Concrete Achievements

Author: anthonyzach

  • Agreed the UK could never have gone this far based on politics of last 20 years or so.

    Agreed the UK could never have gone this far based on politics of last 20 years or so. But in future, think UK being in core more likely. twitter.com/JGForsyth/stat…

    An outer-circle would have been a comfortable place for the UK as long as it had a say over rules. Now it won’t have that and the “outer

    circle” becomes much more a group of “pre-ins” than “never-ins” (as it would have been with UK). That means that by 2030, say, if UK wants

    to get back in (demographic churn and likely Brexit effects being what they are) the choice will be “All in or not in”, and with Brexit

    a fatally poisoned brand (as it would be if we needed to get back in), “All in” would be the obvious choice. /end

  • Links from the week of 4 September 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • I like Le Soir partly because it’s sometimes so parochial.

    I like Le Soir partly because it’s sometimes so parochial. Today’s had two pages on a sinkhole opening up on a street near my house.

    And then other days it has really detailed political reporting or a piece on Venezuela. Half Manchester Guardian, half Spaulding Guardian.

    *Spalding

  • This story has annoyed me.

    This story has annoyed me. First, picking up a single sentence in what a non-native speaker says to an audience of non-native speakers. twitter.com/bbcnickrobinso…

    Second, the pointing and shouting ‘look at the nasty foreigner, look at the nasty foreigner’ from the media and Leave campaigners.

    Don’t look at the nasty foreigner. Look at yourselves. Look at why the British public still don’t know, after two years, what leaving the

    single market entails. Look at the persistently low level of knowledge about what the EU is and how it works, for years. Look at the

    way in which Government Ministers can make the most ridiculous claims (deals with Berlin) and not get called out on it in interviews.

    Look at how the most significant UK economic crisis since the 70s is being treated by all sides as a party management issue. Barnier could

    have missed an opportunity to stay silent, but Britain should know more about the choices it has, and the reason it doesn’t are all the

    people who should have been telling them for the past twenty years.

  • Starting to wonder whether senior ministers literally do not understand the concept of…

    Starting to wonder whether senior ministers literally do not understand the concept of “negotiation”. The PM in Tokyo today:

    1. We won’t make the decisions about what’s in the trade deals. That’s what negotiation is for.

    2. We will have less power in those negotiations because as a smaller trade entity we have less to offer than the EU

    3. We also, in the EU, work alongside others to set the negotiating mandate for the Commission.

    4. So we already have a big voice in what is in bigger trade deals, negotiated by skilled professionals.

    5. But we’re going to give it up so we can write our own negotiating mandates – 90% the same – and be less able to benefit from them.

    6. Because, in the words of the Gvt, “it has sometimes seemed like the UK was not sovereign”. Brilliant.

  • Links from the week of 28 August 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 21 August 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Accompanying my mother around M&S like it’s 1982.

    Accompanying my mother around M&S like it’s 1982. At least this time I have a smartphone.

    Never, in the field of customer loyalty…

    Strange that the store illustrated on M&S wifi login page is the one in Brussels they’re about to shut.

  • I guess, but my problem is UK side has not really been fighting, or not well.

    I guess, but my problem is UK side has not really been fighting, or not well. No positive vision that isn’t froth and assertion, no serious twitter.com/bopanc/status/…

    attempts to answer the core tradeoff between “control” and market access, and no apparent urgency. It’s like they’re playing a football

    match where a draw will relegate them, but they’ve come out late, and put 11 men behind the ball.

  • Sounds like more unworkable proposals.

    Sounds like more unworkable proposals. (1) On European law issues there may be more than one other member state involved, so which sends a twitter.com/christopherhop…

    judge? (2) Those judges will be working within ECJ rules, interpretations and frameworks (3) thinking there will probably be a LOT of cases

    so “ad hoc” will probably become permanent; (4) sounds like individuals will lose right to bring claims, good old taking back control.

    (5) Interim period cannot be other than under ECJ, says EU neg mandate, and time to negotiate special transition arrangements isn’t there.