Prediction by Gideon Rachman of the
Financial Times
Quote:
When an agreement is reached, it will largely be on Europe’s terms. The EU will doubtless makes some concessions on fisheries as part of last-minute haggling. But Britain will have to agree to the EU’s central demand, which is that there must be “level-playing field” rules — ensuring that the UK cannot undercut EU regulations on competition at will.
The reason that the deal will be done on the EU’s terms is the same reason why the whole Brexit process has been so painful for Britain — a fundamental asymmetry in power between the two sides. Britain sends 43 per cent of its exports to the EU; Germany, France and Italy all send around 6 per cent of their exports to Britain. The population of the UK is nearly 67m; that of the EU is 447m. Even without Britain, the EU has a single market comparable in size to that of the US or China.
Mr Johnson insists that the UK and the EU are “sovereign equals”. But, as long as the EU maintains its unity, they are not equals in terms of power. And that is what has mattered in these negotiations.
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https://www.ft.com/content/955dc9c9-...b-ef28c9f70e2c
---------- Post added at 13:47 ---------- Previous post was at 13:46 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonbxx
Just catching up after a couple of days off 
You can see what the EU has invested in here. Cornwall for some reason is split in to two but you can zoom in to see details. A hell of a lot seems to be structural funding to diversify businesses in the area. I have seem the same where a relative lives in rural Scotland.
On the France-Ireland ferry thing, there is a huge sigh of relief from my customers on this as a lot of goods we ship cannot be shipped by air (too big, too hazardous or both) It will probably add an extra day of shipping but the feedback is that it's manageable. Cork and Dublin are the hearts of my industry too! |
Always good to hear a range of views, particularly from those at the coal face.
