I watched the BBC documentary series too and last night's on the migrant crisis was particularly fascinating especially the different dynamics that informed the decisions of each country. The Germans inflamed an already fraught situation by a desire it seems to atone for their dark past. Members of the German Government were horrified at the thought of pictures of German policeman dealing with migrants at the border being flashed around the world. As a result Merkel opened the border (and the floodgates) for a while. Having eventually realised that this was unsustainable she then pushed for compulsory quotas to take in migrants. The eastern European countries in particular were less than happy.

Back to Brexit and it was foolish of Fox to say it would be the "easiest deal in history". He made it on the basis that the UK and EU started from a position of regulatory equivalence. But it takes two to tango and clearly the EU desires to punish the UK and to try to ensure that Brexit is a failure. They obviously want to deter others from doing the same thing. But that doesn't mean that we are wrong to exit the EU. To me the fact that the only way they think they can keep their members is to administer punishment beatings shows that it can't be much of a club in the first place.