We are approaching the moment when the UK and EU will lock antlers to work through their future relationship. The “rules” of the game are supposedly set out in the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) and the Political Declaration (PD), except very sensibly, both sides will play big picture diplomacy in order to re-interpret, re-cast and re-negotiate, and are already redefining the rules of the game. It is still a game of Monopoly but the street names have changed and we need to make sure that there is no possibility whatsoever of going to jail rather than passing Go! Which definitely means no role for the European Court of Justice.

The government seem to be making the right noises so far. HMG have been clear that we do not want an incestuous relationship but instead a much looser free trade agreement. Why wouldn’t we? After all, exports to the EU represent just 8 per cent of our GDP and we can get better quality and cheaper imports from elsewhere.

The article's full text is available at
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/18/eu-terrified-britains-new-strategy-brexit-talks/