It follows from the argument that in fact the British consumer is the one with the most to lose, he ends up paying tariff on imported goods (on top of price increases due to devaluation) and a reduced choice of product as unfair (by unfair do you mean cheaper?) competition is removed.

Agree....And leave Eire with the bill....although I suspect that overtime, the removal of subsidy and greater integration with the Eire and eu economy will reinvigorate NI in ways we cannot now imagine.

2.7 million people already fly from 26 U.K. destinations and transit through Schipol. Looks like travellers are already making their choices. Fortunately for the 10.5 million who fly there in total, 100 extra customs officers are being deployed and investment made in improving facilities for extra checks on U.K. passports. It has fortunately been agreed that transit passengers from the U.K. won’t require a second security check. Welcome to the future.

Why should the tax payer fund anything on television or radio, apart from possibly the World Service, to the extent it could not be supported by advertising revenue?

Interesting. Indeed, we haven’t heard.

It’s just as well it’s not binding, Dale seems to feel we are entitled to a simple Ceuta after all.

That does rather confirm that the EU are prepared to sign up to new and untested arbitration processes where it suits them but whether that extends to what will be agreed with the U.K. remains to be seen. We better hope so if the ECJ is a red line.

It’s worth adding that when Barnier suggested a few years ago, Before there world moved on, that a Ceta deal was a likely outcome, that it would take several years to agree. Let’s cut him some slack though, his statements need to be stacked up against the stupidity coming out of the mouths of Tory politicians over this period too. The difference being I suppose that some of those politicians, hero worshipped here in their time, like Fox and Davis, seem to be put out to grass.

Barnier is accused of ‘grandstanding’ and ‘hypocrisy’ over Proximity and the Offer of a Ceta style deal. (Claims tha seems to be based upon a newspaper interview and a PowerPoint presentation) It’s worth reminding ourselves of the Truth about this. The Political Declaration to which, it seems to be forgotten, the U.K. Johnson government has signed up to, states “Given the Union and the United Kingdom's geographic proximity and economic interdependence, the future relationship must ensure open and fair competition, encompassing robust commitments to ensure a level playing field. The precise nature of commitments should be commensurate with the scope and depth of the future relationship and the economic connectedness of the Parties. These commitments should prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages.....” that doesn’t sound like a Ceta deal to me. It refers to a level playing field in trade between the U.K. and Europe, the idea that there is a sort of desperate alarm in the EU that we will out compete them globally is absurd. I look forward with interest to our out competing German manufactured goods, may be one day in the sunlit upland of Brexit imaginations. Frost made a well crafted speech written by his political masters setting out a stall, it serves no purpose to rant about EU apparatchiks like Barnier (I thought he wanted to retire), his political masters will decide.

The German car manufacturers will do just fine, whatever their government decides upon. It’s much overdone this idea that voters in Europe actually care enough to influence policy on Brexit.