Thread by @jonworth

Let’s put to one side the substance here. The EU is not like the Soviet Union. Hunt, I think, is just about smart enough to know this.

But what makes him make such a statement?

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The Tory Party considers Hunt a wet. He backs Chequers. He was a Remainer. He says he wants a Brexit Deal.

He can’t out-EU-sceptic Rees-Mogg or Johnson while he’s in Cabinet.

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He’s previously said that only Putin would rejoice were there to be a No Deal Brexit
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6…

That’s only slightly less ill judged than his Soviet comments.

3/8

There is some sort of a plan here. Keep threatening the EU. Keep sounding belligerent towards the EU. These are not the words of a man who actually wants a deal.

4/8

Raab has recently been no better, threatening that the U.K. will not pay its outstanding commitments to the EU budget. He has also said the EU is listening too much to the Irish Government.

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Meanwhile May just digs in on Chequers, seeing no other way forward - even though the EU cannot accept the Chequers plan in anything like its current form.

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The EU of course thinks it owes the U.K. nothing, and it has no incentive to change its structures to accommodate a country leaving. Plus a country leaving with No Deal will hurt itself more than it hurts the EU.

7/8

I’ve long thought the U.K. making a pig’s ear of Brexit was borne of incompetence and inability. Perhaps that’s changed - as a result of no progress, the only solution now is to blame the others - before everything 🔥.

I hope I’m wrong.

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