Thread by @mafevema

It may turn out that the "long bad dream" of our non-EU membership could be about to start.
The bad dream David Frost did not dare mentioning in his speech of 4th October on.ft.com/3DCq9Mo via @FT

France, Germany, the Netherlands - traditionally a close ally of the UK- supported by Spain & Italy pressing the Commission to prepare a plan for retaliatory sanctions.

Such as "curbing UK access to the bloc’s energy supplies, imposing tariffs on British exports, or in extreme circumstances terminating the trade agreement between the two sides."

"The UK relies on undersea cables and pipelines connecting it with the EU for up to 10 per cent of its electricity supplies and 12 per cent of its gas. "

"Measures by the EU could include tariffs on UK exports such as cars. Simply increasing EU checks already allowed on British goods moving across the English channel could lead to huge congestion."

"“The EU would take a close look at possible countermeasures along the whole EU-UK co-operation landscape, including the TCA,” said another diplomat".

A very bad dream indeed.

And all very predictable, sadly. I wonder if this is why Frost started making more conciliatory noises today about the EU proposals

https://twitter.com/mafevema/status/1448434473817841665?t=Tn4x-zcGhFeaKkubAVlc2w&s=19