The current round of Brussels negotiations were to be the point at which the Brexit climbing expedition moved out of the foothills into the mountains of real trade negotiations. After a year of argument, mostly directed at reconciling divided views in the cabinet and Conservative Party, the government appears to have accepted the fundamentals of two of the original EU asks: a divorce alimony payment of about £50 billion (net) and legal protection of EU citizens in the UK. The third is more troublesome: Ireland. The obvious, best solution to the Irish Problem (or what they see as the British Problem) is for the UK to remain within the EU customs union (so there are no border checks) and the single market (so there is…

Source: The Times December 06, 2017 00:11 UTC