I wonder what BMW, Mercedes and the French and Spanish wine makers thought of her "threats"
\\And then - in characteristically guarded language - a warning. The EU, she said, would never compromise with an outsider in the same way it would with a member state.//
\\and said countries outside the EU "will never get a really good result in negotiations".//
I wonder what “deals” Frau Merkel is suggesting we’d be better off negotiating from inside the room? No deals are necessary if we remain. The single market is already in place. If we leave we cannot expect to be inside the room. Any deals the UK makes with the EU will not influence trade at all. As I have said countless times, trade takes place because businesses enable it. They don’t need politicians – who don’t seem particularly good at arranging agreements anyway - to facilitate it. Some of the UKs strongest trading partners are those with whom we have no trading agreements.
“BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the intervention was interesting because a few weeks ago German sources were saying privately that Mrs Merkel wasn't minded to say anything about the referendum.”
Interesting, maybe. Puzzling? Not at all. They had a cosy private meeting at the G5 summit in Hanover a few weeks back and it’s odds on he's been on the phone since keeping her appraised of the latest poll results..
Anyway, just what we Brits need to persuade us to remain – a German telling us what’s best for us. Should be a few thousand more "Leave" votes in the bag.