The Telegraph, 17 July 2020, Bob Lyddon
The tens of billions saddled on us by the Withdrawal Agreement may just be the start of what Brussels can get its hands on.
You thought your no-fault divorce would be a clean break and let you move on. You had agreed, as part of the share-out, to make a series of pension top-up payments to the other party, and to let them keep an investment portfolio.
Later you discover that the top-up payments were elastic, and that the other party could claim back losses from you on the investment portfolio, without a reasonable ceiling, and with no absolute time limit. Moreover, these provisions were not reciprocal: they could work in the other party’s favour but not in yours. The other party keeps all the profits, but you share any loss.
Sounds like a bad deal? Indeed it is. But that is the position the UK is in as it prepares to exit the European Union. The UK has agreed to a “divorce settlement” of £33 billion which is widely understood, if resented by Brexiteers.
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