I’ve posted a couple of threads on Twitter recently about trade, challenging the Brexit narrative of some ‘liberal leavers’ in which they argue that the UK has been held back by its EU membership. Going back to find one’s old tweets is a nightmare, so rather than do that I’m simply going to link to them here for future reference. (Edit – I’m broadening this to include other Brexit-related threads, not just the trade ones.)
1. Busting the myth that the EU is protectionist:
A thread to address a couple of perennial euromyths, that the EU can’t conclude FTAs with big economies, & that it’s protectionist. /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) August 6, 2017
2. Why ‘copy and paste’ won’t work:
“We’ll just cut & paste EU trade deals with Rest of World” says May. But SHE CAN’T. That’s NOT HOW IT WORKS. https://t.co/se7aOd5Oyr /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) August 31, 2017
3. How the Bombardier story shows us what’s in store post-Brexit:
[Thread] People saying #Bombardier is a warning about life after #Brexit: you are right. Let me explain. /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) September 27, 2017
4. Leaving the EU’s defensive umbrella exposes the UK to the EU as well as the US:
A follow-up to my thread on #Bombardier yesterday. #Brexit means losing protection of EU’s trade umbrella, but it gets worse. /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) September 28, 2017
5. What happens to the EU’s 1,000 international agreements after Brexit?
Much heat & noise, rather less light in discussion of the “WTO option” and what happens under “no deal”. Don’t fall for simple answers. /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) October 24, 2017
6. UK foreign policy after Brexit – where can it go?
Let’s have a look at foreign policy & Brexit. How will the new “Global Britain” fare as a foreign policy power on its own once more? /1
— Chris Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) October 28, 2017
7. Why the EU’s international agreements take such a long time to finalise.
In my day job I'm negotiating an agreement between the EU and another country. With my Brexit Twitter hat on, let me share some details on the steps involved in getting to that agreement, and why it's unwise (read mad) to expect it to be done quickly: 1/
— Chris Kraut Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) October 10, 2019
8. The EU is actually pretty democratic
I get that government structures are complex and not particularly interesting to many people, and that's fine, though if you don't know much about it you probably shouldn't set yourself up as an expert. [Thread] 1/ https://t.co/3cwgzpzMM5
— Chris Kraut Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) June 7, 2018
I may will have come back and added to this list and will continue adding to it if/when I do more of these.