Anatomy of a miserable deal

Lord Lilley was a cabinet minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major

MICHEL BARNIER’S ACCOUNT of his impressive handling of the Brexit negotiations on behalf of the EU is his opening bid for the French presidency. That is implicit in his final remarks that “people encourage me to take up my place in French political life” and became explicit in his publicity interview suggesting a French moratorium on immigration and leaving the Schengen Agreement.

That surpasses Nigel Farage’s electioneering, which Barnier describes as “detestable”. But what should interest British readers is the insights his Secret Journal provides about whether the UK could have negotiated a better deal.

The Brexit negotiations were doubly unique. First, in