we have covered the brexit story for
almost half a decade now we've reported
on free trade talks over
many months here on the day but now the
end could be in sight
and it's not looking very good there are
just days remaining for london and
brussels to come to some sort of
agreement
now we know deadlines have been broken
before in this brexit saga but striking
a deal is still
nowhere in sight ireland's foreign
minister saying
no deal could very well be the final
result
we have a little more than 40 days left
to the first of january when everything
changes
and of course it takes weeks to ratify
an agreement
of this scale so that is why i think
everybody is now pointing to this week
certainly the next 10 days uh as a
period where we really must find a way
forward otherwise
i think we have to start preparing uh in
a very intensive way
for a no trade deal brexit which is the
last thing we need in the context of
covert as well
all right our resident brexit analyst
alex forrest whitening joins me here at
the big table now it's good to see you
again alex so
let's talk about what we just heard
there from simon coveny really he's he's
spelling it out for us
um little time left to strike a deal so
what's the holdup
well there are some main sticking points
and the first
first one is the whole issue of fish and
fisheries because the uk
wants to take back control of uk
waters now this is not an economic
reason
because this is worth about naught point
naught four percent
of the british economy this is purely
political
this is about sovereignty and this is
what boris johnson needs to prove to the
brexiteers
that he can do for them a second reason
is
to do with the so-called level playing
field europe does not want to have
a big rival on its doorstep it wants to
make sure
that the uk is not going to end up
subsidizing
companies and therefore become a threat
but the uk is saying look we need to be
able to set our own rules
and then there is the age-old problem
with
ireland northern ireland of course stays
with the uk the republic of ireland with
the eu
the aim is to keep the border between
the two open
but although an agreement has been made
with the uk
and the eu in this withdrawal agreement
we currently have the british government
legislating to undo that now that is
breaking down trust
so you've got all this going on and at
the same time you've got the british
prime minister boris johnson
and i'm not going i'm not making this up
this is true he is self
isolating in his flat and downing street
a
second time this year because of the
corona virus
take a listen i've got to self-isolate
because somebody i was in contact with a
few days ago
has developed uh kovid and
it doesn't matter that uh we were all
doing social distancing it doesn't
matter that i'm
fitness butcher's dog feel great uh so
many people do
in my circumstances and actually it
doesn't matter that i've had the
disease and i'm bursting with antibodies
we've got to interrupt the
spread of the disease
he's bursting with antibodies i mean
that's boris johnson for you right there
i mean
this is not good timing for him we don't
want to laugh at him but
it's not great timing for the prime
minister is it no it's not great timing
as you say it's the second time he's had
to self-isolate the first time of course
he actually
got covid19 and ended up in intensive
care
in hospital was very very ill obviously
very close i mean really the clock is so
close to the end of these brexit
negotiations and he's
holed up in a flat in downing street and
of course this was supposed to be
his big reset there have been these
complete extraordinary shenanigans going
on
in downing street over the past few days
pitting the ultra ultra brexiteers
against the brexiteers who aren't quite
so ultra including his
own fiance so what we have seen is the
man who has been
at the side of boris johnson since 2016
dominic cummings
publicly walking out of number 10
downing street carrying a box and
leaving and just before that we had had
the director of communications
doing the same thing so this was boris
johnson obviously he decided with them
in the past now saying
hey boys i'm back in control i'm the
nice guy
trust me and he can't do it right so
we've got these key brexiteers out of
downing street
you have met and interviewed many of
them including
said mr cummings and i understand that
was not a very pleasant encounter was it
no it wasn't i wasn't interviewing him i
was interviewing his
then boss another brexiteer michael gove
oh yes michael gove didn't like the
questions he walked off
three men appeared at my side two of
them i knew
one of them i didn't it was dominic
cummings who swore at me
uh using the f word and calling me
various things but i'm not alone it
turns out that
many many people have experienced this
not just journalists
but even conservative mps and i think
many had had enough
said to boris johnson he's got to go and
finally
he decided yes he's off especially
considering he's not a member of the
conservative party
could the uk be closer to securing this
elusive brexit deal with the
eu i mean the clock is ticking well some
think now that because dominic cummings
and others have gone
yes plus with joe biden in the white
house in just a couple of months time
things could be looking good for that
but what does
boris johnson want and we still don't
know the answer to that
he must know that business is going to
suffer the economy will suffer
if there is not a deal secured with the
eu on the other hand
he's got to keep those brexiteers happy
he now has
time isolating in downing street
to make up his mind yeah plenty of time
to think about what he's done and
what he may or may not do alex forrest
whiting our
brexit analyst with the inside story
thank you alex
well as alex said one of the sticking
points mentioned
fishing quotas the question is how much
access will eu fishing boats have to
british waters next year london wants
full control over its territorial waters
high drama on the high seas dw's george
matus and barbara veza report now from a
seaside village in france where brexit
has residents bracing for some choppy
waters
fresh fish from the english channel
jean-pierre sargo unloads his latest
catch in bologna
his son sebastian has been pitching in
since he was a teenager
the tiger 3 is a family fishing business
in its third generation
it was grandfather sargo who began
fishing in uk waters
and in the end it's all for him
but if brexit turns out the way they
expect
it will become complicated because there
are already
too many boats fishing in the channel
bologna is home to france's biggest
fishing port
french fishermen catch more than 200
million euros worth of fish in british
waters each year
10 times more than the uk side pulls out
of eu waters
the french would like to keep bringing
home red mullet like these
caught on the uk side of the channel
despite brexit
everything will grind to a hold here but
maybe we can still salvage something
i don't think it will be a death
sentence for bologna
but it would be a catastrophe for our
lives
for everyone here
there are no walls in the sea fishermen
like olivier le
many species are born in french waters
and move to british seas
once they've matured for centuries the
two countries have been sharing their
fish in their waters
hard to imagine that this could suddenly
come to an end
the separation line in the channel runs
right here
if there is no deal the french fishing
boats and the european fishing boats
will lose this entire zone and we will
all meet in this small area
the belgian boats the dutch and the
french
so we will then systematically overfish
and this will quickly lead to bankruptcy
that also holds true for bigger boats
the cap
noir is unloading pollock caught off the
coast of scotland
some of these fish will be sold back to
the uk meanwhile british fishermen
sell around 70 percent of their catch to
the europeans
it's a matter of taste what they don't
like
they sell to the french who are crazy
about uk court
see spider place and dover soul
we trust the british on both sides
we have to save jobs and find a solution
so we can both survive
they have the fish we have the markets
we have the internal market with a few
hundred million consumers
should we put all this into question
we've managed to work together for
decades
and decades
depend on the fishing industry if there
is no brexit free trade deal
the town's future is at stake and small
operations like jean-pierre's
would be fighting for survival after a
quick break in the harbour
he's heading back out into the channel
uk waters are only 40 minutes away
but politically britain and the eu
remain
oceans apart