Just as expected the EU has been the first to blink

WELL, that didn’t take long. Just one week ago the EU was issuing yet another set of threats towards Britain, with a “punishment clause” in a draft text over the arrangement of the Brexit transition period. Now, one week on, it has been quietly dropped. Initially we were given dire warnings about losing access to elements of the single market if we didn’t toe the line. Now EU officials have backed down.

The reason they have done so, of course, is that they are afraid to push us too far. There are fears across the continent that Britain could simply walk away from the talks with no trade deal in place and as this newspaper has said from the outset, the EU does not want that.

They still want Britain to buy German cars and French cheese and all the other goods that are sold into this country and while some European governments might want to punish us, their industries that make these goods most certainly do not. The EU members know this and do not wish to fall foul of their own constituents, a minor matter that our own Brexit negotiators would do well to keep in mind.

The EU needs us as much as it ever did. The difference now is that it will be on our own terms. And as well as trading with our European counterparts, the rest of the world will also be open for us to trade with on the basis we and we alone negotiate. The future could not look more bright.