All this talk of Brexit being a cliff edge for Britain ignores the other side of the coin, it is a funding cliff edge for the EU. Excluding Germany, Britain’s contribution is more than the total net contribution of the 26 other EU states combined. Guido will repeat this: add up the debits and credits of every member state from France to Poland bar Germany and it comes to a figure less than Britain’s EU contribution. Britain’s exit will be a massive budget hit to the EU…

Guido has been saying since the referendum that this will be the year world opinion will shift from “What the hell have the Brits done?” to “The EU is in trouble without Britain.” Mark Carney said similar yesterday. When negotiating it will be important to remind them that a bad deal or no deal could see the UK stop the flow of pounds immediately. That is the EU’s budgetary cliff edge…