From The BBC:
Cabinet minister Michael Gove says the EU "seem to be refusing to negotiate with the UK" over a new Brexit deal.
Mr Gove, who is responsible for no-deal planning, said he was "deeply saddened" that Brussels was, in his words, saying "no, we don't want to talk".
It comes after the EU said UK demands to remove the Irish backstop from Theresa May's deal were unacceptable.
I'm surprised that Gove seems to be surprised by this.
The EU have at least been consistent all along - either take our crappy and humiliating deal or we will do our best to ruin you. Either way, this will be a lesson to anybody country which ever considers leaving.
Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Well, what a surprise!
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8 comments:
What are the current odds for No Deal?
The problem is that the EU is a cult, you can't negotiate out of a cult.
The EU won't negotiate until the last minute. Every single EU tricky negotiation goes down to the wire, its how they operate. I fully expect Boris and co to be holed up with the EU in the hours right down to the deadline, and emerge with a piece of paper (hopefully not a bad omen) at about 11:45pm on the 31st Oct.
JH, no idea.
LF, not really relevant. The UK must be punished and seen to be punished to keep wavering countries in line.
S, true, but Gove must know that.
I doubt very much that Gove is surprised.
T, ok, so why is he PRETENDING to be surprised (and thereby making himself look stupid)?
The main means by which the EU will punish the UK will be by making those of us who are in the EU cough up extra for tariffs on goods from the UK, and then there is VAT on top.
Thanks for nothing, Brussels. They seem to think that people in the EU are purchasing UK products as a act of charity because we feel sorry for the poor Brits. That is the mercantilist mindset which has always ruled in Brussels. Nobody has told them that mercantilist economics was discredited at about the same time as the Phlogiston theory.
MW
I expect he is pretending to be surprised because, (a) they are obliged to negotiate in good faith by EU law and failure to even pretend to negotiate makes it look as though the EU are intransigent, and Gove didn't think they'd be that stupid, and
(b) it is consistent with the Brexiteer line that EU would of course want a deal, particularly if they realised that the UK was not bluffing.
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