Monday 3 July 2017

Slow news Monday, mid-summer,early edition -- time for fake news?

Classic entry in today's Guran claiming to be a great exclusive: 

Brexit: British officials drop 'cake and eat it' approach to negotiations 

The 'cake and eat it' phrase was actually a quip by Boris Johnson, apparently echoed by May. It meant a policy aimed at 'full trade access without conceding over immigration, courts and payments' 

The source for this dramatic reversal of a quip/negotiating stance/slogan to rally the troops is 'Government insiders' --ie some group of politicians ringing up journalists knowing it's a Monday in summer etc. We are linked to another piece to support the view that 'pressure is building in Whitehall for a rethink of opposition to a customs union with the EU.' That link makes the same point in an article on Sunday (in the Observer?)

The sources for 'this influential new thinking in Whitehall [are] Officials and business leaders...civil servants...one official familiar with the process...the anonymous official... officials in Brussels'

P Hammond is given a name-check so it might be his supporters.

Overall: 'this variant of soft Brexit could prove more palatable than full membership of the single market to many in Westminster and business'. 

It could all be pukka, of course, but it looks like the same old fighting retreat by he Remainers.

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