wine agreement with the EU - and the UK has rolled over that agreement. So, whether there's a trade deal or not, we'll be fine, since we'll have Australian wine. https://twitter.com/GregHands/status/1317386139213377537?s=20

Reason 9: The only real reason why we're talking about the nonsense of leaving on "Australian terms" - rather than leaving with "a disruptive no deal in the midst of a second wave of Covid-19 and a deep recession" - are some clever focus groups with the Conservative voters.

Reason 10: It shouldn't matter how the Government chooses to label things - whether it's an "Australian deal", or an Albanian deal, or a Mongolian deal.

But it does matter when the Government chooses to intentionally spread a deceitful narrative in order to mislead the public.