V newsworthy Brexit exchange in new C4 fly on wall US embassy documentary - occurs when a very worried head of the Federal Aviation Agency Michael Huerta arrives worried about plane tickets not being valid when UK EU air safety status “evaporates”
FAA’s Huerta points out to the US ambassador that schedules need to be set six months out “If they don’t know what future state is, its very hard for them to sell tickets... concern this is not high enough up the agenda at DEXEU” - Ambassador then talks about how to elevate it
but that’s not the thing. (Though we were on to this story with our #brexitforensics film at the same time)
when FAA’s Huerta gets a briefed by US embassy political/economic staff - opens up by asking:
“Does the public have an notion of what the conditions of exit actually are?”
when FAA’s Huerta gets a briefed by US embassy political/economic staff - opens up by asking:
“Does the public have an notion of what the conditions of exit actually are?”
US embassy analysts then variously discuss with visiting top Trump official
- how UK public hasn’t yet internalised: “the economy is going to tank I better sit on my cash”
- “Government not done a lot of for macro analysis almost deliberately” so as not to upset Brexit voters
- how UK public hasn’t yet internalised: “the economy is going to tank I better sit on my cash”
- “Government not done a lot of for macro analysis almost deliberately” so as not to upset Brexit voters
Embassy economists then tell Huerta that
- UK growth slowing down “longer term slower slide” including “inflation from an outside shock - worst kind of inflation”
- People tired of austerity .. If Brexit ends up not obviously helping them could have political knock on effects..
- UK growth slowing down “longer term slower slide” including “inflation from an outside shock - worst kind of inflation”
- People tired of austerity .. If Brexit ends up not obviously helping them could have political knock on effects..
Perhaps the US embassy political analyst’s assessment to Huerta is most acute though:
“British Government isn’t interested in telling the British people - this thing that 52% of you said you wanted - here are the range of options: there’s less good & then there’s very very bad”
“British Government isn’t interested in telling the British people - this thing that 52% of you said you wanted - here are the range of options: there’s less good & then there’s very very bad”
“The EU27 say: ‘we are a club here are the rules, you tell us how many of the rules you are prepared to accept - and we will tell you where in the clubhouse you can go’... that is not the British conception of what this is - they see it as a negotiation between two equal parties”
Anyway - I think all this must occur on Huerta’s visit to London last December... which fully confirms our #brexitforensics story from a fortnight before then on a crisis on Brexit Aviation talks
Also worth noting that Huerta stepped down from FAA a few weeks ago - but that film is quite an insight into how the US officials really see Brexit - clearly there will be different views, and POTUS is obviously more of a fan... but no way round the Aviation issue legally
