Delusional. And no way to run a country. Far higher barriers to trade with the EU from Friday. And still subject to EU influence on our laws. To deny this is also to deny the ability to tackle the problems we will face.

Brexit. UK-EU talks. Let's try to explain why we're in such a state, of increased risk of no deal, moving away from the fish and playing fields which are the detail but not the answer, to differing philosophies and divorce parallels that might just help... 1/

First, with apologies to those concerned, we need to go beyond those saying this is the inevitable path to deal / no-deal. Half of them will be right and I'll definitely be wrong (don't worry, I'm hedged in wine bets), but it wasn't inevitable, typical, or necessary. 2/

I'll also ignore the content of any deal, which has been clear for months, the UK compromises on level playing field, the EU on fish. Something so obvious really isn't the fundamental issue. Could, as some not noted for their perspicacity have said, be done in an afternoon. 3/

Some truth in the idea that flounces and playing the tough cop are a part of trade negotiations. But equally as we're in about the 5th pass of these, I think it has ceased to be helpful. Either side could already have cut the deal having shown their toughness. 4/

Some fundamentals then, that we've forgotten. First, the trade deal that will lead to much less free trade than before. The incentive structures, the ability to create a win-win, are inevitably going to be different to a normal deal. 5/

Breathless accounts of brilliant negotiating are oddly unaccompanied by statements of UK wins.

Twice the PM has signed up to deals he previously said no PM could sign up for. The level of self-deception in turning these into triumphs is off the scale.

A wise man has suggested that Johnson's self delusions are good for the UK in the way he folds under EU pressure but denies it - that this actually delivers the best result.

But it doesn't do much for the country's politcal debate to have such delusions at the heart of the most important economic relationship. And they don't have such delusions in Belfast.

Perhaps it is the way of UK politics that no leader can be seen to be pro-EU, that the UK must be seen to be bigger than the EU, even though the UK is obviously smaller and needs the EU for trade.

Today's UK-EU trade deal reflection - what is rarely stated in discussions about the deal's shortcomings is that they reflect UK government policy choices - in particular that control of immigration and a US trade deal are a higher priority than an EU deal.

Thus, why was it not a UK government priority to secure for UK musicians the rights to tour the EU? Because that would probably have required a reciprocal right to be given to those in the EU, which we didn't want to give. Choice.

Meanwhile why did the UK government not seek or secure a reduction in food inspections for GB products going to the EU? Because that would probably have required fixing food regulations in a way that might have been an obstacle to a US trade deal.

Works the other way as well. Why did the EU refuse UK requests on mutual recognition of industrial testing? In part at least because of UK lack of commitment on maintaining the previous EU system of standards and conformity assessment which might be a problem in a US deal.

One of the strangest opinions in the London politics bubble is that the UK government isn't that bothered about a US trade deal, as it so obviously goes against the evidence. There might be domestic opposition, but this was to be Brexit Dividend Number 1.

NEW: @SidneyPowell1 in radio interview w/ @toddeherman when asked what her "Elevator Pitch" to the Supreme Court would be "The very night of the election many people saw something that they had never seen before in the history of our elections. They saw votes being changed on

2/ the screen in front of them, going from President @realDonaldTrump to @JoeBiden. On top of that, the morning after the election, even that night, the voting stopped. They stopped counting in multiple districts at the same time before the vote got to 270 electors for President

3/ Trump. That's never happened before. The only time votes have ever stopped being counted in this country on election night was when the Broward County problem developed over the Hanging Chad's in one county in FL. So for FIVE states to stop counting on election night is

4/ absolutely UNPRECEDENTED. And they did it because the vote count for the electoral college was about to hit [+ go over] 270 for President @realDonaldTrump, because of the massive outpouring of votes for him that night. By the next morning, multiple mathematicians had contacted

5/ me and told me they knew the algorithm that had been run to change the votes. It was that obvious to people with mathematical expertise. It is a mathematical impossibility for 100's of thousands of votes to show up for VP Biden alone, and to have been injected into the system

1. Mass Media, Internet to Go Offline, EBS Activated While US Republic Restored on Monday

On Mon. 18 Jan. the US Republic would be restored to the original Constitution and return power to The People. To make that happen, the Mass Media and Internet would go offline while the...

1) Where we are: This is much, much bigger than a fraudulent election (it was) or rampant gubment tyrannical China Virus abuse (it is).

2) What we are facing has been building for a good 30 years.

3) I date it back to the GOP failure to defeat Clinton in the gubment shutdown.

4) If you went to public school, that would be the 1995 budget battle.

5) The brand new GOP Congress, with plenty of public support, failed to rein in a Clinton bloated budget.

6) It wasn't the numbers. Compared to today's deficits & debts, this was pocket change. Rather, this was the first time since the Cold War, which was a legit excuse for constant deficit spending, that Congress failed to do its MAIN constitutional duty--oversee spending.

7) No, this isn't a thread about deficits or debt. At present, I don't think those pose the biggest challenge to us, or even probably one of the top five.

8) Rather, this is about a deadly disease that hit DC & the patient refused to take any medicine for it.

9) The disease was the failure to address the major problems of the day, whether it was deficits, Islamic terrorism, the banking crisis, or trade.

10) Vote fraud & this frankenstein of an election is only the latest SYMPTOM of this much larger disease.

THREAD: So @UKLabour think they can win back the red wall by "use of the union flag, veterans & dressing smartly?" Here's why this is ludicrous fantasy

1. You don't "use" the union flag & especially veterans. You believe in them, from the patriotic heart. Anything else is lies

2. How can Keir Starmer pretend to love the Union flag, when he knelt to BLM, who set fire to it at the Cenotaph? No way will patriots swallow this co-opting of the flag for votes

3. Labour MPs are secretly or even openly ashamed of our flag & history, esp Corbynistas

4. Labour want to win back working class voters? First, believe in Brexit. Except Starmer led Labour's #PeoplesVote movement to cancel Brexit & most Labour MPs are ardent Remainers, so there goes that one

5. Labour are so soaked in identity politics, their top brass believe the white working classes are "privileged" - even though WWC boys are the least likely to go to Uni & perform worst at school. Instead, they are fixated with minority projects, so get minority numbers of votes

6. Trans issues: huge majority of British people are not "transphobic" & want people to live happily. But they don't want trans women in women's toilets, jails, changing rooms or sports. That is a majority position. Crying "transphobe" doesn't help: it repels moderate voters