The dire warnings from the UK business sector about the consequences of a hard Brexit seem to be sinking in. UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox now says that it would be nice to have a transititional phase between the date certain that the UK leaves the EU (in March 2019) and the full severing of the UK's trading relationships with the Eurozone. In the usual UK style, Fox seems to imagine that the UK can not only impose such a transitional period on the EU, but also decree how long it should be.
After a month of shambolic "negotiations" on the UK side, the Europeans are starting to lose patience. Consider this quote from German auto boss Matthias Wittmann: "You need a transition period. We hope that on the British side that gets deeper and deeper into the intellectual capabilities of those who decide".
That's a charming way of putting it, possibly even nicer in German. What Herr Wittmann really means is "we hope the British can get this into their thick skulls". One can only say, if that's what Herr Wittmann hopes, he plainly hasn't spent much time with Liam Fox, or with his equally arrogant but incompetent colleagues, David Davis and Boris Johnson.
No comments:
Post a Comment