Thread by @NashSGC

Worth putting a fiver on UK/EU negotiations going into December.

Why?

1. Govt. are firm believers in deadlines focusing minds (it’s the journalist in the them)

2. Brexiteers have never stopped believing that the EU will fold in the face of no-deal.

3. Brexiteers are convinced that the EU only makes deals at the eleventh hour and that running down the clock works in their favour.

4. The closer to Christmas the deal is done the easier it is to bury noise from the ERG and Farage about "betrayal".

Plenty of the assumptions made by No. 10 about the way the EU will behave during the end game are wrong (see 2 & 3 above), but David Davisism dies hard.

All this points towards government running negotiations with the EU as close as possible to Christmas.

Govt. know the EU won’t walk away from the negotiations.

They know that hard Brexiteers are in no rush for a deal.

They know that the general public isn’t really watching/doesn’t really care.

They know that the only real deadline is 31st December.

And they believe running the clock down is a safe gamble.

And as for ratification, process isn’t something that keeps this govt. up at night, and they most likely see this as the EU’s problem, not theirs. After all, it’s the EP, not the UK Parl. that has a ratification role.

So hold tight, we've got a few more weeks of this yet.