THIS weekend may well indicate whether a post-Brexit deal with the EU is going to be reached this year or not. Time is rapidly running out for new economic arrangements to be put in place for January 1, when the transition period expires.

The legend peddled by Britain’s most pro-EU zealots is that the EU negotiators led by failed right-wing politician Michel Barnier are people of the highest moral calibre, consistent and honest in all their endeavours. Sitting on the opposite side of the table, so the story goes, is Britain's team of scheming incompetents backed by a government hell-bent on delivering a “No Deal” Brexit.

The reality is rather different. One person’s “consistency” may be another person’s intransigence. Certainly, the EU side has consistently demanded that any agreement must include a mechanism to enforce, if only retroactively, EU rules banning state aid to industry in all but the most devastating, short-term or exceptional circumstances.