The UK is supposed to leave the EU finally and definitively at the end of this year and as each week some deadline is being set only to be ignored/postponed again, it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I will not pretend to be very well informed on the negotiations and everything with them, but I would like to shortly muse about one phenomenon that I see online.
Before and after the vote for Brexit, the Brexiteers with Farage, Rees-Mogg, Johnson and similar upper-class twits were all saying how easy it will be to close a comprehensive trade deal with EU and how after being freed from the EU restrictions they will be able to also negotiate much, much, much better deals with everyone else. After all, the UK is the fifth-largest economy in the world and the EU needs the UK much more than vice versa, so negotiations will be easy because the UK holds the longer end of the stick, etc. And even if no-deal happens, no biggie, cuz everyone else will clamor to fill the gap in business with the EU.
So far the UK has closed several trade deals with other countries, and most of them are just copy-pasted trade deals that those countries have with the EU. The trade deal with Japan is worse (for the UK) than the one the EU has. And the trade deal with the EU does not go so well so far. In fact, it seems that hard Brexit is creeping ever closer.
And the rhetoric of online brexiteer experts is suddenly concentrated on how the EU bullies the UK and tries to punish it for leaving. The EU is the bad guy, of course, refusing to back down and give the UK everything it wants. To which I would say – so what?
Those brexiteers who will inevitably blame the EU for any negatives that befall the UK due to this mess seem to me to fail to grasp a blatant contradiction in their own reasoning. Not only in claiming that the UK is bullied by someone who, supposedly, was supposed to have a weaker negotiating position. But also they are often hardline libertarian capitalists, for whom negotiating from the position of power with the intent of screwing the other party completely over is a good thing. So by their own logic, even if the EU is the bully (which I do not think it is) and is just trying to screw the UK over to teach it a lesson (which I do not think it is) they should just admire the business acumen and negotiating strength of the EU instead of whining how persecuted they are, shouldn’t they?
It looks like the British Brexiteers do show here one common characteristic of conservatives the world over. They fire the sweepers, then the drop banana peels on the floor willy-nilly and when they inevitably slip and fall flat on their arse, they blame everyone else.
And now the evil EU states have done what Brexiteers claimed they couldn’t do and closed their borders.
To Brits because of a novel Covid variant*
I only know that I will throw some money at evil Amazon and order more Whiskey
Nothing to say except I hope the drugs get through. Oh I suppose there is a tiny amount of satisfaction to be had in the Tories discovering that the rest of the world is in no hurry to do them any favours, but it is entirely overshadowed by tthe incredible amount of damage being done to the UK and to our relations with the rest of the world.
Signed “Depressed” from the UK.
re Giliell @1: Wait . . . you can order liquor through Amazon? FUCK MAN!!! I have been risking my life to get resupplied every couple of weeks by actually going to the ABC store!!
That actually made me chuckle out loud. Well said, Charly.
Maybe someone should explain to them what “negotiation” means. It’s as if they’re surprised that the EU would have demands of their own.
I remember the first time they started crying when they discovered that leaving the EU would have consequences. It was when the EU announced that they would relocate their agencies based on the UK, taking thousands of jobs directly and indirectly with them. The UK thought that was petty and very unfair.
Then there was the wailing at the discovery that UK tourists would have to pay a visa fee and go through customs. Who’d have guessed?
And the deep shock at discovering that rich British pensioners could no longer stay all winter in their second home in France or Spain.
Then they decide that any parts of the treaty they don’t like will be ignored, but are very hurt when not just the EU no longer sees them as honest people negotiating in good faith.
Now they’re telling the UK population they will be fine, because a chippy butt is a nourishing meal. I hope you all like sauerkraut, because that could prevent you from having serious malnutrition.
It would be funny, watching from the outside, but a small rainy island trying to feed 50 million people or so by itself is only funny in video games.
@Johnson Catman
In Germany you can. I think I had to verify my age once.
The Leave people are not completely incorrect that the EU is trying to pressure them into what they consider a disadvantageous deal. But the one part that they are complaining about is small, 100 million or so a year of the British economy (that is the bit they are talking about, the fishing industry itself is about 1.5 billion/year), and the only reason neither side is giving in is purely prestigious. Both GB and France promised to save their fishing industry.
The Brits want to take most of the quotas in their waters back. The French basically want to be able to keep fishing like they’ve been doing while GB was still in the EU. And the French have said they will veto any agreement that they do not like. The best the EU has offered is a 25% reduction while the British don’t want to go below 1/3 with higher reductions for select species.
And he EU negotiator cannot go higher (thanks to that French veto) unless they get some serious concessions from the British on other terrains. So the only thing left it to use a stick to get those concessions either on the fishing quotas or somewhere else.
All that said it does not excuse the Leave camp of having the typical problem populist conmen always run into: we won but we didn’t plan for that.
Well it’s done, and the French won on fish (yay!), but it’s a pathetic wimp of a deal, though of course Boris is selling it as a fantastic achievement. He’ hauling the MPs and Loords back to vote on it on Wednesday, they’ll be voting on hot air as they’ll not have time to read the thing preoperly, certainly not work out its likely results. Keir Starmer is intending to three-line whip Labour MPs to vote for the treaty because they lost 50 odd leave voting seats to the Tories at the last election. Business as usal -- tht is all fucked up.