One year to Brexit - three essential 'to'dos' to avoid a repeat of 2008 financial crash

Written by Tony Hughes

Tony Hughes says the UK has 365 days to get the correct deal - and it needn't be 'mission impossible. Theresa May needs to act fast. The Brexit divorce bill is the biggest negotiation to take place in modern history – and the UK has 365 days to get it right. Mission impossible? Perhaps, but it is happening and so Theresa May and David Davis need to act fast.

One year to Brexit... but nothing is certain

There are four key areas that the UK must consider carefully to avoid a repeat of the 2008 crash, and these all relate to strategic negotiation.

Theresa May's Brexit position

Firstly, the UK must consider its position – how much power does it have around the negotiation table? Is Britain on the back foot, or does it hold all the cards?

Consider this; there are 27 EU countries and 759 separate EU bilateral agreements with potential relevance to Britain, from which the UK must disentangle.

In its most basic form that’s 20,493 individual agreements that Chief EU Negotiator, Michel Barnier, needs to resolve.

The UK needs to consider all 759 agreements, but it doesn’t need to consult 27 partner countries. Already, we see an advantage for the UK.

Power is in the head, and how powerful Davis and his team feel at the negotiation table will impact how powerfully they behave when dealing with Barnier, and as a result, what they will achieve for the UK.

Because the EU has more to consider, more member states, more bureaucracy, more objectives, within the same time frame, it simply put, has a bigger task to achieve within the same time frame.

Davis and his team should use this to his advantage. More time to plan, means more time to address potential pit holes that could put Britain on the backfoot.

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