Well we can both fantasise about how the other is feeling, but neither of us ‘can always tell’ as you claim. You forget that I argue for a living, such that it wouldn’t do for me to be bothered by it. I see the waspishness in your latest post and suspect that you are a bit riled, but maybe you aren’t.
Why you want it to be like this is beyond me.
There is nothing ‘semantic’ about my response to your Davis claim. You were just plain wrong as you now acknowledge (and what
do you see as the difference between promised and pledged?). But for your arrogance in post 137, I would have happily ignored it.
I’ve ignored the other ten (nine, surely?) promises/pledges/aims that you say were made by the Tories, because I have neither the time nor the inclination to check them out (and would certainly want to in light of your Davis debacle) and they are irrelevant to where we are now. If you and the Labour Party want to play the ‘who said what and when’ fiddle whilst (the Treaty of) Rome burns, you will have to do so without my accompaniment. I only hope that the Labour Party eventually decides to start acting like it is run by grown-ups.
Dealing with your numbered points:
1. For the reasons that I have set out ad nauseum, I suspect that the withdrawal deal on the table is the best we are going to get. It hurt the EU to offer UK access to the customs union, whilst scrapping the CAP and CFP and ending free movement. I doubt if they will give more.
Again, I must point out that it’s a
withdrawal deal not a future relationship deal that is currently on the table – the EU isn’t going to be talking about the detail of a future relationship until after we have left, hence the need for a transition period and backstop. And when they do start talking it will take time, not least because at that point individual EU states are going to be looking to include bits that specifically benefit their interests.
You aren’t being asked to buy a future relationship, because it hasn’t been discussed other than in vague terms. This as much as you are getting at the moment:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...lationship.pdf
2. I will have no more say over what Parliament ultimately agrees by way of a permanent new relationship with the EU than I do over whether the withdrawal deal is accepted. I doubt that the deal you describe would get through Parliament.
3. We don’t have a future deal hence I did not compare it to the Norwegian model. Norway is the 10th largest donor to the EU budget, has accepted the four freedoms and allows access to its fisheries by EU trawlers. It is also required to accept significantly more EU generated law than we would under the terms of the withdrawal agreement.
Norway is a dreadful model largely supported by people who don’t really want to leave, but are willing to go through the motions.