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David Henig Profile picture
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7 Feb, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Feeling a bit dumb because I hadn't noticed that the UK media was controlled by the metropolitan left wing political elite. When did Jeremy Corbyn's takeover happen?
Getting up to speed now, so just to check, a former BBC politics presenter and newspaper editor is starting a TV station because people like him aren't on TV and in the newspapers enough?
Anyway I presume any TV news channel wanting to do something really different would just put independent experts on, and not give yet another platform to the professional controversialists that seem in vogue across the UK media. Yes?
I think this is the sort of thing that isn't reported much in the TV or in most of the papers, so maybe this should be a feature of this new GB News, how a UK Prime Minister who promised never to do something ended up doing it?
Shouldn't a self proclaimed patriotic news station cover a Prime Minister whose negotiating skills led to a trade border inside his own country, and the biggest rise in trade barriers the UK has seen? Will look forward to watching this.
Oh, now I'm told GB News is for people who don't believe our government is getting all the credit it deserves for being so wonderful.

Stand down everyone. Looks like more of the same in the UK media.

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More from @DavidHenigUK

David Henig Profile picture
9 Feb
The UK government appear to want to treat relations with the EU as if this was nothing special. We're past that. Problem is that means currently nobody is controlling all the different facets, making the EU more of an issue. Bad idea needing reversal.
This is also why the UK government needs a dedicated Minister and team on EU relations. Because the decisions of the EU will have significant impact on the UK economy. And yet without hard work we have no influence.
So we currently have Defra writing to the EU about shellfish, HMT negotiating financial services equivalence, DCMS considering musician visas, Cabinet Office talking Northern Ireland protocol, FCDO considering EU Ambassador status and so on. Needs proper coordination.
Read 5 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
9 Feb
Of course if you see the Brexit vote as being against globalisation, as many do particularly outside the UK, then the new trade barriers are both a natural consequence and not necessarily as publicly problematic as sometimes thought.
There is the interpretation of Brexit that it is the 'London liberal elite' putting a free trade spin on a protectionist vote in a nod to the Conservative Party's 1980s version as a free trade party. Which of course it wasn't historically.
Because the government is primarily writing the narrative, both directly and through the way the UK media works, we hear their version of Brexit. But as I frequently point out it is contradictory, talking free trade putting up barriers. Do we pay too much attention to the talk?
Read 5 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
9 Feb
Good. We are rather overdue to have a conversation about the UK's realistic options with regard to Northern Ireland and more broadly EU trade, particularly on food. And I suspect not there yet, but all signs of politicians understanding our situation are welcome.
You can delay facing up to problems by negotiating treaties in secret, engaging only rarely with stakeholders, and refusing to allow proper Parliamentary scrutiny. But that is bound to lead to problems in the end when there are hugely significant issues at stake.
Once again I don't think we're fully there yet, but the trade debate is changing now British producers increasingly realise what the government has done, and that is slowly seeping into public awareness. Promises of new trade deals may delay until shown they don't help much.
Read 8 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
8 Feb
Classic EU language where "what flexibilities are possible" means we don't expect there to be much change.
See also this from another or the same EU diplomat...
Worth noting the UK never seems to even try to cultivate friendly EU member states any more. So much more we're going to have to do to get into a good place in EU relations.
Read 4 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
8 Feb
There seem to be UK MPs confused about the difference between a single market and any other trade relationship, so for clarity:

Single market - shared regulations, no checks or restrictions.

Other relations - separate regulations, checks and restrictions.

Hope that helps them.
Those MPs who are discovering for the first time that being outside a single market means more trade barriers might want to refer to David Frost - "all these [economic] studies exaggerate – in my view – the impact of non-tariff barriers" reaction.life/david-frost-sp…
Fortunately there are solutions to restrictions on UK exports to the EU:

1 - find markets without restrictions
2 - keep same regulations as EU
3 - find something EU want and negotiate
4 - accept extra cost or lose business
5 - rejoin single market

Shouting loudly not an option.
Read 6 tweets
David Henig Profile picture
7 Feb
To be fair the new terms of trade with the EU do not definitely preclude UK musicians from touring, though they add cost, complexity, and uncertainty, and a better deal might not remove all extra costs. But the point of a sector ignored seems fair. theguardian.com/music/2021/feb…
But how do we measure the importance of the UK cultural sector compared to fishing fleets, Northern Ireland, or the car industry in terms of EU relations? All affected by a substandard deal, who decides what to renegotiate and not? Which Parliamentary committee oversees?
As previously, so many new problems in our EU relationship, so little concern in government or parliament to fix them or even understand them particularly well.
Read 7 tweets

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