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“They will now start to understand what leaving the EU really means…” I had been assured that the reason so many unfortunate lorry drivers were stranded in Kent unable to cross the Channel was that President Macron of France had closed the border for fear of a new strain of Covid. But who I am I to argue with Guy Verhofstadt, until recently the Chair of the EU’s Brexit Steering Group, who tweets,
We forgot what borders look like.
Some thought they would remain open with or without the EU.
They will now start to understand what leaving the EU really means…
In other news:
Brexit trade deal expected within hours – the Guardian.
Brexit deal now imminent – EU sources – the Irish Independent.
Brexit deal ‘done’ with Boris Johnson planning a statement tonight – the New European.
Update: Brexit deal ‘agreed,’ two senior EU diplomats tell DW – German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
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So, they put a real enthusiast in charge? That always helps.
European nations have always been willing to change the rules of the game when it suits, and the French have been particularly adept at this. I don’t blame France in some ways – that country has a right to pursue its self interest, and we should have heeded General de Gaulle’s advice many years ago and stayed clear of the whole thing. What sticks in the craw is the canting hypocrisy of those who preach liberalism, but then show their statist teeth.
Hopefully it will dawn on certain European policymakers that annoying hundreds, thousands of lorry drivers and other ordinary folk trying to earn a living is not smart. And as UK consumers switch to Australian, South African and New Zealand wines, for example, the good citizens of Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Rhone area will make their views known.
My guess: we’ve just been sold down the river.
The EU apparatchiks will have leaned across the table and said to Boris “this is what you are going to get, good and hard, every single time you fail to follow any single one of our regulations, no matter how ludicrous or irrelevant” and Boris has rolled over.
We’re fucked.
Nice Mr Farage trusted Mr Johnson in 2019. I note that in the recent list of ‘Lords’ that Mr Johnson ‘made’, there was no first creation of The Earl Farage, Viscount Thanet, Baron Buckingham.
Now we face the arduous task of hoping that some force may displace the Conservative party, gain power and pass an updated Bill of Attainder to deal with those who have betrayed the people of this country.
I have come to the view that a Corbyn victory in 2019 would have been preferable, but perhaps I am being too pessimistic.
What the P-G said.
Slightly off-topic:
He’s BACK and given full rein on YOUR BBC.
The Plandemic administrators seem to think that real people have memories like goldfish.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1278465/neil-ferguson-coronavirus-imperial-college-london-epidemiology-sage-spt
Yep; THAT Neil Ferguson.
Sorry for the random detour, but Christmas is supposed to be the season of giving, NOT what is going on, almost globally.
I imagine the “deal” will be a sellout. I may be pleasantly surprised, but that is not the way to bet.
As to Verhoftwat, he is a very nasty piece of work indeed. I can well imagine that he would have been the sort of Dutchman who welcomed the New Order of 1940, and would have done very well for himself out of it.
Mr Farage seems to think the “deal” is a good one. I have not seen the text of the agreement – and so I am not able to make any comment that would have any value.
It’s become clear to me over the last few years that Verhofstadt is basically the EU’s court jester. Nothing he says is worth paying attention to other than for a laugh. MEPs are at the very bottom of the Great Bureaucracy’s pecking order. The “Brexit Steering Group” only exists to give them the illusion that they’re helping.