Craiglxviii
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Well if you approached it like these suggestions, I'm surprised you are employed. Personally, I just either got told to "go and sort it out" or had just had to do it off my own bat. There are times for tough talking and even threats but the time is emphatically not before you've even started the process.
Some, I did. Some, I didn't. Situation- dependent every time. Exactly twice I've had ministerial- level political oversight on procurement projects that I've managed and one of those times had the same type of initial extreme position, tough talking stance that we see here. Both times things got crazy though. But this kind of talk really doesn't surprise me.
Remember, this is high diplomacy being played here. Negotiations are all very well and good but first one has to set the political bounds for those negotiations to be carried out in. Witness Trump and his Mexican wall, or his threats to Boeing. Same thing as Brexit just on a different scale. Threaten, take an extreme position, then meet your opponent a little more towards his position and walk away with a better result than would otherwise have been the case had it been played nicely nicely.
By the way, I'm good at my job. Ask John Laidlaw, we only just discovered that he and I sat on opposite sides of the negotiating table on several occasions...