We must bat on if Europe plays hard ball

AS the negotiations with the EU get under way, I just wonder if such debates might be a complete waste of time.

It has to be remembered that if the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels had been a little more flexible when negotiating with David Cameron, Brexit might not have been born. They just would not budge, and as a result we are now on our way to freedom.

Let me be clear, I fully support Brexit for we, as a nation, will be better off commercially, regaining the freedom to plot our own course, doing deals with nations throughout the world.

The cold, clammy restrictive hand of Brussels will be no more, the cost of their expensive bureaucrats falling on the remaining 27 states.

However, it is the inflexibility by the Brussels team in negotiation that worries me.

It is now very clear that the position of European and British nationals could have been secured before Christmas last if it had not been for the refusal of certain Euro leaders to even discuss the matter until after Article 50 had been triggered.

It may well be that in 2019, after two years of negotiation, a deal cannot be agreed. That will result in the UK almost certainly falling back on, in the first instance, WTO rules.

I therefore wonder if the British Government negotiators find themselves up against a brick wall, that it would be better just to quit, invite Euroland to apply their tariffs and we respond accordingly.

Europe exports more manufactured goods to the UK than we to them, so they would suffer if they imposed stiff tax tabs.

The problem that Brussels faces is that, if it is seen that the UK prospers by going it alone, other member states will very quickly seek to follow resulting in the break-up of the union.

It is inevitable that the EU will play hard ball in self-defence, making life very difficult for David Davies and his team.

For instance, under no circumstances should we even consider a leaving fee unless every euro demanded is supported by binding actual commitments. A fascinating 24 months ahead.

Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris