Thread by @JamesCrisp6

To tunnel or not to tunnel?
A tunnel by any other name would smell as sweet.

So are the officials going in the tunnel or not?

1/

.@DanielBoffey & @simontaylor71 were first to break the news that EU-27 ambassadors had given go-ahead for tunnel talks.

https://twitter.com/DanielBoffey/status/1182616333420244992?s=20

2/

But what's the tunnel? Secret, intensive talks between officials with no briefing or leaks to EU-27 ambassadors or MEPs for its duration.

3/
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/…

So is the tunnel open?

Several sources used the 'T' word during Barnier's debriefing.

But probably once word was out, the backpedalling began as @laurnorman tells us here

https://twitter.com/laurnorman/status/1182636885669228544?s=20

4/

My learned colleague @pmdfoster makes the case that a tunnel needs more detail than on the table.

https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1182628153736548352?s=20

5/

But one key point about the tunnel is its secrecy. No briefings to ambassadors etc.

The commission statement pointedly refers to "intensified talks" rather than the tunnel.

Also stresses a briefing on Monday for the ambos.

https://twitter.com/DanielFerrie/status/1182632481180307456?s=20

6/

BUT the intensified talks, which presumably will take place over weekend won't be briefed as they happen.

Sounds tunnel-ish.

We will have reached the end of the tunnel on Monday...

So maybe it is a mini-tunnel? a tunnel-lette

Or as @nick_gutteridge suggests - a snicket

7

Understandable EU does not want to minimise scale of task ahead to get deal by Thurs (which I don't think will happen).

Tuesday is meeting of Europe ministers in Luxembourg to prepare summit. So monday a natural end for the talks.

8

So all that being said, it is perhaps a diet rather than full-fat Tunnel.

Or as @gbaczynska 's source wittily put it..

https://twitter.com/gbaczynska/status/1182625764509962242?s=20

ends

@gbaczynska A quick point. Leo Varadkar, who is according to the EC "on the same page" as the EU, suggested a tunnel was in the offering in Dublin today at 11am

And one EU diplomat tells me:

"So we seem to be going into a tunnel although that would imply a way out. So let’s see. Barnier has been given space to negotiate over the weekend. He will revert to ambassadors pre-summit to discuss the guidance sought from leaders at council."

Hearing that Barnier did no go into the details of British proposal with ambassadors.

Possibly not enough detail given.. Or maybe the tunnel has begun..