It's Time To Stop Playing Pattycake With The EU Bullies And Change The Game To Hardball.

We must face up to the fact that leaving the EU will cause a temporary hit to our economy. I knew this when I voted for Brexit, as, I am sure, did the vast majority of Brexiteers.

Following Mrs May's Florence speech it has become obvious that the EU have no intention of negotiating and appear to have no interest in a mutually beneficial trade deal. It seems to me that rather than conciliation their sole aim is to make sure that they hand out a punishment beating to make sure they warn off the remaining 27 countries from any idea of dissent to the increased centralised control the Brussel Bureaucrats want over their laws, economies and governments.

M. Barnier's and Guy Verhofstadt's strategies are obvious. 1) extract as much cash out of the UK as they can to fix the back hole in their bloated budgets. 2) Use the EU citizens who reside here in the UK as hostages to retain the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) hold over our sovereign parliament. 3) Drag out the negotiations to wear down the public's resolve, so that we eventually elect to stay in the EU.

Given their intransigence and obvious desire to cause us as much pain as possible I am coming to the view that the only thing Brussels will understand is our taking the hardest of hard Brexit stands. I think that damage limitation is now the name of the only game in town. The only question left to answer is how do we minimise the pain?

I would prefer the short sharp shock treatment to death by a thousand cuts, implemented over a two, three or four year 'transition period'. It's like taking off a sticking plaster. Do it quick and brutally and get the pain over with in one short sharp shock. The last thing we need is to be half in and half out and continuing to be dictated to.

My negotiating stance would be to tell them, in no uncertain terms, that unless we can begin trade negotiations now and run them in parallel with the divorce bill and if they continue to prevaricate in an attempt to drag out the negotiations, then at midnight on the 1st of April 2019; 1) All payments to the EU will stop. 2) All EU citizens who wish to continue living and working here will be granted full rights, equal to those of any other UK subjects and will be subject solely to UK courts. 3) The UK will no longer recognise the jurisdiction of the ECJ. 4) All EU citizens arriving at our borders will be treated in exactly the same way as any other foreign national. 5) The Irish/UK land border will operate as it does now; restrictions at the air and sea borders will be as point 4. 6) Trade will be conducted under the World Trade Organisation rules unless and until they negotiate a trade deal. 7) The UK will immediately begin to negotiate trade deals with any other country as it sees fit.

As I have said I know that this will cause business and industry some hardship initially. I though, unlike our Quisling Chancellor, think that this arrangement will hurt their trade more than it will hurt ours. I strongly suspect that they will be back to the negotiating  table in short order. It's time to stop playing pattycake with these bullies and change the game to hardball.