Arguably, the Political Declaration is the more important of the two documents. Another way of looking at it is that it's worthless because it has no legal power. Regardless, it's our only window into the possible shape of the post-Brexit day relationship.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
In the section on "FINANCIAL SERVICES", equivalence is far weaker than the passporting rights currently enjoyed by UK/EU firms, so don't be surprised to see no let-up in the stream of firms (and capital) leaving the City for the EU27.
"LEVEL PLAYING FIELD" section means we would have to adhere to EU levels of state aid, competition, social and employment standards, environmental standards, climate change and relevant tax matters. Hmm.
Beyond that, it's like lying on your back watching the clouds scudding by: you can see just about anything you like in the document. ("That one looks like a rabbit.") Enough fudge to give an entire city diabetes, and carefully designed to be impossible to argue against, because
if you can't actually tell what something might mean, you also can't tell what it won't mean. Masterfully done. Hopefully our MPs will see through it, and stop Brexit before it does irreparable harm to the UK.
