The Trade deal will inevitably take time and the backstop of the whole UK remaining under the Single Market and Customs Union Rules is almost certain to come into effect.
The Brexit that PM May wants to pursue, seems more and more like fantasy land, with its Facilitated Customs Arrangements and dual tariff systems, means that a solution to the Irish border won’t be found.
Sitting in Brussels, the EU Commision can readily form the view from reading newspapers and listening to Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party that Britain does not have the stomach, the plan or the majority in Parliament to leave the EU without a deal.
They can therefore play their own hand with confidence that they can’t lose.
