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    It’s a bigger influence on May than any troublesome facts. Like her Evil Idiot wing of about 40 MPs and half the cabinet and the fucking DUP, she has to factor their madness into the negotiations. Hence it all going swimmingly.

    Comment


      Here's the Brexit bit. There's also some idiocy about sex education and "milking anti-US sentiment".

      Eurocrats behave like pre-programmed Twitterbots when it comes to Brexit. Anything said by a British politician is dismissed as a wishful fantasy. The UK wants the closest relationship with the EU? “Stop cherry-picking!” It will continue to support its allies in security and intelligence sharing? “Get your head out of the sand!” It promises not to erect a physical border in Ireland? “Having your cake and eating it, eh?”

      Whatever Theresa May had said on Friday, the reaction in Brussels was going to be the same. Sure enough, it came almost before she had sat down.

      Here, for example, is the leader of the biggest group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber: “After what I have heard today, I am even more concerned. I don’t see how we could reach an agreement on Brexit if the UK Government continues to bury its head in the sand like this.”

      There speaks the authentic voice of those who want a surrender, not a deal.

      The pattern was set early on. A year ago, when an account of Mrs May’s dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker in Downing Street was leaked by his side to the German press, it was already clear that she was the one pressing for cordial relations, while he insisted that Britain must suffer.

      There is something almost hilariously misplaced about the Labour/SNP/Lib Dem claim that the Government is set on “an ideological hard Brexit”. Although it hasn’t suited Mrs May to correct her opponents in public, the fact is that she, three quarters of her Cabinet and two thirds of her MPs campaigned to stay in the European Union. In every public utterance, she has emphasised that she sees Britain as the EU’s “best friend and closest ally”. The people insisting on a more distant deal are the Brussels functionaries who cheered when Donald Tusk declared that the choice was between hard Brexit and no Brexit.

      Aye, there’s the rub. Many Eurocrats aim to make Brexit difficult and disagreeable in the hope that Mrs May will somehow drop the whole idea.

      If you’re reading this column in Britain, that may strike you as preposterous, but think of it from an EU perspective. Brussels rarely lets referendums stand in the way of deeper integration. In Denmark and in Ireland (twice), people were forced to vote again. In France and the Netherlands, they were simply ignored.

      British Remainers continue to shuttle over to Brussels to discuss ways of sidestepping the result. I bumped into Nick Clegg in a corridor last month.

      “Hello, Cleggie, what brings you back here?”

      “Sabotage!”

      “Right, yes, ha ha.”

      “No, I mean it. We’re going to stop this thing, you just watch”.

      In fairness, the former Lib Dem leader is hardly hiding his motives. He has written a book called How to Stop Brexit.

      Labour displays no such candour, but the only way to make sense of its policies – staying in the customs union would be the worst of all possible worlds – is as an attempt to frustrate the whole business.

      I had assumed that, by now, the two sides would be thrashing out a deal based on their respective self-interests. We are forever being told that the EU is our biggest market, but the reverse is also true. Neither side should want to impoverish, let alone interdict, its chief customers.

      The outlines of a mutually advantageous outcome were clear from the outset, and were repeated by the Prime Minister this week: Britain wants to be as close to the EU as a fully sovereign country can be; to remain as a non-voting member in some common initiatives, paying its share of the costs; and to secure the deepest trade deal in history, based on the unique fact that the two parties begin with regulatory equivalence.

      Michel Barnier occasionally talks of Britain having a simple third-country arrangement with the EU, like South Korea. But we are being treated here like North Korea – that is, as a likely enemy.

      Although most of the EU’s member states want a good deal, they are not drafting the documents. As so often happens, Brussels officials have exploited advantages of time and place to seize control of the process.

      The 27 governments may yet assert themselves, but Britain should not rely on it. The time has come for us to prepare for a skeleton deal, covering only the most basic accords that the EU has with all third countries, on aviation, extradition, exchange of information and the like. In the meantime, we should be streamlining our tax and welfare systems, raising productivity and looking to build on our country’s extraordinary record of attracting inward investment.

      As long as Brussels, encouraged by British Europhiles, believes that Brexit can be reversed, it won’t talk terms. Both Yanis Varoufakis and David Cameron found out what happens when you negotiate with partners who believe you won’t walk away. For Heaven’s sake, let’s not repeat their mistake.

      Industrialised farming, dislike of trade and, in the last analysis, dislike of the idea that Britain might prosper after leaving the EU. What an unedifying blend of motives.

      Comment


        Liam Halligan's in the bunker with Hannan at the Telegraph. "Brussels" is rejecting "common sense solutions", apparently.

        Comment


          Another spin on Brexit via the Torygraph...

          https://twitter.com/FeargalDalton/st...346032640?s=19



          And from the LRB.
          https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n05/willia...are-they-after
          Last edited by Dav O'Roso; 04-03-2018, 19:57.

          Comment


            Thanks for that Ursus. So Hannan's plan is to pretend that michel Barnier's helpful diagram didn't exist, and though there are three states other than Single market membership, customs union membership, and something like Canada.

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              This independent outward looking trading nation thing is going swimmingly

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                Can you cut and paste, GY? Something about Open Skies.

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                  Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                  Thanks for that Ursus. So Hannan's plan is to pretend that michel Barnier's helpful diagram didn't exist, and though there are three states other than Single market membership, customs union membership, and something like Canada.
                  Whatever anybody tries to saywhat it is, Hannan and all say it isn't.

                  Comment


                    Basically the US is telling the UK to get fucked, because none of its major airlines are (or will be) owned by Brits. In part because, if they were, they'd lose access to the EU. But don't worry, we've got an ace in our sleeve - we can offer the US access to the British Virgin Islands!

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                      Cheers.

                      Varadkar is being quite nice to us, refusing a meeting. If I was him, I'd arrange have May come to my office in Dublin, swing round in my swivel chair as she comes in and say "Shoot!" Then laugh.

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                        Tubby, just paste the title of the article into your search bar, and you can get around the paywall that way.

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                          Cheers, that worked.

                          So how many more "Yep, delighted to keep up our close relations. But there is just this one thing...." negotiations have we got to go?

                          The Department of International Development could be an interesting place to be. I'm almost glad the Brexit liar, Penny Mordaunt, is there.

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                            Oh my fucking Christ. Thickest man to lead a political party.

                            https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/970691786699091968

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                              He has a point. The metaphor should be "You can't eat your cake and have it"...

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                                Ha ha.

                                In other news

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                                  For someone called Liam Halligan, he certainly looks like he came straight out of English Tory Cunt central casting.

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                                    Till he started on his Iranian populist leader style beard, hard right fuckbag Minister Eoghan Murphy was the most rugger bugger Brit Tory looking man in the Dail. Perfectly representing his constituency I suppose.

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                                      And as for what he sounds like......

                                      There is very little about Liam Halligan's picture to suggest that he is 48 years old.

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                                        Aw man. That accent. Bools in the mooth, as the Scots say. It’s my problem and class prejudice, I hate just about every posh accent I’ve ever heard, but fucking D4 drawls man, poison. I’d say Liam likes his food and drink judging by the pic. Somehow looks like a chubby 14 year old and a Proto gammon simultaneously. Looks about as well for his years as master contrarian dipso Ian Doherty.

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                                          He might look like he hasn't been legal behind the wheel for 15 years now, but Ian won't let that get in the way of punching down at every single opportunity.
                                          Last edited by The Awesome Berbaslug!!!; 05-03-2018, 19:38.

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                                            Surely the person tagged in this tweet is aware of this, and for once is at a loss how to respond.

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                                              @DanielJHannan
                                              Follow Follow @DanielJHannan
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                                              Both Canada and Norway are better off than they would be as EU members. Either deal - or something in between - would be better than where we are now. What we can’t accept is the rights of Canada plus the obligations of Norway.
                                              Which is odd because I thought that obligations and rights of Norway was on the table from the start, but we thought it was unacceptable.

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                                                Hannan being disingenuous? I'm shocked!

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                                                  Both Canada and Norway are better off than they would be as EU members.

                                                  Or indeed members of the Organization of African Unity, which is just as relevant in Canada's case.
                                                  Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 05-03-2018, 21:24.

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                                                    I’d bite Hannan’s hand off for the Norway deal. Except that still won’t solve The Irish Question.

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