Boris Johnson has grasped the two most vital points about politics since the referendum – do a deal and soon
Yesterday’s economic figures show that there’s no time to spare - we need to start thrashing out that deal over the next few weeks
BORIS Johnson has grasped the two most vital points about politics since the referendum.
First, that there is a deal to be done with the EU that balances freedom of movement and trade, as he put it this weekend.
Second, that we need to start thrashing out that deal over the next few weeks.
Yesterday’s economic figures show that there’s no time to spare.
We can’t be tied to the idiotic timetable pushed by the likes of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who says that no one can discuss anything to do with Brexit until we act on Article 50.
He’s more interested in punishing us for daring to vote Leave than in negotiating.
Theresa May has already made clear that Article 50 won’t be triggered until next year.
But she also showed on her recent visits to Germany and France that other EU members are willing to start talking in broad terms about the shape of a deal.
We need to start working on that shape now.
So it’s good that Boris has shown that the Government gets it, and has confirmed that discussions will happen “over the next few weeks”.
Time is of the essence.
Who's selling out justice
IT’S difficult to know what’s worse.
The fact that Crown Prosecution Service papers with witnesses’ names and addresses are for sale.
Or the fact that they can be delivered to prisoners in their own cell.
We don’t yet know where the leaks are but it’s urgent that the authorities find out and plug them quick.
You don’t need to be Hercule Poirot to work out what can be done with such information.
Witness intimidation is already a blight on the justice system.
But it’s not just with CPS papers that there’s a major problem.
We’re used to hearing about drugs being freely available inside.
The delivery of CPS papers into prison shows how jail is sometimes more like a home than a punishment.
Holiday chief a disgrace
BOSSES like Paul Evans, of holiday firm Lowcost, give business itself a bad name.
It’s not just the firm’s paying customers who are his victims.
His staff have lost their own holidays booked through the company — and their jobs.
Businessmen like Evans sully the reputation of the vast majority of decent entrepreneurs.