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Short thread need. To be clear - getting agreements, even continuity ones, is good news for the UK and an achievement for those who have worked on them in such a short, pressured period of time.

But to claim, as Steve Baker does, that this is a UK strength is false. /1


First, it hardly needs to be said that a continuity agreement is not the same as a new agreement from scratch. The current EU agreements were negotiated with the UK as a Member State, so the UK's interests were already built in. /2

The proof of this can be seen by comparing agreements (eg. the new Japan-UK and EU-Japan) side by side. The differences are often due to the lack of need of details such as what the equivalent of 'lawyer' is in 24 official EU languages. /3

So, the UK is able to piggy-back on the long-term negotiations that took place by the EU. In the case of Japan, I was a stagiaire in the Commission in Tokyo right at the start of the pre-pre-negotiation process ... in 2000-1! /4

Is the EU particularly cumbersome? There is an argument to be made than the UK (or any single state) could act more nimbly because of the lack of need to integrate the interests of 27+ Member States. BUT is there any evidence of this? Not really. /5
1. This is not correct by @BBCRosAtkins


2. Firstly, the EU shared rules in the deal they did with Canada, they just did it in a different way.

3. Canada were required to sign up to several car regulations in UNECE.

4. The EU has, at minimum, 48% of the vote on any one of those regulations. With CETA, Canada agreed to share rules where it can be outvoted, and most likely will be.

5. The alignment the EU is proposing for the UK is different. It's based on dynamic alignment which is about approximating rules.
Leavers beginning to realise EU states see EU *fundamentally* differently from how Leavers see it. THREAD 1/9


Some Leavers believe UK’s economic/political interests/qualities are fundamentally different from France & Germany. But this is so daft & so close to obvious extreme nationalism it never explained the EU’s existence for them 2/

But if UK isn’t fundamentally different from Germany & France. How to make sense of German / French EU membership? 3/


One Leaver coping strategy was “EU is bad idea for all EU states”, just they haven’t realised yet (not as clever as Brits ssh) and their bad establishments are suppressing bold independence movements 4/


But hoped-for Brexit copycats haven’t arrived. Greece seems determined to stay even as its economy improves. Anti-EU forces don’t win, or win but don’t try and leave. Remember how Hungary & Poland were going to back UK? Anyone? 5/
MICROBIOME AERODYNAMICS & SEDIMENTATION RATES are studied & known. Who would have guessed that studies would uncover cloud formation & precipitation phenomenon as function of bacteria ubiquity & size.


Korean scientists quantify lift off, descent, & propagation of various bacteria “species” in the atmosphere & as high as 1,000 meters. These micro-spaceships average about 8 micrometers (if I got that right).

Atmospheric density of bacteria particles relates, in part, to their ability to nucleate with other airborne particles. Scientists can even differentiate the aerodynamic properties of these bacteria from larger (factor of 10x) pollen spores & larger fungal spores (factor of 5x).

Most surprisingly, these bacterial-driven spaceships can live & propagate while in the atmosphere via nutrient atmospheric milieus & sources of alcohols & other organic substrates.

In the mid-1980’s, Princess Stephanie (sister of Prince Rainier of Monaco) invited me to present at an intimate “Energy Medicine” symposium in that small kingdom. I remember it was their national holiday of fireworks & celebration.