No deal is departing on the legal default trading rules. This is worsened because many bilateral agreements were negotiated at EU level, so much of the day to day operations of even US trade could be affected. Not an impossible hurdle, but a sticky one to be sure.
In short, it means that no trade agreement has been reached, so the UK comes out under the minimum WTO rules.
Anything else you’d like some primers on?
Edited to actually quote you.
Only those closest to you can backstab you. (Backstab kept autocorrecting to backstop, and I can’t stop laughing)
Which Marxists? Both Stalinists and Trotskytes (see below left) claim to represent true Marxism.
Preferably neither, hence why i hope Boris can defang Farage. It’s about the one shot anyone has at a clear majority at this point.
Edit: Anthony Blair was also a Trot and he loves the EU like it was his firstborn, so make of that what you will.
Nothing new with whip withdrawals and the Tory party. Also, the positively revolutionary skullduggery by Heath, Major, Blair and Brown to tie us further to the European project makes it a profoundly conservative project to support its reversal.
I might add that I’m no Brexit ultra, I would have been happy with an EFTA deal, as I think most people would be. An imperfect compromise that would have stopped this becoming the cold civil war that it has morphed into.
“Oh for fuck sake, Britain texted me. She wants to meet again to discuss our relationship. She sounds pretty unhinged”
“Relationship? Didn’t she break up with you because you were terrorizing her or something like that?”
“Yeah. She’s pretty messed up. I guess I’ll have to block her number now”
Oh Lord, please let one of the 27 follow through. I am utterly sick of this Ross and Rachel bullshit from our parliament to the EU.
For God’s sake get your mate from the commission to get someone to put a tick beside ‘No.’
Yes, you’re correct. And this point is completely lost on all of the Remainers, even some Leavers who believe there is some dastardly scheme by the international elites to force them to stay.
For Europe, it’s over. UK is gone and that’s it. The sooner she picks up her stuff from your place and leaves, the better.
Sure, in the immediate aftermath of the referendum there was genuine regret in Europe about Britain’s decision, but in the meantime three years have passed and life has moved on.
Eventually, you get tired of your ex-girlfriend texting you how she had a huge fight with her current boyfriend and how she’ll seriously reconsider her decision to break up with you in three months. Then another three months. And so on.
How do European decision makers see Brexit now? I’ve asked politicians, diplomats and business groups across the EU and found them remarkably united around a tough stance towards Britain.
They won’t give in to Boris Johnson’s demands to renegotiate a deal, but nor do they want Britain’s anti-no-deal forces to delay Brexit.
Very few Europeans are still open to the UK’s staying in the EU, and most dread a potential second British referendum. Here are my conclusions:
European decision makers have lost patience with Britain and want it out, fast. Anne Mulder, the Dutch parliament’s rapporteur on Brexit, speaks for many: “We thought the Brits were rational pragmatists. Well, they aren’t.”
But Europeans will keep sounding friendly and open to negotiations. They don’t want to humiliate “proud” Britain, nor be blamed for the pain that Brexit inflicts. They hope to maintain close security ties after Brexit (but they worry that a poorer UK with a plummeting pound will cut military spending even further).
On the ground in Europe, Brexit is already happening. European governments are replacing the UK with new alliances, notably the Hanseatic League of northern countries.
Many businesses are acting similarly: North Rhine-Westphalia, a German region that trades intensively with Britain, has been relieved to discover that some European companies have anticipated Brexit by shifting from British suppliers to German ones. Britain is becoming yesterday’s problem.
But what if Johnson, the bookmakers’ favourite in an election, wins the British power struggle?
Europeans would rather have a no-deal Brexit than accept Johnson’s demands that they drop the planned Irish “backstop”. Both the EU and the British government keep making the same mistake about each other, notes Douglas Webber of Insead business school, author of European Disintegration? (2016): each side thinks the other will cave to avoid an economically damaging no-deal Brexit.
In fact, says Webber, both sides regard short-term economics as secondary. Johnson’s government prioritises achieving Brexit. Europeans prioritise preserving the rules of the single market and standing by Ireland.
The EU’s support for Ireland — the country insisting on the backstop, because it fears renewed conflict on its border — is non-negotiable because of the EU’s core mission. The EU sees itself as a peace project, and as a club of mostly small states that seek strength in numbers — two points that even most British Remainers miss.
Two-thirds of the EU27 have 10 million inhabitants or fewer. Alone, these states could be bullied: Denmark by Donald Trump over Greenland, the Baltics by Russia, everyone by China. The EU must now be seen to protect little Ireland. “It’s not about Ireland, in a way,” says Noelle O’Connell, executive director of the European Movement Ireland, an independent not-for-profit organisation.
European big business isn’t lobbying against no deal. EU companies have had three years to prepare. And the last thing they want is Johnson turning Britain into a low-regulation trade zone that undercuts them. If British companies aren’t following European rules, their European rivals want them out of the single market.
Europeans foresee only moderate economic damage from no deal. No deal would cost EU27 citizens €40bn in income a year, estimates the Bertelsmann Stiftung, an independent foundation. On average, that’s a manageable €90 per person. Only Ireland expects short-term agony, and it’s the firmest opponent of renegotiation.
Many southern and eastern European economies would barely notice no deal. These countries are expending little more thought on Brexit than British policymakers are expending on Italy’s political crisis.
Most European leaders (especially French president Emmanuel Macron) want Britain to suffer from Brexit, not because they are anti-British but because they are pro-themselves. If in a year Johnson could say, “We’ve made a success of Brexit,” it would encourage Leavers across Europe.
No European government — not even Hungary — wants that. Whatever their rhetoric, they are all now objectively pro-EU in that they want to remain.
My reaction to the parliament’s activities yesterday:
Problem is, every time Rachel comes back and begs for more time, it means Ross gets another three months rent paid on his apartment. Not only that but Rachel also makes a contribution to the rent on the apartments of many of his other tenants. If I was Ross I’d put up with Rachel’s psychosis for yet another three months.
We (UK) are now a laughing stock. Our parliamentarians are a laughing stock. Our democracy is a laughing stock.
I’d have a rant but haven’t got enough time.
Gazz
Keep calm, carry on and put the kettle on.
Alternatively, let’s go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint and wait for this all to blow over.
You’re overestimating UK’s contribution to the EU budget.
For reference, EU’s budget for 2018 was 156 billion.
The paltry sum of 8,9 billion is not worth having a dysfunctional member on board.
The 8.9 isn’t the whole amount, surely the UK collection of EU tariffs also deserves a mention, which is where a lot of that budget comes from.
If the second largest net contributor’s departure is fiscally unimportant to them, I’d be stunned.
That’s not to say it’s of otherworldly importance to them.
Edited for accuracy.
From a budgetry standpoint alone we are in the top three net contributors. There are only 10 net contributing countries, the rest are beneficiaries. As I said Rachel contributes to a lot of other tenants rents.
Would you vote to put up with her for three months in exchange for her circa £2 billion contribution to your rent if you were one of the net beneficiaries. We’ll find out shortly before Haloween.
Gazz
What’s 2 billion compared to 175 trillion of GDP of EU member states without the UK?
No, see the FT article above and the opinions from EU nomenklatura, the Brexit shitshow is taking up valuable EU time in formulating a joint political response towards China as well as Russia and dealing with the real shock that blindsided everyone - an openly hostile US administration.
EU leaders are frustrated that two successive EU summits were wasted on Brexit and even May’s last delay was granted very reluctantly.
No, this is the “german auto makers fallacy”. Britain is leaving the EU, that’s accepted by everyone.
The political benefits of having Britain exit as soon as possible far outweigh the paltry 2 billion for a three month prorogation and more of this toxic tug-of-war affecting everyone in EU.
EU seems to accept the 40 billion/year cost of a no deal as well.
I’m sure it was a slip of the keyboard, but I’m not sure the global GDP is 175 trillion.
Ditto.
Alas, apparently not our parliament. I also accept your point. I’m merely dubious of them being ecstatic about a 10% funding hole. Most governments would be decidedly not happy with that.
Christ, I hope so.
One can only hope.
Edit: I’m still sure that the total exchequer loss from the UK is not merely the net governmental contributions but I, like you, don’t particularly believe there’s some massive EU capitulation coming.
Missed a comma there, it’s 17,5 billion.
No they’re not. But Britain is leaving and that’s that.
If you knew your psychotic girlfriend was definitely leaving you, would you be ready to let her stay at your place for three more months and squeeze out some more humping sessions while at the same time exposing yourself to a myriad of other risks - namely, being stabbed by a sharp piece of cutlery?
Absolutely not! Alas, our parliament just won’t dissolve itself.
And a letter in one of them? 
No word of a lie, if the EU vetoes this extension, I would do a gofundme for the leader responsible.
I would quite possibly die of laughter, but it’s a chance I’m willing to take.
By the way, I met him. Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson I mean. It was for 5 minutes only and it’s a small part of a great story involving him that I’d so love to share but alas, I’m afraid that some cross googling would reveal too much.
Let’s just say that he acts in semi official capacity as well as a pantomime villain from an old Soviet propaganda movie about the inherent depravity of a decadent bourgeois class system.
But he’s funny.
