Does Yanis Varoufakis Have A Point?

[Khandro]

...when he says she is being forced to negotiate to negotiate.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/867945/Brexit-news-UK-Theresa-May-PMQs-Michel-Barnier-EU-Greece-minister-Sky-News-video

[ToraToraTora]

sounds bang on to me. You can't start a "negotiation" by demanding the other side agree to things in the order you want. We've dealt with slimier thrupneys that Barnier.

[dannyk13]

He does as far as suggesting that Barnier does not negotiate, he damands.

[dannyk13]

^demands^

[youngmafbog]

"He said: “It’s not going well and it was never going to go well. You have to remember Mr Barnier was never mandated by the European Union to negotiate. He is a bureaucrat. "

Need say no more.

Get out now, and fast.

[sunny-dave]

It has always seemed to me that Britain made a huge tactical error by sending a senior, elected, minister to negotiate with a ghastly squit (sorry 'bureaucrat') who can just keep waving his checklist and insisting that he has no authority to move beyond it.

We should have kept our elected Government back in London and sent a heavily mandated 'Sir Humphrey' with our own checklist.

When it (very rapidly) became apparent that the talks were inherently stalled, we should have insisted on *both* sides providing Organ Grinders rather than Monkeys and then the talks could have got started for real.

[EDDIE51]

Yes, we really can learn a lot from a Greek finance minister !!

[Old_Geezer]

"first you have to agree to everything we are asking you for, you have to tick all the boxes and only then after that, we’re going to have a discussion about what you want. "

Seems to sum it up. Although I'd replace "what you want" with "what we all need to discuss" at the end.

[jourdain2]

Having lived for so long in France, we have known the 'tick box' mentality for a long time. It is impossible to negotiate with them, boxes must be ticked in the right order. We have had many hugely frustrating beaurocratic experiences. That's why we have espoused giving our terms for their acceptance or not and just walking away otherwise. We cannot win on this.