Tuesday, October 24, 2017

We are at war now. Apparently.

It was an odd choice of words.  As if he was at war with someone.  Donald Tusk the former Polish prime minister, now the European Council president said the EU will be "defeated" in Brexit negotiations unless it maintains absolute unity.  "If we fail it then the negotiations will end in our defeat," he told MEPs.   

I don’t recall anyone in the UK talking in terms of victory or defeat.  Indeed, Mrs May has been saying quite the opposite.  We want a good deal that satisfies both sides.   

Mr Tusk has effectively ruled out such a position.  For him, victory seems to be the only way ahead.  Which more than ever is suggesting that, if it is indeed the EU stance, no deal will indeed be better than a bad deal for the UK.  Because a bad deal is all they want to offer to gain “victory”.   

It will be a pretty Pyrrhic victory though.  He and his elite colleagues will see their European project of a single European super state still on course.  Meanwhile the businesses and people in the countries they claim to represent will be poorer, have less democratic control and be generally in a worse place.  Just think Greece.

No comments: