Now David Davis has quit as Brexit secretary, people are taking time to remember what Britain has lost in its quest to break free from the EU without irreparably damaging itself in the process.
Well, unbridled optimism that refused to bow down to cruel Remoaners and their obsession with ‘reality’ summed up Davis, it seems – the same ceaseless confidence that appeared to rear its hopeful head when Davis told the
BBC that he quit because Theresa May had “given away too much too easily”.
Following Davis’ shock resignation, Jon Stone, Europe correspondent for
The Independent, took to Twitter to remind us of Davis’ thoughts mere months before his appointment as Brexit secretary.
Warning: they looked bad then and even worse now.
Here are the tweets in full.
The first calling point of the UK’s negotiator immediately after #Brexit will not be Brussels, it will be Berlin, to strike a deal
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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(1/3) Post #Brexit a UK-German deal would include free access for their cars and industrial goods, in exchange for a deal on everything else
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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(2/3) Similar deals would be reached with other key EU nations
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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(3/3) France would want to protect £3bn of food and wine exports. Italy, its £1bn fashion exports. Poland its £3bn manufacturing exports
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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(1/3) Trade negotiations are exercises in mutual self-interest. They are not power plays, or coercions
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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(3/3) The truth is existing trade deals with non-EU countries would stay in place until either side wanted to renegotiate
— David Davis (@David Davis)
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Where to start? Probably on Davis’ claim that the UK would easily forge new trade deals with Germany, France and “other key EU nations”, a plan that sounds nice but is totally illegal under EU law.
A central, basic feature to the EU is that member countries cannot negotiate individual trade deals, rendering Davis’ string of tweets nothing more than a pleasant, admittedly dull daydream.
Two years on and, unsurprisingly, none of these illegal trade deals look close to coming about and David ‘Brexit Will Be A Walk In The Park’ Davis has resigned.
Then there’s Davis’ more forgivable assertion that non-EU countries will be eager to trade with Britain. As Stone recently explained in
The Independent, such deals “aren’t as straightforward as they appear”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies also warns that “simple arithmetic” and “a basic understanding of trade” show the gains from such agreements are likely to be small anyway.