Slides – not used in the ‘slides war’ …
How about that then: we have the ‘War of the Slides’ between us (that’s No10) and the EU (that’s Barnier). Even the Remain MSM are suddenly on the side of Leave as Brussels accused No10 of hitting ‘below the belt’ by using an old slide. It’s absolutely delicious!
I’ll go into the details of that ‘war’ below – first there’s an extraordinary report on M Barnier’s ‘Mandate’ which should gladden our hearts. Joe Barnes, Brussels correspondent of The Express, writes:
“After weeks of internal wrangling, EU ambassadors decided they needed more time to hammer out the final details of the bloc’s negotiating strategy ahead of formal trade talks with Britain. Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, now faces having to start discussions with his UK counterparts without an official mandate signed off by the bloc’s remaining 27 member states. If the capitals continue to drag their feet, the Frenchman’s scope for negotiations will be severely limited.” (link)
No gloating on the back benches, ok! There’s more, and M Barnier’s bedrock attitude towards us looks more like a rock made of styrofoam as used in theatres. It looks as if the Barnier cries about a shortage of negotiating time might be severely undermined by EU member states:
“The document is scheduled to be rubber-stamped by Europe ministers as a General Affairs Council in Brussels next Tuesday. An EU diplomat told Express.co.uk a French-led bloc of countries are holding out for hardened language on the so-called “level-playing field” to be included in Mr Barnier’s mandate.” (link)
That the new EU Fisheries Chairman – another Frenchman – is trying to reinforce this hard-line attitude by demanding that nothing must change in regard to Fisheries (link) is just par for the course. RemainCentral also reports on this internecine EU wrangle, and look who the ‘hard-liners’ are:
“France, Spain and Belgium lead a group of countries pushing for Britain to be bound by “dynamic alignment” with all EU competition, social and environmental laws. The requirements are backed with EU monetary and trade sanctions if the EU thinks the rules have been breached. […] Divisions over the issue surfaced at a meeting of Brussels ambassadors yesterday. One said that the EU may not be able to agree a negotiating mandate in time for a deadline next Tuesday.” (link, paywalled)
What a surprise (not!): the leaders of those ‘hardliners’ are France, Spain and … Belgium? For those who remember their history of the Napoleonic Wars that makes sense, oddly enough.
It is of course all about that Canada Deal which suddenly is of the devil, as far as Barnier is concerned. Thus the ‘slide war’. The background is of course Mr Frost’s speech where he said that we want nothing more and nothing less than a deal like those between the EU and Japan, Korea or Canada, where ‘single market’, ‘level playing field’ and the ECJ don’t come into it.
There were two slides, one produced by Barnier in the wake of ‘that’ speech, one dug out by No10. You can see them both in this tweet albeit in miniature size. Let me first draw your attention to Barnier’s ‘bubble’ slide, on trade volume:
“A bubble representing trade volume with the UK on an EU graphic was 16 times bigger than that relating to Japan. The official figures suggest it should be four times bigger. David Spiegelhalter, a professor of the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, told the website Politico that the EU’s graphic was “indefensible” and went against standard graphical practice. “It’s incorrect to use diameter to represent volume,” he said.” (link, paywalled)
That doesn’t matter to the EU – it’s simply about creating a visual impact for readers who don’t have the time to check numbers – not that our MSM are doing this, as the reports on facts4eu show again and again, not that these make it into the Remain MSM.
Then there’s the ‘below-the-belt’ slide. This is a graph made by Barnier in 2017, relating to that Canada deal which was on offer and then rejected by Ms May (link).This has been reproduced for all to see here and here, paywalled here and here.
But there’s a truly amazing piece of news relating to this deal. Mr Hogan, the Trade Commissioner, has undermined M Barnier when he wrote to the Dutch Parliament which is in the process of ratifying that Canada deal (CETA):
“Phil Hogan, the EU’s trade commissioner, has undermined his colleague’s argument for a special, bespoke and unique pact that ties Britain into the Brussels’ state aid, taxation, environmental and workers’ rights standards. In a letter to the Dutch parliament, the Irishman made clear the EU’s deal with Canada already contains acceptable “fair trade” provisions” (link)
This letter was written a week ago, and it’s certainly totally unfair that our negotiators dug it out! Here’s a comment by a ‘UK source’ in the DT:
“A UK source close to the negotiations said: “Given that the EU is praising the level playing field commitments in CETA in this way, it’s surprising that they’ve suggested they would not be willing to accept similar provisions in a trade deal with the UK. It is worth noting that there is no reference to the ECJ in CETA, and no commitment to dynamic alignment on regulation. In its current form, the EU mandate asks the UK to commit to aligning with the EU’s standards forever.” (paywalled link)
Ah – but the difference is that we are only separated from the EU by the Channel, not by the Atlantic, as Barnier and as his spokespeople keep trying to tell us because we’re obviously not aware of that fact. See for example this:
“In a speech in London yesterday Stefaan De Rynck, an aide to Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said that the EU’s agreement with Canada was a “different ball game” to a future relationship with the UK. He was responding to demands by Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator, David Frost, for the EU to drop its insistence on post-Brexit regulatory alignment. “Some in the UK now seem to want to become Canadians. But Dover is much closer to Calais than Ottawa is. Proximity matters, distance matters . . . what also matters is the interconnectedness between our economies,” Mr De Rynck said.” (link, paywalled)
Something neither Mr De Rynck nor Messrs Barnier and Hogan mention, something our MSM have still not reported on, not even just as background for the ‘bubble’ slide and for the talks, are actual numbers. So here they are again, as we reported yesterday. The numbers come from the EU – keep them in mind when you look at that infamous bubble:
”The EU27 earned a €125 billion trade surplus from the UK in 2019. That’s a staggering 62% of the EU27’s total global trade surplus in goods last year. The EU27 made more from the UK than from the next five countries COMBINED. It’s 7 TIMES MORE than the EU did with Canada, whose trade deal the EU talks about constantly.” (link)
That’s why Brussels, why Barnier, Hogan, Macron and his allies are desperate to keep us shackled to their bosoms. However, Asa Bennett points out in the DT:
“Under pressure from Mr Johnson’s team, the EU has now shown how important it sees UK post-Brexit in trading terms. But rather than embrace healthy economic competition from across the Channel, Brussels is adamant that the British are literally too close for comfort and need to be restrained. The EU needs to preserve good relations with the UK post-Brexit, but its zealous approach puts that at risk. After compromising on the backstop, Mr Barnier and his colleagues will need to compromise yet again if they are to avoid spurning one of the bloc’s most important future trading partners.” (paywalled link)
This slide war again demonstrates that the Continentals are welded to their ideology, apparently incapable of looking for pragmatic solutions. Such pragmatism has sadly been lacking in the May negotiating team which was infested by EU ideology. If this has now changed then that is to be welcomed.
It seems that Mr Frost’s speech has sown confusion amongst the enemy, ahem: the EU, ahem: France. Germany? Forget it. Ms Merkel is damaged, the German economy is sliding fast, but let’s not gloat, ok? Gloating is bad form, it’s not done … Ladies and gentlemen don’t gloat. Like Willie Whitelaw, we simply gloat ‘like hell’, in secret!
KBO!
Viv mentions that: ”The EU27 earned a €125 billion trade surplus from the UK in 2019. That’s a staggering 62% of the EU27’s total global trade surplus in goods last year. The EU27 made more from the UK than from the next five countries COMBINED. It’s 7 TIMES MORE than the EU did with Canada, whose trade deal the EU talks about constantly.”
This is a good example but looking at one years trading figures is not adequate, as it does not give a complete picture of the total time we have been in the EU. This is a typical ploy of politicians who are scared of revealing too much bad information!
When we joined the EEC in 1973 we had a zero balance of payments, (BoP), with the EEC. Since 1973 we have been under the control of the EU and the EU been responsible for our trade. The result: the UK has not made a surplus in the trade of goods since early 1980. If one adds up all the BoP with the EU since 1973, corrects them to current values using a respectable web site, it shows that our total BoP with the EU currently adds up to a staggering £2 trillion!
Yet the EU is calling all the shots and it is no wonder that they want to tie the UK to their way of working. It has earned them a £2 trillion profit!
Rather late in the day, the EU has rechecked the value it held upon the UK of GB ! ….. They now see us as an unwanted competitor, and the very notion of adjustment to that view, by way of easy trade between us, is not considered ! ….. Just think for a moment upon the unwanted competitor. – Could it be that the EU’s expenses are too heavy to be born by trade ? – If this is so then the EU needs to do a radical rethink to stay relevant ! – Many years ago, we were asked to vote upon joining a Common Market. – I voted for it as it made reasonably good sense, but then the call to real power emerged, and the CM then EEC went right off the rails, and we had what we did not vote for, the EU as a power block ! ….. A Communist stile was the strange system, where we all pay into the centre, and then the centre distributes out upon need, so long as the centre approves of the reason for the spending ! – When this became understood, the British went off script, and hence the UK of GB is leaving the EU !
”Proximity matters, distance matters…” Why? Haven’t they noticed this is the digital age? It might be easier for those poor French refugees to get here due to ‘proximity’ and ‘distance’ though. Do they count as EU exports?
Oh was that the Willie Whitelaw of which Mrs Thatcher was said to have observed
“Everybody should have a willie”
Yep, that’s the one! Well spotted!
I see Brexit Central has given up. We are nowhere near leaving the EU so let’s help along Johnson’s pretence that it’s done and dusted.
Indeed. Brexit Central gone. Ukip gone. Farage gone. Brexit party gone. Reform Party gone. ERG gone.
Never mind at least we are (a bit) out of the EU.
I understand that Farage is winding up the Brexit Party and the Reform Party has dIsappeared from the Electoral Commission web site. By God sir we need a party and Farage is leaving the ship before his optimistic assessment of Johnson falls apart.
Of course there are several small ones with some potential but the problems are all too familiar. Is it essentially a one person band? Is it about one or two people’s egos? Has it the gift of advocacy to put over ideas in the least offensive way to the system? Is it really a street operation and little more? Has it staying power? In a nutshell is there the potential for large growth?
Only two have come anywhere near passing even some of these tests in the last twenty years and both have foundered not by enemy action so much as by the infighting and self-serving fringies of all shades left or right love so much.
We certainly do need a party to hold the Tories feet to the fire with Farage appearing to declare his job is done – again!
UKIP are in the critical care ward – not the mortuary as yet. We must hope that somehow they can claw their way back in some form or other.
Or, for the communitarian minded centre/centre left there is the SDP who are on their 3rd resurrection. Some Kippers, most notably Patrick Flynn moved over to this party when Mr Batten pushed the self-destruct button marked TR.
https://sdp.org.uk/press-releases/
There are dozens of clear thinking people available right now and hundreds more that have given up on UKIP .over the last 4 years and many many thousands of real supporters,
There are a lot of people who support the aims of ukip but definitely not the party or the nec.
As at present constituted ukip is unelectable, unsuportable and unworkable. But it is a political party with connections and history and huge goodwill particularly if not directly aimed at bigger parties core beliefs.
.I have hopes that Slivnik can put some practicality into ukip , but the lawyerly way is usually slow and costly. We need something fast. And ukip has tried law before.
Ukip would need to start off running. Perfect as a protest party.
And it just needs so much and every bit would be argued bitterly ( and I mean bitterly ) by pratts. and no body realises what is missing. It’s infuriating.
What’s your role? Keyboard warrior?
Perhaps you could explain why you think Mike should not put forward his view of the current situation without suffering ad hominem attacks. Or perhaps you’re just a keyboard type yourself of the troll variety.
Farage has form in bailing before the job was done. Best we forget him and look for a new champion of Brexit.