Read on Twitter
"It was obvious there would be a trade-off between sovereignty and market access. The only question was the balance the next prime minister would strike between the two." @CamCavendish https://www.ft.com/content/0c5637d3-c193-4527-bb02-96412db6c674
"The UK is still trying to wish away the trade-offs, with no coherent vision for future prosperity. What many Leavers thought was going to be buccaneering Britain is turning out to be a Britain engorged with Covid-led state intervention, and no policies to help enterprise."
"For a long time, I assumed there must be a secret plan. By seeking a thin trade deal, ministers have already put up big trading barriers to our nearest and biggest market." @CamCavendish
"Far from becoming a Singapore-on-Thames, the UK has been heading in the opposite direction. Boris Johnson has embraced a more social democratic model with big spending, social protections and environmentalism." @CamCavendish
"There is little now that suggests a serious desire [by the UK] to depart from most EU standards. As a result, the EU and UK are locked in a row that may tip both sides into a damaging no deal, on a mistaken premise." @CamCavendish
"The full horror of this [Brexit] impasse now seems to be dawning on some Brexiters. Many ministers seem to be squinting at events, barely able to look and instead busying themselves with trivia." @CamCavendish
"The education secretary claims Britain got a head start on vaccinating against Covid-19 because “we’re a much better country”. Jingoism and nostalgia often rise as empires crumble." @CamCavendish
"Regardless of how anyone voted in 2016, we all want our country to prosper. But now we’ve reached the eleventh hour, I’d like someone to say what the plan is and to be reminded: why exactly are we doing this?" @CamCavendish
"UK is now underprepared for the situation it has triggered. If global Britain is to be a dynamic trading nation, we will need excellent transport links and logistics. Yet ports are so congested that shipping companies have imposed surcharges on exports to UK." @CamCavendish
"Reducing red tape is another obvious area where Brexit could bring benefits. But many companies want to maintain equivalence to protect their supply chains." @CamCavendish
"UK also wants higher standards than Brussels on animal welfare. This doesn’t feel like a free market drive for regulatory divergence. Meanwhile – Brexit is leading to reams of increased paperwork." @CamCavendish
"Even before Covid-19 struck there was no strategy to achieve the campaign promise that Brexit would “see a pent-up tidal wave of investment into our country”. The 2019 Conservative manifesto contained this statement but didn’t say how." @CamCavendish https://www.ft.com/content/0c5637d3-c193-4527-bb02-96412db6c674
"Of all the brilliant minds I met in Whitehall’s echoing corridors in June 2016, none foresaw how much the Conservative party would fall prey to magical thinking." @CamCavendish
"However damaging a “no deal” will be, one Tory moderate told me that it might be the only way to force the government to get its act together, accept the trade-offs it has so far wished away, and start to think seriously about how Britain can prosper alone." @CamCavendish
