Parts of the EU are slowly coming to the realisation that the UK is serious about No Deal – the Telegraph carries the headline “Brussels expects no deal” while the Guardian has “PM intent on hard Brexit and has no desire to renegotiate, EU told.” The EU’s previous calculations have centred around the assumption that Parliament will be able to block no deal, and failing that the UK Prime Minister will back down anyway. They are gradually waking up to the fact that this is no longer the case…

EU officials are now putting out spikey quotes including: “It was clear UK does not have another plan. No intention to negotiate, which would require a plan. A no deal now appears to be the UK government’s central scenario.” This is not accurate, Boris has made clear he will negotiate if the EU drops the backstop. Evidently EU officials have forgotten that “negotiating” does not consist exclusively of grovelling for concessions at Barnier’s door like May did…

However, the memo doesn’t appear to have reached as far as stagnating Germany yet, according to Bloomberg German officials are still banking on Parliament blocking No Deal, even as Remainers start to grasp at increasingly desperate schemes. As the CBI of all people warned last week, the EU is actually less prepared than the UK, while Ireland is continuing to get increasingly jittery. The EU is finally starting to take its cues from what the Prime Minister says, not Dominic Grieve’s wet dreams…