Fundamentally, the EU will not allow a full free trade deal, it actually harms their own future.
To allow a member "state" to leave with a FTA and allow them to potentially negotiate some preferential deals with other countries, from the EU's perspective, would be madness and as negotiations stall, we will be drip fed the "nasty EU" lines and then drop out with "no deal" at the end of 2020. It could be sooner if/when The Tories realise that the game is up.

I think it was Barnier, who said that the UK will become a "competitor of The EU when they leave and there isn't an organisation in the world that would give a competitor a "leg up" when their own business is at risk.

Johnson may like to pretend that he has an oven ready deal but the main ingredients are still very much missing.

The oven.

The last thing the EU want is a large economy being a competitor on its doorstep - I don't buy this its all the EU fault but it takes two to tango and the EU have to be prepared to compromise too. No deal is a perceived disaster all round and we have seen with the EU nothing happens until the last minute.

I agree with your comment re. other countries wanting to leave but none of the potential leavers could harm the EU in the way we can.

The Tories plan was to eliminate the deficit and reduce the national debt, that hasn’t happened, despite moving the date it was due to happen several times.


1997 when labour came to power Debt was 43.2% of GDP.

In 2007 after 10 years of labour debt was 41.5% of GDP.

It is a myth labour were running huge budget deficits before the global financial crisis.

You have stated this before and been challenged on it before, you didn’t respond and then go on to repeat the same Tory lie.

We are not a large economy compared to the EU, USA, China etc. Why do you believe the EU are going to go out of their way to help us. They do not want to encourage others to leave by providing us with a free trade agreement.
I think you have been listening to Boris too much and have started to believe his lies. The truth is we need the EU more than they need us.

We are not talking about debt - we are talking about the deficit - i.e. the difference between government income and government spending.

The deficit in 2009, the last full year of a Labour government was £90bn - or are you saying that is untrue? - by 2009 debt as a % of GDP had started to grow it was 44% and rising it had been rising every year since 2000. It is no surprise to anyone that it fell in the first two years of the Blair government - debt as a % of GDP had been falling since the second world war it is no surprise that its low point was under the Tories under Thatcher.

Th Gov't has more than doubled the UK's debt since 2010 and the interest is now £48bn which is far more than the defence budget.

As for the myth about the EU giving us a FTA once we have left. If Wayand says we'll get a bare bones deal or no deal then that's what we'll end up with. She's been ahead of our game from the start. They've already said that if we leave without a deal the first thing they'll want to discus are fishing arrangements. Johnson has already said he'll will protect UK's fishing industry from EU fishing but how he'll react when EU fishermen start their indefinate blockade of their channel ports stopping British ferries from sailing.
I reckon he'll sell out our fishermen faster then he sold out the DUP. That's his style.

The global financial crisis was caused by the banks.
The deficit you are quoting was caused by the global financial crisis. Before this Labour had reduced the national debt as % of GDP.

Sal, you are supporting a party and leader that is too scared to face direct scrutiny. Therefore, NOTHING that he says is relevant.
He's happy to mock the opposition after their in leaders faced intense one to one grilling's but he's done a runner and is probably somewhere in Somerset with Rees-Mogg, hiding from the press.
How do you rate his chances of negotiating with Trump or the EU and China when he is proving himself to be so utterly weak and spineless.

In the short term, hiding will very likely ensure that he stays in no 10 but, at what cost to both himself and the country.

It's hard to get behind any leader that hides round the back.

It will certainly go up in flames because he suggested putting his oven ready deal in a microwave.

Wasn't Johnson's first comment that he had an oven ready deal and all he had to do was put it in the and turn it to Gas Mk4?
Absolutely great comment that!

So Johnson ran one of the biggest cities in the world and did a pretty good job - what of substance has Jeremy Corbyn ever done - the man has never had a proper job in his life - from his very cosy up bringing to now. He did negotiate with the EU and got the backstop removed.

Johnson will have negotiated with a number of people during his time in London - Jeremy Corbyn can't even negotiate with his own party - most of the time he has voted against his own party!! His idea of negotiating with EU is remain in the single market and the customs union so what kind of negotiating stance is that. You think Corbyn would be any better with the US or China?

As for spineless he might be just bright enough not to commit suicide in front of the nation with Neil - suggests him and his team are a bit more savvy than Corbyn and his team. I know which one I would rather have as my PM.

Come on Sal, Johnson agreed a deal with the EU that his predecessor had refused (due to the border in the Irish Sea). He has tried to spin this as a new deal but, he went rummaging in the waste bin to find it and in the process, he's chucked the people of N.Ireland under the political bus.
It's as a direct result of Johnsons actions that Ireland could actually be heading for unification, so, three cheers for Boris

AS I said previously, he and his party did agree to the interview but now, they are running scared. This may protect him from embarrassment but, he is supposed to be leading the country, not hiding from scrutiny - maybe he does have something to hide (probably several things)