Friday, December 4, 2020

Brexit Negotiations Are Faltering, Or So Says 10 Downing Street...

It has been more than a minute, since we last looked across the pond, to see how "Boris, And His Brexiteers". . . are faring.

Not well, it would seem. I highly doubt that Mr. Macron will exercise his "nuclear option" -- and veto. . . but fishing revenue has been a very contentious portion of the multi-lateral trade discussions, for years. If Mr. Macron is at the end of his patience with Boris-Bluster. . . this could break the bank -- and thus at year end -- France decides to go its own way, against the UK -- I'd then expect others would as well.

But as I've long said, I think it considerably more likely that all of this gets delayed again, just prior to year end, and "the can again gets kicked down the alley" -- perhaps into 2022 now, with the notion that the global pandemic is not likely truly over much before then. Here's the latest, from The Guardian (UK), overnight our time:

. . .Downing Street has warned that the Brexit negotiations have hit a “very difficult point”, as France threatened to wield its veto to kill a trade and security deal brought back from London by the EU’s chief negotiator.

With the negotiations hitting troubled waters at the 11th hour, Clément Beaune, France’s European affairs minister and a close ally of president Emmanuel Macron, said his country could act unilaterally if the terms were not right.

“I think it’s also the case for our partners that if there were a deal that isn’t good, which in our evaluation doesn’t correspond to those interests, we will oppose it,” Beaune said. “Yes, each country has a veto, so it’s possible. France like all its partners has the means of a veto. We must make our own evaluation of course of this deal, that’s normal. We owe that to the French people, we owe it to our fishermen, and to other economic sectors. . . .


We shall, as ever, see. Again, I foresee more back and forth, and additional delays -- as I've long predicted. And yes this represents another return to the power-alley, and away for a moment from public art installations. . . since no additional monoliths have been sighted in the past 24 hours. Smile. . . .

नमस्ते

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