Thread by @SebDance

The UK is not Canada 🙄

UK has 2 land borders with EU (1 a tunnel) and its goods/ food often arrive via mega ports in EU such as Rotterdam. The Commission has never said UK wld copy Canada agreement - it’s always been clear that there would be additional benefits/ obligations 1/

The share of Canada’s trade with EU is barely 10pc of 🇨🇦 economy - whereas for the UK it’s almost half. In many regions of UK (“e.g. Red Wall”) the dependency on the single market is almost total. Often one large employer which has located in UK b/c of access to EU market. 2/

Given the UK’s proximity to EU, the fact that trade is largely governed by geography despite what we hear about “global Britain”, and the backstop in NI, it would be *unthinkable* for EU to allow there to be a regulatory back channel for companies to undercut standards via UK. 3/

Those standards affect all sorts of things from the environment to animal welfare. They were put in place over many years with the UK as a member state. They’re the UK’s standards! Regulations often urged by UK ministers and UK animal welfare charities. 4/

“Oh but Canada doesn’t have a requirement for a level playing field”.

Yes - because it’s *Canada* and that is 1000s of km away and not integrated to anything like the same degree as UK is with EU market. No-one could expect to use Canada as a backdoor to EU market. 5/

The UK cannot change geography.

Even all-powerful Johnson with his 80-seat majority cannot change geography. The rules of European trade are decided by, shock, the nations of Europe. Today that means the EU. Just ask 🇨🇭or 🇳🇴. And the UK is absent, having left the room. 6/

Can we be the only major European nation to not follow the rules every major European country follows in order to facilitate trade among them?

Yes, of course.

*But not without extensive cost, damage and restructuring that would take decades.* 7/

The Brexiters spent years saying they wanted rid of protections and rules of the EU. During the referendum they mysteriously claimed they didn’t want a race to the bottom and we could leave the EU without disruption to our lives. Now they revert to type. A race to the bottom. 8/

The UK govt is asking the EU to grant access for British businesses on basis they can be *trusted* not to lower standards and act as a backdoor to EU market.

If you were the EU27 what would you think given the tone, rhetoric and the logical position of Brexiters over the yrs? 9/

*Of course* the EU want guarantees and a level playing-field. And throughout Brexit the UK government had said it understands this.

Now we see tweets trolling the Commission, which frankly demean the office and position of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 10/

But the government gets away with it in the media, on the airwaves, in the tabloids that scream daily about how intransigent the EU is.

The standard of debate in the UK is *appalling*. There is a conspicuous lack of scrutiny and as such the public is kept in the dark. 11/

Just as the latest proposals on immigration again totally miss the point that Brits would be the only citizens of Western Europe deprived of the same rights and opportunities as every other major country, putting Brits at a total disadvantage compared to others. 12/

If Britain is to have any chance of success - in or out of the EU - it must also see itself as others see it. Look outside the UK, stop the myopic discussion about itself to itself and understand how and why the nations of Europe have structured things the way they are. 13/

Otherwise it is doomed to a future of irrelevance, declining living standards and fantasy. Johnson’s victory changed only the dynamic of UK politics - NOT the laws of physics, trade and geography. 14/ Ends.