So, Liam Fox, the globetrotting Secretary of State for International Trade, has expressed his hope that after the "transitional" period is over (quite what we are transitioning to is not clear), we will be free to negotiate our own trade deals around the world, and he expects 40 agreements with 70 countries to be made.
Except, these are 40 agreements with 70 countries that are already in place, put there by the EU. As we are constantly being told, the "will of the people" is being followed by the government. So why, therefore, are we "rolling over" existing agreements which the Brexiteers tell us are bound up with EU bureaucracy and red tape? We were told that we would be free to negotiate "better" trade deals. So all this negotiating activity as we use our new found freedoms and it delivers us.....nothing more than we already have.
As I have said many times before, the UK needs to accept the consequences of the decisions we make. The "will of the people" dictated by a small majority is that we leave the EU, which means we do not continue to enjoy the benefits of EU membership. So surely, to deliver the "will of the people", all those EU trade agreements should be abandoned and Liam Fox should then have to do some work and come up with new agreements rather than copying someone else's homework.
Given that the EU carries vastly more economic and political clout than the UK, quite what "better" deals Fox can negotiate is the big unknown.
And of course if the people don't like the consequences of the decision they have taken, they should have the democratic right to change their mind.
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