Wes Tender

Where's your money on for the future, Gavyn? Betting on the high growth economies in Asia, or on the sclerotic (you said it) EU? It's great that we can arrange our own independent deals with the dynamic economic growth areas around the world instead of being hamstrung as an appendage of the EU trade negotiating team and their glacial speed of bureaucratic operation, isn't it?

There you go again with the arrogant insinuation that anybody who doesn't think that the TP should be extended is not a sensible thinker, i.e. thick. You remoaners just can't help yourselves, can you? You seem to believe that the process of arranging a FTA with the EU only began on 31st January at the end of the Transition Period, whereas it has been underway since we voted to leave on 23rd June 2016 nearly four years ago. How long do we need before you would assess the timescale not to be hasty? You chickened out of responding to the questions I asked a few posts ago on whether we should accept the EU's insistence of a regulatory level playing field, jurisdiction of the ECJ and the status quo of the CFP? So come on, let's have your opinion on where the line in the sand is to be, what constitutes the bad deal that we walk away from and go to WTO? And shouldn't we establish that scenario at the earliest possible stage, so that we know that we aren't just wasting our time discussing something that will not be available or acceptable to us? Furthermore, trade deals with other countries will only really be optimised when the trading situation between us and the EU is resolved, so the sooner that is completed, the sooner we can get on with those.

Where is he wrong in that statement?

Piece of cake, eh? Anybody could have done it in the Tory Party, most with probably a larger majority than 80 seats.

*Frit*

Of course it's a bloody discussion. What insufferable arrogance to insist that there is no sensible alternative but to extend the already substantially extended process and then to label those who hold a different position as thickos or nutters. But then we leavers are used to this sort of insulting and patronising behaviour from those who believe that the sun shines from the posterior orifice of the EU and that they are our lords and masters and we could not possible survive, let alone thrive as an independent sovereign nation any longer without their interference. Here is a good summary of the forthcoming events for the talks next week, outlining the agenda and what each side would wish to be the outcome and what the stumbling blocks could be. Feel free to dismiss it all as a load of rubbish, as I'm sure you will because you did not wish to leave the EU in the first place, but give good reasons why these issues will not remain exactly the same after a delay, or even worse afterwards. Also instead of just a simple few words dismissing anybody who doesn't support extending the deadline as nutters, let's have your detailed assessment on what position the UK should take if the EU insist on level playing field rules, continued access to our fisheries, jurisdiction of the ECJ, etc. Should we discuss those things and others now and then put them on the back burner for a year? Or should we decide that if we can't get a satisfactory arrangement that suits us within the next couple of months, that there really is no point in discussing it further, as it won't change after a year's delay? You'd have us continuing the business uncertainty and continue paying into the EU slush fund, would you? Without a FTA, there is a good case for not paying the £39 billion, or at least reducing it quite a bit. That would be a great help to our beleaguered economy, and another effective bargaining ploy.

Did you just make an assumption that I don't talk to other businesses? What are you basing that on? Timmy is right to conclude that some businesses will naturally use the Chinese virus and the lockdown as an excuse to delay settling outstanding invoices, hence the increased difficulty in eliciting a response to chasing up payments from their accounts departments, which will be a lot more on the ball when chasing up money owed to them.

You accuse me of basing my response on my business experience and then insist that everybody else should base their assessment on your business experience. Clearly every business faces a different situation, so please don't generalise based on your situation.

Would the nutters only be on the UK side, or would they also be on the EU side too? In the interests of a balanced viewpoint on the situation, can we for once consider the implications for the other side, instead of bleating on about the effects only on our side? The EU would love an extension allowing them to drag their feet and have us pay additional billions into their rapidly depleting coffers. The Euro-nutters mentioned that the Canada deal took 8 years to complete, suggestive that a similar deal with us ought to take that length of time also. Recently pre-Chinese virus, they were saying that a FTA by the end of the year was extremely difficult, (but presumably not impossible with intent) so the timescale had diminished somewhat. Frankly, I do not accept the premise that because of the Chinese pandemic, the government departments in the UK, or those in the EU responsible for negotiations are unable to continue making preparations for a FTA. Talk about a departure on WTO terms being a disaster for business, needs to be balanced by two other considerations. Business confidence has already suffered because of the uncertainty caused by the several delays in the Brexit process since 2016. Any further delays will exacerbate that. Also, over 90% of UK business does not trade directly with the EU, so the effects of WTO need to be assessed on that basis too. Many of the same people using this florid language insulting those who don't want an extension, are the same people who supported the idiotic Surrender Bill put through Parliament by Benn, and instantly and naively scuppering the strength of our negotiating hand by withdrawing the tactic of walking away from a bad deal. If the EU needs to avoid us leaving on WTO terms, then the deadline date of the end of the year will concentrate their minds wonderfully. They say that an extension has to be requested by the end of June, so even better that we don't flinch from our position before then. We hold the aces at the moment; the ball is in their court.

I'm running my business working from home too and monitor and respond to my emails constantly. Don't you with your business? Don't your customers? Granted that I can't go out to visit them, or they me, but to suggest that communication has to be delayed is clearly nonsense in most cases.

So as I said, it is still a binary deal, as there are only two choices, leave with a deal or leave without one on WTO terms. Option 2 is the same as option 3, but delayed, which doesn't make it different, does it?

Your past musings on the subject of Brexit appear to place you on the remoaner side that from the start didn't want it to happen, and once the vote to leave was cast, hoped against hope that there would be another referendum to overturn the original decision, as the leave voters had plainly been lied to, or didn't understand what they were voting for. Even now, we having left, there is a large body of remoaners who still harbour forlorn hopes that the project can be delayed again and again, or failing that, we end up so closely aligned, that there will have been little point in leaving. Leaving the TP on the 31st December with a FTA or WTO is a binary deal as far as I can see. Even in the unlikely event of an extension of a few months, it remains the same binary choice; unless you can point out any other options that might come into play.

I think that the clown has totally missed the most salient point. It is that now we are out of the EU, we are able to pick and choose who we allow to come and work here, and for how long.

I'm encouraged to hear that despite the recent desperate urging and pleading of the head of the IMF, from Sadiq Khan, and many others of the remoaner establishment, that you at least accept the likelihood that there will not be an extension of the TP. I have read numerous articles by prominent remoaners insisting that Boris will be forced to ask for an extension, regardless of how many times he has denied that he would ask for one. As to the speculation, wishful thinking and longing for unicorns, I was just expressing opinions on what I considered to be the outcome of future events, in the same way that your labelling my opinions in such a fashion is also an opinion. Only the passage of time will tell us whether there has been any wishful thinking, longing for unicorns, and on which side of the Brexit divide it turned out to be. I take comfort from the fact that the recent history of the Brexit process has been on the side I supported these past 4 or 5 years, despite the best efforts of the remoaner establishment throwing everything they could at preventing it. The wishful thinking, speculation and unicorns during that period was prevalent then from those who thought that Brext wouldn't happen, that when it did, we would stay in the CU and SM, that we would go for the Norway option, could not leave without a deal, would become a vassal state colony of the EU, etc. I'm pretty confident that we will leave on 31st December, with or without a deal. I'm totally ambivalent about either scenario at this point, so on whose side is the wishful thinking the strongest? Mine or yours?

The end of June when the request to extend would have to be made is not that far away at all. There is no rush for us, as the imperative is for the EU to drop their insistence on us accepting continued jurisdiction of the ECJ over our future trading arrangements, their insistence also on maintaining a level playing field, and for the French in particular to drop their stupid assertion that no trade deal can be concluded unless we accept a status quo arrangement on fisheries. As we will accept neither, then unless the EU relent, there is no point in continuing the talks anyway, Chinese virus or not. If we're going WTO anyway, we might as well get on with it sooner rather than later. In any event, as things are going, Italy might seriously be thinking of leaving by the end of the year, the Euro might have collapsed. There has been much internal wrangling within the EU over the virus, and there will be much more when they argue among themselves about who is going to pay for it all.

Among the usual daily tedium of all the news concentrated on the Chinese virus, our situation regarding the Transitional Period trade talks has not unnaturally taken a back seat. Despite the best efforts of the usual former Remoaner establishment to get the Transition Period extended because of the Chinese virus, I am happy to hear that yesterday a spokesman for Boris stated that it would not be, and if the EU asked for an extension, it would be refused. So it isn't all bad news at the moment.

For those of us of a certain age, his legendary status was confirmed when the Police of the era would stop a speeding motorist and say "Who do you think your are? Stirling Moss?

RMT Union chief Steve Hedley doing his best to show himself to be an absolute tw*t.

Really? I didn't realise that leaving the EU meant that the government wasn't able to pursue its own policies of where it imported stuff from, or indeed that individuals were prevented from making their decisions on whether they wanted to boycott Chinese products.

What, the sort of serious thinker who made a complete dog's b*llocks of Labour's stance on Brexit as the shadow minister responsible for their policy, the one that effectively lost them the election by the biggest margin in decades? That sort of serious thinker? Or did you have somebody else in mind?

Officially, you are not allowed to use your car to drive to a remote place to exercise or walk your dog, you are supposed to walk from your house. Whereas I can see it being a problem when thousands make a beeline to places like Snowdonia or to the popular tourist hotspots, I don't see any sensible reason why driving to a remote spot should be a problem. If you were living in a city or town environment and went for a daily walk around your neighourhood, then you are far more likely to come into close contact with others, as indeed you are going to the local supermarket. If you are at such a popular tourist spot, then the police will take action. If you are at a remote spot, then they are unlikely to be there.

Richard Branson

Breaking - Japan calls for Olympic Games postponement

Loads of full episodes of Hornblower on You Tube, excellent historical Naval drama from Nelson's era. A shame that there doesn't seem to be the equivalent coverage of Sharpe episodes.

Remoaner clutching at straws