Oooo is the UK cosying up to Germany? Will the EU allow the ‘treaty’? I thought that unless the EU agreed no agreements between EU states and another country were allowed? Does that mean complicity by the EU? Or is this just nonsense?
Not true. Treaties outside the scope of the EU competencies are allowed. Defence is one of those things that the EU doesn’t and can’t interfere with centrally. Defence is up to each individual member state and they can do what they like. Germany has a similar treaty with France.
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Farage must be foaming at the mouth.
Yukk, what a horrible sight.
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But Starmer did throw him a carrot, no Breturn.
But but but, we were told about the EU army just the other day.
I get the defence thing probably. But he is talking about trade and immigration deals??
I read it as they’re talking about improved cooperation in those areas rather than the type of trade deal that would fall within the EU’s remit e.g. the UK would encourage industry to increase their purchases of components from Germany, or consider joint ventures with German industry and vice versa.
Not to forget that each EU nation still has control of their own immigration policies (we could perhaps call it sovereignty and control it their borders) where it pertains to third country nationals so could cut a deal on visa regulations in some areas.
Starmer’s insistence on “no return to the customs union or single market, no rejoining the EU” annoys me - the election is done and dusted so pandering to the Leave electorate is no longer necessary - so why make such a big deal about not reversing Brexit when a child of 6 can see that de-Brexiting in various forms is exactly what’s needed if the UK is to recover economically.
Surely he can’t be that scared of Farrago and what remains of the Tories?
I hope there is some cunning strategy to this that I am not aware of…
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Mr Macron and France next
Mmmm and isn’t the UK quite a good market historically for German cars?
Perhaps there’s a left wing equivalent to the ERG hiding in the shadows of the Labour party?
I don;t think there is, that’s why I find it so puzzling.
Haven’t checked, but I thought they were talking about defence procurement, which again is outside of the EU remit.
Indeed, and that tells the lie.
He knows that he needs another term at least. I think he doesn’t want to rock the Brexit boat too much. Now, if he gets a second term then I think things will change. People do really have short memories.
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On the defence side, the ambition is a defence and security cooperation agreement on a similar scale to the Lancaster House agreement with France, signed in 2010.
Not nonsense but not very important. The EU has moved on, only the UK is (still) talking about Brexit. A treaty along the lines of the Lancaster House Treaties with France may be put in place (which is a good thing) The idea of leveraging that for other benefits is nonsense.
One must ask oneself what has the UK to offer the EU, and the EU has much bigger issues to contend with than reopening the Brexit agreement.
Really 
Schengen is Schengen surely?
And the 1966 world cup 
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But all the countries are taking back control of their borders, say nowt of UK
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Will, yes, but each country still has control over it’s immigration and visa policies for stays within that country. It’s like having a French CdS which offers a long term stay in France but no additional privileges in Schengen countries outside of France.
But surely having different immigration rules for different third countries would be highly unusual. All third countries should be treated equally, with the same range of visas available to all nationalities, except for historic reasons such as France and Algeria. Of course schemes like youth mobility and student exchanges, that don’t come under immigration as such, are country specific but the UK has ruled that out.
Not unusual, impossible. Not too sure about youth mobility or exchanges either. Germany is not going to do anything without EU agreement.
The UK is not a priority, no matter who’s in power.