FUDDY MOGGY AND THE CRICKET Bet on Junck trade
Trump fears EU clout but solo UK won’t scare him
“MY style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.
“Sometimes I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want.”
So says Donald Trump in The Art of the Deal. There is question mark over whether the man himself penned those words.
Of the 19 books he’s written, Mr Trump has employed ghostwriters on all.
But what is clear is that the sentiment is accurate. So far world leaders have oneby-one learned what it is to negotiate with the President. And, largely, he’s come off best every time.
This week it was the turn of EU President Jean-claude Juncker.
Not many would have backed the 63-year-old from Luxembourg in a toe-totoe with Mr Trump. Juncker has many, many, many critics. At a recent Nato summit he was seen staggering about, being propped up by fellow leaders and at one point was spotted in a wheelchair.
Mr Juncker blames sciatica. Others who know him blame the long nights. It’s probably somewhere in between.
Not the kind of form you want to see, but Mr Juncker surprised us all and won praise for the way he handled Mr Trump. He played the tough guy and walked away with what looked like a victory.
One Vienna newspaper wrote: “The old fox showed that, even from the most difficult of political situations, he can find AH, Jacob Rees-mogg. The archtraditionalist and walking embodiment of the English establishment has admitted making an incredible foray into the 21st century.
Mr Rees-mogg has horrified purists everywhere by revealing his new love: Twenty20 cricket.
I would have had the old Etonian 100 per cent down as a fan of redball a diplomatic way out.” Mr Trump agreed to de-escalate the trade war by withdrawing his threat to hit EU cars with import tariffs. The car news – and other complex trade agreements – were received warmly across the continent.
One German member of the EU wrote: “Yes, there is a big IF with this unstable Trump administration and many unanswered questions.
“But managing this
THE Government slipped out its bid to smash the public sector pay cap just as MPS disappeared on holiday.
Presumably that was because it isn’t very good and no one wanted to stick around and defend it. For one nurse – whose story was on Twitter – it means an extra 16p a month. That’s a finger of a Kit-kat, a quarter can of coke. Or, if you live in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and have the proper pass, a bus ride. cricket, white flannels, gentle applause, picnic during the lunch interval.
But he confesses that the brutal glamour of T20 is his new love.
Mr Rees-mogg took two of his many children along with his wife Helena to watch Somerset play Middlesex last week.
And in an interview with his local paper, Mr Rees-mogg shows the real potential of EU leadership.” So what does this mean for Britain? One of Juncker’s key negotiating planks is the fact he is operating on behalf of 28 countries.
It is a bloc that even Mr Trump is wary of falling out with.
As one senior EU official said: “I think the Americans thought about what it would mean to open up a 50 billion euro trade nightmare.” In the future Britain won’t be part of these negotiations. They are tough at the best of times. The negotiations revealed he likes the short boundaries, big-hitting and even the “flame-throwers” that mark the fall of each wicket.
But he can’t help himself. He took a bit of the razzmatazz off by saying his excitement increased “once the floodlights came on against the crepuscular sky”.
Well done, Jacob, you’ve even managed to make T20 uncool. brought home the fact we are very shortly going to be out there on our own. We have no trade deals, and a no-deal Brexit is looking odds-on.
One relieved EU diplomat refused to celebrate too hard after the Juncker/trump talks.
He said: “The bazooka of tariffs on cars is just in the cupboard and could come back at any time.”
After Brexit that’s what the UK is up against. A bazooka. And it’s hard to take that on when you’ve only got a pea-shooter.