But, of course, life isn’t that sweet. In reality, the EU has allowed the UK to deduct a separate rebate that it is owed from the £1.7 billion, with the effect that we are reducing our bill with our own money. Oh, some concessions have been won: we’ll have longer to pay and will do so without interest. But the victory looks pathetic when you consider the following analogy. Say A owes B £10, while B owes A £5 – which means that An overall is set to lose £5. B says to A “If you say that I don’t owe you £5, then I’ll deduct it from your £10 so that you will only pay me £5.” I’m not super hot at maths, but that still means that A loses £5 overall – as he was going to in the first place. Nothing has changed: A and the UK remain out of pocket.