Blathering for Britain

The David Davis publicist in charge of Brexit, David Davis, has been having a bit of a blather on the fringes of the Stupid Party's annual rah-rah. In the world of David Davis, thanks to a plunging pound and Mad Tessie's apparent intention of kicking off the negotiations with a two-year deadline and no cards in her hand, it's cheers and belches all the way. The David Davis idea of the future, if idea is the euphemism I am groping for, is a sort of basic metric whereby trade with Europe will remain free and unfettered, while trade with everywhere else will become even more free and unfettered than it is already. Self-evidently, with that rather imperial sort of basic metric the lesser breeds will be only too happy to give us all the free rides we demand, and if they fail to oblige us we've always got the independent nuclear deterrent to ensure an appropriately buccaneering degree of fair play. The eminent respecter of the intelligence of David Davis was naturally eager to establish who, in these free and unfettered relationships, would be wearing the trousers and wielding the mouth: "There’s a lot of dreaming going on by our competition who don’t really know the issues we’re talking about." No doubt Guy Verhofstadt is shaking in his little wooden clogs over that.

In between diplomatic coups, the noted David Davis enthusiast also found time to dispense the benefits of his financial acumen, proclaiming that London's future as a financial centre will remain secure because so many bankers speak English these days.