You have made it abundantly clear over many many months that Starmer and Labour just don't understand the position that the UK finds itself in with the EU. And yes of course I understand that you no longer live in the UK.
But I was just wondering whether, as someone who does understand precisely that situation, you could offer to give them the benefit of your knowledge and experience as an advisor.
But if that is not practical, whether you would give us here a bullet point summary of the problem areas, cause and effect?
I would be more than happy to then forward that to my MP and ask him what his government is doing about it.
Edit. I believe you have joint UK/French citizenship?
Yes I have dual nationality.
To summarise the points.
1. There will be no renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement. Any alterations to the trade agreement will be minor.
This point is especially important for whichever party is talking about it. People say that the Tories negotiated a bad deal and that there were different types of Brexit available.
Whatever was negotiated this is how it was going to turn out, no matter how many bits of tweaking around the edges. Talk of being in the customs union and/or the single market but still being outside the EU makes no sense from whichever party is saying so. Either the UK is in it all or out of it all.
Thus until the UK does return eventually to the EU, the barriers , paperwork , trade difficulties will remain and actually get worse if they change standards and continue on the current path.
2) The CPTTP will not bring any advantage to the UK. There is talk of opening up to large markets because they are more developing than the EU for example. There are several problems with this. There was nothing stopping the UK trading with these countries before and they did, I did, despite the Brexit lies.
The rules of the CPTTP are in place and the UK have no say in them.
Why and what will the other CPTTP countries buy from the UK which they can't get from some closer country and at cheaper prices?
For the CPTTP countries they will be able to dump in the UK what others don't want.
Importing products into the UK which do not meet EU standards will impact sales to what will still be the UK's main market, the EU, even though the UK is outside teh EU.
I've tried to keep to the main points and could probably write a book on the problems I haven't mentioned.
3) UK standards. It is reported that the UK will shortly change the certification standards for products. The CE mark for EU standard products will change to UKCA. Still vague what this will apply to.
To sell in the UK products will need the UKCA mark. This poses several problems.
The UKCA will not be recognised elsewhere. Products that are EU certified are accepted in quite a few countries even outside the EU;
For EU countries to sell the products that this applies to then they will have to be certified for the EU and the UK; Double certification costs will probably mean countries won't bother with the UK.
This will also apply to countries outside the EU. For example a business in a developing country wants to sell its products in Europe. They won't want to pay for certification to CE standard which is acceptable I belive in about 50 countries and then pay for another certification that only covers the UK.
4) Asylum seekers/immigration.
Should the UK continue with its trajectory on asylum seekers and break international law/agreements or leave the ECHR then all trade deals are threatened by cancellation, including a threat to the Northern Ireland situation.
I have kept this quite brief and concentrated mainly on trade but there's so much more to say which has been covered in the main since 2016. Nothing that has happened since 2016 has remotely surprised me or changed my view on how riduiculous the decision to leave the EU was.
The question is regarding Starmer, is whether he is going to continue on the same trajectory as the Tories or is he going to reverse what has happened so far. If he is basing his plan on renegotiating the withdrawal agreement or make vast changes to the trade agreement, then his plan is finished before it starts. This is what concerns me.
How can anything the tories promise be believed?
