Labour want EU trade access - Market move may reshape Brexit plans

Last week’s description, by European Council president, Donald Tusk, of the conclusion reached by British prime minister Theresa May and her divided cabinet on how they see Britain’s post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU as “pure illusion” sounded like an expression of deepening exasperation by a loving uncle losing his last slivers of patience with a nephew, unable, or wilfully unwilling, to accept the limited choices offered by the world around them.

Mr Tusk’s frustration that May’s inner cabinet cling to have-your-cake-and-eat-it ambitions suggests that meaningful negotiations remain, like a solution to the Irish border impasse, a considerable distance away. It seems incredible that May’s cabinet should, despite clarification after clarification, that trading privileges are indivisible from legal responsibilities, pursue this á la carte fantasy. It is not only incredible, it is dangerous too.