Brexit: UK won’t accept 'level playing field' ruled by EU

Britain's trade negotiator warned on Monday that his government would not accept EU supervision of its economy in exchange for close trade ties.

Senior diplomat David Frost told academics in Brussels that London intended to set its own laws after Brexit instead of following EU-imposed "level playing field" rules.

"It isn't a simple negotiating position that might move under pressure, it is the point of the whole project," Mr Frost said.

His speech at the Free University of Brussels took place as EU member states were drawing up a mandate for their own negotiator, Michel Barnier.

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Some countries, particularly France, are seeking a deal in which Britain would have to sign up to EU-supervised regulation in exchange for privileged access to the European single market.

But Mr Frost, adding to the position championed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said London wanted a typical trade deal of the kind Brussels signed with Canada.

"It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us; to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has," he said.

"So to think that we might accept EU supervision on so-called level playing field issues simply fails to see the point of what we are doing."

Mr Frost also said that the UK did not intend to extend the 11-month transition beyond the end of 2020.

“At that point we recover our political and economic independence in full," he said. "Why would we want to postpone it?

“In short, we only want what other independent countries have."

But Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister, gave a scathing assessment of the discussions on Sunday.

Mr Le Drian said his country and Britain would “rip each other part” over trade talks.

"I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart," he said at a Munich security conference.

"But that is part of negotiations. Everyone will defend their own interests."

Red Joan

Director: Trevor Nunn

Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova

Rating: 3/5 stars

The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now

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If you go

The flights

There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.

The trip

Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.

The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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The specs

Engine: 2x201bhp AC Permanent-magnetic electric

Transmission: n/a

Power: 402bhp

Torque: 659Nm

Price estimate: Dh200,000

On sale: Q3 2022

The chef's advice

Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.

“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”

Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.

The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.