Cabinet ministers who still hope for the best are now tight in the larynx when they try to sound optimisticThe British are great most of all in their pragmatism – or so much of the world once thought. The European Union’s supreme talent is for compromise – or so it was widely assumed. Both sides have much to lose from a ruinous version of Brexit and for that reason it will be avoided. This logic was the basis for believing that it could be managed in a way that contained the damage to trade,jobs and investment from extracting one of its largest members from the world’s most affluent bloc.
The EU27 will suffer from a traumatically severe Brexit. For Britain, the consequences of departing without a deal would be several times more calamitous. The chief executive of one of our biggest ports recently told a private dinner that whether the government was serious approximately planning for a “no deal” scenario and a tough trade border it would have to invest in 20 square kilometres of lorry parking at each major port. Rational minds must thus prevail. Some sort of bargain has to be struck. It will be just approximately OK in the end. This is the case I have often heard from the pragmatic majority in the cabinet when they have sought to persuade me that it will be sort of all right on the night.
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Source: theguardian.com