Empty promises

As John Humphrys just pointed out on the BBC Radio 4 Today program, it is inconceivable that the European Union could allow the United Kingdom to have after Brexit a new relationship with many of the key benefits of membership intact. Such an outcome would encourage the eurosceptics of other nations to push for similar deals.

This common-sense observation surely makes a mockery of the quite unrealistic aspirations implicit in the letter delivered yesterday in Brussels.

It's all terribly sad.