21st September 2021
Just a short post today, to note the irony – or lack of irony – of this statement by the prime minister:
“I’d much rather get a deal that really works for the UK than get a quick deal”
PM on US-UK trade deal: "The reality is that Joe has a lot of fish to fry.
“I’d much rather get a deal that really works for the UK than get a quick deal”More from me on on trade, PM trip to WH & Kerry on why BJ’s 6/10 for that $100bn climate aid package more 9/10 in News @ 10!
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) September 20, 2021
There is, of course, nothing to fault in this utterance – on its own terms.
It is a statement so solidly sensible that, one would think, it is a Good Thing that a prime minister has said it.
But.
This is also a prime minister who rushed through a Brexit deal that he now wants to renege on.
This is also a prime minister who heads a government that seeks to enter quick trade deals by the expedient of dropping demands and agreeing to whatever is offered.
So: the prime minister may have said “I’d much rather get a deal that really works for the UK than get a quick deal” but he is not being sincere.
The context undermines the text.
What he says here (as elsewhere) does not correspond with his or his government’s policy.
His words are instead a rhetorical trick – to explain away failure by a claim to high-mindedness.
All that the prime minister means by “I’d much rather get a deal that really works for the UK than get a quick deal” is that he cannot get a quick deal – or any deal.
Not even for soured grapes.
It sounds statesmanlike and commendable, but is just another excuse from the excuse drawer.
Imagine having a prime minister who expounded such a principle – and actually meant it – and that the principle expounded in turn corresponded to policy?
That would be quite a thing, wouldn’t it?
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Boris Johnson doesn’t care about the UK: all Boris Johnson cares about is Boris Johnson.
On hearing most politicians’ declarations – and Johnson’s in particular – I can’t help recalling an seemingly (sic) witty advice of the Most Serene Republic of Venice to their diplomatic chargés d’affaires: “Prima di parlare, taci!” (Before speaking, keep silent!).
Lewis Carroll writes, Johnson speaks.
It’s common knowledge post Brexit trade deals to date have just replicated what the UK already had as a member of the European Union. The coveted prize of one with the US is still to be negotiated but President Biden is in no hurry having greater domestic priorities and China to contend with. Fears that the Northern Irish protocol will be broken – not to mention other breaches of international law – do not bode well for ‘ global’ Britain’s relationship with the wider trading world.
Let’s hope a sense of realism focuses UK governing circles to look to its closest neighbours to improved economic trading relationships eagerly demanded by the business community.
Never mind. The prospective increment to UK trade from such a deal was negligible compared to the trade lost by sacrificing EU trade to achieve it, and the disadvantages to much of UK farming, for example, manifest. So let us not grieve for Johnson’s disappointment here, disguised or not. Grieve for the meaningless loss of all those other opportunities.
It’s ironic also because the proponents of Brexit never stopped telling us that countries would be falling over themselves to give us wonderful deals once we’d escaped from the baleful influence of the EU. But now the realisation has sunk in that the only kind of deal currently likely to be offered by the US would be terrible for us. So the new policy is to kick the can down the road and hope that, by some miracle, a future US administration will decide to be generous to us at their own expense. Fat chance.
Maybe Johnson could do one useful thing in his life – bring some of that fish back with him – we might need them!
Johnson is not a ‘details’ man, he would never know what a good deal for the UK would be until after it was delivered.