Hey Presto. Three years ago, just after the referendum, the former Australian ambassador to China and to the World Trade Organisation, Geoff Raby, told us not to listen to EU negotiators until the last three weeks of any talks. Right on cue, 21 days before the deadline, a deal starts to emerge. After asserting for two years that bilateral negotiations were impossible within EU rules the Irish Prime Minister has just concluded what to all the world looks like a bilateral deal.