For the past four years, until very recently, Brexit has dominated politics and media in the UK and we now face an unknown number of years of continuing negotiations over trading arrangements as well as numerous other issues. As matters stand, however, there remains every prospect that the UK will end up with no deal since our government has expressed an evident desire to avoid what it regards as the millstone of EU regulations.
Early in February 2020, the Prime Minister said as much setting out the UK’s negotiating position: ‘There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules,’ (https://www.reuters.com).).
This suggests two possibilities. Either the Conservative Government in reality want ‘no deal’ and are looking for a pretext for avoiding one, or they simply have no real
