Some #Brexit thoughts on the “rollover” of EU agreements relating to this tweet. Hopefully a short thread on government and transparency.
The first point is on the facts. The tweet gets them wrong. If you have followed the discussion you will know that there are actually two rollovers, one for transition, one after that. None of them is certain. Reporting states that one FTA is ready for rollover to a UK treaty.
But an anonymous account getting complicated points of law wrong is no reason to tweet about it. So why do it? Because this anonymous account has a point: again and again officials have stated that the rollover is not a problem.
The very first time I read an official stating that the rollover is secured I was stunned. New RoOs, new details all negotiated - ready? Government sources are primary sources. Who else can tell us where we stand so... Yeah...???
Well no. It appears that every time an official sees someone from a foreign country who says “we want a deal” it needs to be published as good news. The problem is: it isn’t.
And here also: it’s not worth to waste time tweeting that “politicians need to spin”. As Homer Simpson would say: D’oh. But the consequences here are grave: industry needs information. Honest, correct information.
Companies need to plan. And when ministers say “everything’s fine” and that message gets repeated, smaller companies will rely on it. The larger ones have staff to do research.
Hence the need for the trade agreement notice the government wanted to put out. It wasn’t in the last batch of documents. Companies need it. They don’t need the spin.
