There are enough sensible figures in and around Brussels to ensure that Brexit talks are conducted properly
David Davis' approach of open and clear discussion of how a temporary customs union would benefit both the EU and UK is the right approach
FOR all the bluster from EU fanatics — who would rather everyone was worse off than see the UK get a good deal — there are enough sensible figures in and around Brussels to ensure that Brexit talks are conducted seriously and properly.
Which is why David Davis is clearly adopting the right approach.
His open and clear discussion of how a temporary customs union would benefit both the EU and UK is designed to show that we are open to compromise.
As in any negotiation, flexibility and common sense will be needed from both sides.
It’s encouraging that the European Commission has welcomed Mr Davis’s position paper as “a positive step towards now really starting phase one of the negotiations”.
As the talks gather momentum, member states themselves must now get involved to make sure that the idiots who want to punish the UK for daring to leave the EU are sidelined.
It’s not just the more sensible EU figures who realise that it is in all of our interests to reach a customs deal that works.
Businesses in Europe know how hard they will be hit if they have to deal with newly imposed red tape and other trade barriers to export to the UK.
With 19 months to go, the Brexit talks are hotting up.
Railway relics
ED MILIBAND and Jeremy Corbyn were completely wrong to propose renationalising the rail companies.
But they were on to something when they attacked the appalling manner in which the firms rip off passengers.
Next year’s 3.6 per cent fare rise is just the latest example of how commuters are treated with contempt.
Passengers are held over a barrel. Even when wages are stagnant and the rail companies fleece them with price increases alongside appalling service, there’s nowhere else they can go.
Large parts of our railway system are relics from another era — with Byzantine ticketing arrangements and the customer treated like an inconvenience.
It’s time that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling put himself on the side of the consumer rather than the rail companies.
Truth hurts
IT’S jaw-dropping enough that Teignbridge Council boss Nicola Bulbeck got a 12 per cent salary rise last year to put her on £142,000 a year.
But her £320,000 pay-off would be unbelievable if it wasn’t so typical for a class of public sector fat cats who behave as if the rest of us exist only to enrich their bank accounts.
Her sum was kept secret because making it public would “hurt her feelings”.
We’re happy to oblige.