Brexit: UK must get trade deal with EU or delay end of transition – Scotsman comment

Just a few days ago, it was pretty much all over. The UK was walking away from the Brexit talks, blaming Brussels’ intransigence while huffily insisting that Britannia would be just fine.

Boris Johnson needs to stop the bluster and ensure he gets a trade deal with the EU or swallow his pride and delay the end of the transition period (Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

It may have been softly spoken but there was a caveat – it was over "unless” the EU agreed to fundamentally change its position. That has not happened and yet the talks are back on.

On the plus side, this suggests the UK Government has not fallen into a state of Faragist delusion about the supposed merits of a no-deal. On the downside, it means that the EU now knows we were bluffing and we really do want a deal.

The EU is showing signs that it is willing to give a little – its chief negotiator Michel Barnier spoke of the need for "compromises on both sides" – but what we do not know is how much.

After a strategy that has basically put the backs up of the people who run this economic giant, it is likely that the relative bantamweight Britain will need to do more than its fair share of compromising if it is to conclude the very much needed trade deal.

Failure to do so should result in a UK request to delay the end of the transition period. This will be hard to swallow for inflated egos at Westminster but, for the good of the nation, they must do so.

A no-deal Brexit in the middle of the current Covid crisis is unconscionable and would wilfully add to the very real threats to people’s livelihoods and homes.

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