//We were delusional if we thought the Golf Club captain would negotiate with Fred Bloggs who'd just resigned from the club owing £millions.//
Why would Fred Bloggs owe the club £millions? Presumably he was up to date with his subscriptions (as the UK is). He surely cannot be expected to pay towards an extension to the clubhouse which he will no longer use.
//It was a 585 page document which set out the principles of us leaving.//
No it wasn’t (and yes, I have read most of it). It was a comprehensive list of demands, coupled with a bill for £39bn (for the clubhouse extension) which was made under the threat of causing us untold grief if we refused.
As an aside, Zacs, (and I had intended to mention it before) this assertion of yours is misleading:
//You should have ‘had your suspicions’ when you familiarised yourself with A50, Tora, where it clearly says that the leaving member state won’t be party to the negotiations.//
A50 says this:
“…the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that [leaving] State”
Note the word “negotiate”. Where I think you are sewing confusion is that it also says this:
“…the member of the European Council or of the Council representing the withdrawing Member State shall not participate in the discussions of the European Council or Council or in decisions concerning it.”
So, back to Fred Bloggs and his withdrawal from the golf club, if Fred was a Committee member he would not participate in the Committee meetings where his withdrawal was discussed. But he would negotiate the conditions for his departure after the Committee had reached a consensus.
Of course it is in the gift of the EU to compile their list of demands. But it is within the UK’s gift to tell them where to put it. Unfortunately too many of our lily-livered MPs, with little confidence or faith in their electorate's ability to cope and thrive without Nanny EU looking after their every need, believe they must capitulate to those unjustified demands.