Thread by @BestForBritain

I've delved into the UK's negotiation correspondence with the EU and its various draft proposals.

I'm afraid I remain unconvinced by David Frost's bullish approach. It's based on a series of profound misconceptions. I will explain in this THREAD. ~AA 1/X

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

The UK's approach to its exit is mired by the same problem its entire membership was: a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between the EU's framework of rules and its institutions. Rules are the Institutions' core DNA - not a superfluous inconvenience. ~AA 2/

The Institutional EU response to a proposal is: "Show me a way I can do it within the rules." It's not shy of creativity, even stretching them to breaking point, but asking bodies populated by lawyers and technocrats to simply ignore the rules never works. And won't now. ~AA 3/

This passage is typical of the tone.

We're not asking for anything unusual, claims Frost. This is all off-the-shelf. We want goods like Canada, services like Japan, fishing like Norway, visas like CETA, data like NZ, and harmonisation like TTIP (which doesn't exist). ~AA /4

Who is the intended audience? Is this just for the Express to fist-pump and exclaim "WE STUCK IT TO THEM"? Or is it intended to advance the negotiation? If the latter is even part of its objective, I'm afraid it just makes the UK look like a petulant toddler. ~AA /5

Frost could walk into John Lewis and DEMAND a device that combines all the best features of a telephone, an oven, a vacuum cleaner and a fridge. He can stamp his feet and point out all those things exist separately. It doesn't make The Telecuum Ovenidge any more likely. ~AA 6/

Then there's the issue of timing. For the UK to demand all of the EU drop the management of a deadly pandemic, killing tens of thousands, drop its efforts to revive its own economy and talk about UK fishing quotas NOW, is frankly indecent. It makes a good deal less likely. ~AA 7/

Add to that the bizarre notion that any refusal by the EU to grant everything the UK wants is somehow an offence, a snub, a refusal to accept it as a "sovereign equal". Tuvalu is sovereign. It doesn't make it the UK's equal in a trade negotiation. ~AA 8/

And *that* is the most tragic misconception of all, because it betrays a lack of understanding of what the EU is and how it works. The very reason 27 sovereign states chose to pool some of that sovereignty is PRECISELY so that in a trade negotiation they're not your equal. ~AA 9/

All this reeks of half-baked game theory and 'madman' strategies, typical of current No.10 weirdos and misfits. Trouble is 'madman' strategies are less useful outside a war. In commerce, if you convince the other side you are actually mad, they simply won't want to trade. ~AA 10/