Your reminder that, although the UK government says it is fully focused on tackling coronavirus, the second round of talks to determine the rules by which ~50% of UK external and some internal (i.e. GB - Northern Ireland) trade is conducted start today... 1/
"Government can do more than one thing at a time" say those supporting talks proceeding. As if they weren't already on tackling coronavirus - health, social care, economy, social, police. But here's the first four pages of the contents of the EU's draft agreement... 2/ 
As @Usherwood shows in picture form there hasn't been much progress to date. And by the end of June both sides have to agree on any extension, and the UK government have said they will judge whether progress is sufficient to keep talking... 3/
There are major policy decisions to be made. Here's an example, a commitment to publish all planned regulatory changes for the next year. Typical EU overreach? This is also standard in US trade agreements. So do we agree? If so on what conditions? 4/
Why can't we just do a simple zero tariffs and quotas trade agreement say some? But you always have to set out the rules of origin for which products qualify for zero tariffs. Get it wrong and those zero tariffs won't apply. Progress to date - none... 5/
Great Britain - Northern Ireland trade will follow the rules set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, unless superceded by a subsequent agreement. Simultaneously this will then need to be discussed in both the joint committee and the future relationship talks. 6/
What about skipping the EU talks, not implementing the Northern Ireland protocol as the EU would like, and going for a US trade deal? Well, UK-US talks haven't started, and I doubt they'll go far if the UK reneges on Northern Ireland commitments... 7/
The UK government's says it is happy at the end of the year to have no trade agreements covering ~75% of our trade, and either break an international treaty or put controls in between GB and Northern Ireland. To decide while focusing on coronavirus...
You can understand why plenty of those who voted for Brexit can't understand the government's approach to not extending transition. The continued Brexit focus takes attention from coronavirus and threatens huge change upon existing huge disruption. 9/
So back to talks today. Don't know how much progress can be made by video conference. I suspect a lot of questions and answers, coupled with repeat of existing positions. Pretty common for FTA talks round 2. Some way short of what's needed. And in context, summed up here 10/ end
