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Sweaty and nervous, Raab fumbles his Brexit no-deal announcement - Ian Dunt - politics.co.uk

Ian Dunt at politics.co.uk is always a good read.

[Raab's] task was, to be fair, unenviable. He needed to make no-deal look terrible and also fine, because it is only by the simultaneous maintenance of both of these contradictory propositions that the Tory party can be held together.

On Raab's performance today, he concludes:

It's hard to see what has been achieved today. By outlining what no-deal would entail, it makes it clear that no sane country would do it. Even in this context, the plans themselves require some kind of deal for them to operate, which means that they do not even satisfy the definition of no-deal contingency measures. They admit to the EU now, just as we enter the climax of Brexit talks, that no matter what they do the UK will unilaterally recognise their regulatory standards, thereby giving away the negotiating position which Theresa May claimed to be so keen to protect for the last two years. They do not offer the chance to prepare for no-deal, because the kind of work that would be required is simply too time-consuming to be done in the time available. They do not placate the ERG hardliners, because they are based on reality rather than Biblical fiction. And they do not do the government much good as a scare story, because they toned down the language to mollify the headbangers.

It is another event in which an awful lot of work has been done to accomplish nothing. Just another day in Brexit land.

by oldremainmer48 on Thu Aug 23rd, 2018 at 08:56:04 PM EST
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