Thread by @pmdfoster

Top @GeorgeWParker scoop about @DExEUgov quailing at implementing @BorisJohnson NI-Only front stop...but what strikes you is the madly, revealingly 'Maybotic' comment from Conservative spokesperson.

But first the story itself: ft.com/content/b5be23…

1/Thread

@GeorgeWParker @DExEUgov @BorisJohnson The leak is gloriously under-stated statement of the obvious.

HOW can Whitehall design this new GB-NI border or customs 'filter' UNTIL it knows what the shape of the UK-EU deal is....I mean this is officialdom being as polite as it can be about politicians being daft /2

@GeorgeWParker @DExEUgov @BorisJohnson Recall that leaked @hmtreasury document from last week - remember the six ?????? in that table.

Does biz need to pay tariffs? Well, depends if UK done a 'zero tariff' deal.

Does biz need to do Rules of Origin checks? Well, depends if (see above)

See the table below again /3

So all @DExEUgov is saying is that, um, well, sorry Prime Minister but it's quite hard for us to design an all singing, all dancing new border AND get business to internalise and stand up the new systems until we even know what we're trying to do. Which we wont. Until November/4

@DExEUgov So how does the Conservative election machine respond when @GeorgeWParker confronts them with this basic truth, backed up by this pesky leaked document?

They just go the full Dalek...We are leaving! We are leaving! We are leaving! Exterminate! Exterminate! /5

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker I get this is politics, I really do, but taking the nation for fools - as @BorisJohnson did in his @SophyRidgeSky interview on Sunday - is not going to make it any easier when reality bites and the country needs fact-based decision-making. /6

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker @BorisJohnson @SophyRidgeSky All these leaks show the Whitehall machine putting down markers ahead of time - since the civil servants know they'll get the blame if things are late/didn't work. "They never wanted #Brexit anyway..."

Well, here's the thing... /7

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker @BorisJohnson @SophyRidgeSky If @BorisJohnson wins on Thursday, #Brexit is going to happen.

That's when the light bulb goes on - until now it's all been phoney war. UK political factions fighting and negotiating with themselves.

That ends on Friday if Johnson wins...but something else ends too. /8

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker @BorisJohnson @SophyRidgeSky When the legal guillotine descends on 46 years of EU membership there will be no going back (at least not for a generation given hurdles for re-accession) and that means, potentially, a different kind of political conversation....everyone will need to stop and re-think. /9

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker @BorisJohnson @SophyRidgeSky There is a moment for some statesmanship.

"The die is now cast, and this country is about to embark on the most fundamental re-wiring of its society and economy for a generation..."

There is a chance for a rebalancing - of labour markets, of the north-south divide...etc /10

@DExEUgov @GeorgeWParker @BorisJohnson @SophyRidgeSky And, dear citizens, that won't happen overnight.

Now that deed is done, we need to chart the course ahead after proper consultations with industry, with the regions and devolved governments and wider civil society. etc etc /11

Perhaps that's all pie in the sky, but shutting the door on the UK's membership of the EU will be momentous.

And when we hear the click of that door behind us and turn our faces to the wind, we may feel it icy on our cheeks...but there is no going back. /12

.@theresa_may missed her moment to level with the public after the 2017 defeat, at great cost both to her and the country.

@BorisJohnson if he wins, has another chance. He has talked of the "One Nation" approach but left himself precious little political space /13

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson But as the Whitehall leaks of have shown, when #Brexit gets under way for real, it is going to have real-world impacts on industry and citizens alike.

Is there anything more misleading than the phrase "zero-tariff, zero-quota Free Trade Agreement"...? /14

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson Mr Johnson tells TV views in the @bbcnickrobinson debate they can have "perfect confidence" in that deal - his deal - but they have no confidence...they are begging for circumspection. And warning of need for implementation phases - as I report here /15

telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/…

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @bbcnickrobinson The impression @BorisJohnson gives is that this deal will frictionless, it will be 'over ready', trade will flow freely over the borders with Europe while we are free to do deal with everyone else.

But it won't... /16

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @bbcnickrobinson Pace the trade experts who have been banging on on this, I know, but the public need to understand that you don't GET the 'zero quota' until you can prove your stuff qualifies...and that means a lot of form-filling. That means cost, even if 'max fac' tech can smooth the way/17

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @bbcnickrobinson Everyone should read this brilliant report from the @Foodanddrinkfed on the 'hidden hard Brexit' caused by these new requirements...the baker using Canadian wheat, the ready-meal maker using imported Thai chicken... /18

fdf.org.uk/corporate_pubs…

Now, as a trader you might embrace such paperwork as price of accessing a NEW market as a reasult of an FTA with a new country.

But this is paperwork to do what you could do before, for nothing. And it's cost that needs to be absorbed...in higher prices or lower wages /19

If @BorisJohnson wins, #Brexit will get done. Like it or not.

It won't be easy, and it won't be all bad...but the public must be trusted with the facts as those documents show.

Before you jump out the plane, best learn how to deploy your chute. 20/ENDS