Finally, we're discussing trade!

[meridian]

No, not with the EU.

18 months after the referendum, and 9 months after Article 50 was triggered, the Cabinet is finally sitting together to discuss what sort of trading relationship we might like to have with the EU.

Isn't this something that should have been agreed before the referendum? Or at the very least, before triggering a 2 year countdown?

Theresa May insists she will try to sign new trade deals before Brexit transition is over | The Independent

[tomtomagain]

18 months after the referendum, and 9 months after Article 50 was triggered, the Cabinet is finally sitting together to discuss what sort of trading relationship we might like to have with the EU.

Why? What's the rush?

[milanbenes]

funny line from the article:

"EU officials have urged the UK to nail down exactly what it wants from the end state before beginning serious discussion on it, with negotiations in the meantime concentrating on the transition",


I actually feel sorry for the EU side, because it is awfully difficult to deal with somebody who does not know what they want

Milan.

[original PM]

Why? What's the rush?

Because he's exactly the sort of person who thinks that to do a project well you put together a 2 year gant chart and assume nothing is going to change and so plow on regardless to the horrible train crash of an end.

[darmstadt]

Because he's exactly the sort of person who thinks that to do a project well you put together a 2 year gant chart and assume nothing is going to change and so plow on regardless to the horrible train crash of an end.

No, because if you read the OP, the UK only have 2 years to sort this tulip out and much of that has already been used up. If there is no agreement at the end of those 2 years then the UK fall onto WTO agreements although the UK do want an extra 2 years which is probably where you come in :-) I think that if the UK want to get some form of an agreement that is 'the best for the UK' then they really need to pull their finger out and is something that should have started the minute the referendum vote was known...

[meridian]

Why? What's the rush?

The irony is, no rush at all.

May will continue to kick the can down the road, variously claiming to both the Cabinet and to us that they are seeking a trade deal with the EU:

- with the same terms that we currently have (not on offer from the EU, and will be fought by other third countries)
- Canada plus plus plus (ditto)
- access to the SU+CM but not actually in it (cakeism)
Etc

This will carry on for the next 12 months, with the sole intention of March 2019 blindly passing and we're out of the EU.

The EU will offer either CETA (impossible for the UK due to exclusion of services, agriculture, and no acknowledgement of the NI border issue) or Norway (impossible for the Tory Ultras due to accepting EU rules and FoM, even though "is being Norway really so bad" was one of the Leave campaign's messages).

Tories split, Corbyn takes over and accepts the Norway option.

It doesn't matter what the Cabinet agree that they want, they're still not listening to what the EU are offering.

[BlasterBates]

Looks like it will end up as a complete disaster whatever happens, so agreed no rush. Looks like sometime during the "transition" that the UK will slide into a deep recession and the big noticeable change at the end of it will be massive lorry queues in Folkstone and a very expensive limited choice of goods in the Supermarket.

[milanbenes]

Looks like it will end up as a complete disaster whatever happens, so agreed no rush. Looks like sometime during the "transition" that the UK will slide into a deep recession and the big noticeable change at the end of it will be massive lorry queues in Folkstone and a very expensive limited choice of goods in the Supermarket.

it's going to be fecking funny to watch

by the way how is the Disney land sized lorry park in Kent coming along...

Ooooops, oh dear, they cancelled the lorry park....

Industry sources told The Loadstar the government had not helped itself after scrapping plans for a £250m lorry park at Stanford West in Kent to alleviate freight traffic congestion at the port of Dover/


it gets worse, you can't make this stuff up...

Clare Moriarty from Defra did have one solution. The border ports could be moved inland. Dover could be relocated to Ashford, with the rest of Kent donated to France. That way if there was a lorry park, it wouldn’t be in the UK.

With everyone losing the will to live, the committee moved on to the Irish border. What plans did they have for that?



Best entertainment for years

Milan.

[original PM]

No, because if you read the OP, the UK only have 2 years to sort this tulip out and much of that has already been used up. If there is no agreement at the end of those 2 years then the UK fall onto WTO agreements although the UK do want an extra 2 years which is probably where you come in :-) I think that if the UK want to get some form of an agreement that is 'the best for the UK' then they really need to pull their finger out and is something that should have started the minute the referendum vote was known...

Nope

Like with any project I am sure you have worked on - senior mgmt/exec insist it must be done by date x and there is no more money.

Yet when date x comes and goes suddenly it was not that important and lo there is more money.

[Bean]

it's going to be fecking funny to watch

by the way how is the Disney land sized lorry park in Kent coming along...

Ooooops, oh dear, they cancelled the lorry park....

Industry sources told The Loadstar the government had not helped itself after scrapping plans for a £250m lorry park at Stanford West in Kent to alleviate freight traffic congestion at the port of Dover/


it gets worse, you can't make this stuff up...

Clare Moriarty from Defra did have one solution. The border ports could be moved inland. Dover could be relocated to Ashford, with the rest of Kent donated to France. That way if there was a lorry park, it wouldn’t be in the UK.

With everyone losing the will to live, the committee moved on to the Irish border. What plans did they have for that?


Best entertainment for years

Milan.

Please could you define 'fecking funny to watch', with regards to the NI border problem?

Actually, given that so many people on here say Brexit will wreck the poor, why will you be laughing at them too?