An update

"The British government said Thursday that it will grant hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents greater visa rights if China doesn’t scrap a planned new security law for the semi-autonomous territory.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said about 300,000 people in Hong Kong who hold British National (Overseas) passports would be able to stay in Britain for 12 months instead of the current six if China does not rethink its plan. Raab said the length of stay also would be extendable and provide “a pathway” to U.K. citizenship."

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Too much tequila?

Me too. Must be an age thing.

The EU is still refusing to budge on their position. They expect us to abide by their rules and their courts and give them access to our fishing waters.

Unless they pull their finger out it's going to be a no deal Brexit and I wonder if the farmers of France, Spain, Italy and Greece will be happy with that to name a few.

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Interesting to see Barnier's comments. Sound like desperation to me but I concede the FBPE mob would like to spin it differently.

Hard to tell what is going on. My understanding is that in the main metaphorical room things are pretty much at a stand still but in terms of technical details, lots being ironed out.

HMG have invested a LOT of political credit into not granting an extension with all the noises this week doubling down on that. But the EU still faces the intractable issue that they know the UK will do well out of a straight forward FTA. And will be bringing in a lot of goods from outside the EU which will eat into the current trade surplus the EU enjoys with us.

All to play for. Suspect a fudge will happen but it could also all break down next week. Given that the printing presses at the Royal Mint must be working 24/7 then the UK is actually better equipped to cope with No Deal due to Covid meaning that the economy is going down the s***ter anyway so another few billion, one way or the other, is not going to matter in terms of trying to prop it up.

Still who knows anything these days?

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"Unilever plans to combine its U.K. and Dutch arms in a single British parent, reversing a previous plan to consolidate in the Netherlands".

But we were told that this kind of thing would never happen, even less so while the threat of a no deal Brexit was looming.

Maybe you missed this critical paragraph:-

"The organizational streamlining won’t affect staffing levels or business activities in either country, it said. The headquarters of Unilever’s foods and refreshment division, which represents around 40% of the company’s sales, will continue to be based in Rotterdam. The home care and beauty & personal care divisions will continue to be headquartered in the U.K."

So this has nothing to do with jobs. Much more likely to be ready to take advantage of the expected lower tax regime that a desperate UK is prepared to offer in an effort to shore up its economy.

Don't though let that stop anyone claiming it as Brexit victory.

Maybe you missed this critical paragraph:-

"The organizational streamlining won’t affect staffing levels or business activities in either country, it said. The headquarters of Unilever’s foods and refreshment division, which represents around 40% of the company’s sales, will continue to be based in Rotterdam. The home care and beauty & personal care divisions will continue to be headquartered in the U.K."

So this has nothing to do with jobs. Much more likely to be ready to take advantage of the expected lower tax regime that a desperate UK is prepared to offer in an effort to shore up its economy.

Don't though let that stop anyone claiming it as Brexit victory.

How predictable you are, at least you never let us down