Monday, December 18, 2017

The word for today is extortion, EU negotiator Michel Barnier warns the UK that we must 'face the consequences' of Brexit, and he rules out striking a unique deal in the trade talks, guess what, if it turns out to be ‘hard’ Brexit and Barnier doesn’t get a deal, I doubt his political future will be glorious

























Dear All

When it comes to Brexit, my position is to favour hard Brexit because it is becoming crystal clear that there is no such thing as goodwill coming from the EU. According to
EU negotiator Michel Barnier, Britain must 'face the consequences' of Brexit.

I think the word that sums up the attitude from Brussels is extortion!

Extortion is defined as the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats, the EU wants their cake and eat it so it seems, and we aren’t getting a unique deal in the trade talks, we can have what they give us.

So, why waste the time, prolong the agony, save the plane fares and say thanks but no thanks, Michel Barnier said the EU would accept Britain's desire to quit the single market, they would ‘accept’, hilarious, they aren’t getting a choice, as to be pressured into accepting one of a small number of existing models, if that doesn’t meet our needs then we should just refuse.

No is a powerful word, and it is time the UK Government made full use of it in these talks, we aren’t some backwater economy, we are the fifth largest in the world, people and countries want our goods, services and people. 

EU negotiator Michel Barnier can make as many repeated warnings there would be no 'cherry picking' but the truth is the EU needs a deal with the UK more than we need a deal with them.

Money in this case really talks. 

One thing which Barnier hasn’t fully grasped is the concept that unless the UK is happy, there will be no deal and no deal means no £39 bn or whatever the divorce bill runs to. EU negotiator Michel Barnier seems to me to be lazy, which is why he wants Britain to choose between one of two broad models that already exist, based on how Norway and Canada work with the EU.

Norway accepts almost all EU single market rules and in return gets free access to EU markets; on the other hand, Canada has less access but much more freedom over how it regulates business. David Davis says he favours a 'Canada plus plus plus' deal so Barnier is under pressure to deliver, if there is no deal, then the cushion of £39bn isn’t there for the EU. Britain makes up 20% of the EU, and the EU is now forced to reform or others have to make up the short fall, with Angela Merkel facing problems domestically at home, can she want to face an angry German public with a huge extra bill?

I personally doubt it; her career is rather shaky at present as election results show all too graphically. All the way through these talks the public have only gotten snippets of what is going on, it seems everything is hush hush, but at some stage, everything will have to be shown to the public.

The public voted for Brexit, we expect as an aside not to be ripped off, we can see how trade done properly can be mutually benefit both the EU and the UK, but we aren’t going to be held to ransom by unreasonable demands, the EU has shown its hand, it is holding a bluff pretending they have a royal flush, well the bluff is going to be called, at that point there are going to be several very and deeply unhappy Europeans in the room.

Finally in times like these with Europe in a mess socially and politically, we are doing the right thing by leaving the EU, Europe is heading for a dark place, the signs are clearly there, their direction of travel is wrong and conflict will eventually come whether that is a new cold war with Russia and/or the domestic variety which is why there the creation of an EU army.


These people are playing a stupid and dangerous game.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

4 comments:

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

Sod the EU. They're not the Empire from Star Wars, they're Red Dwarf and Angela Merkel is Arnold J Rimmer. They ballsed it up, so THEY should face the consequences. As I've said before, we really need to make this work despite the whinging from my fellow remainers (STILL publishing public opinions on Brexit over a year after the vote). Accept the result, get over it, move on. Michael Howard said in that Brexit movie before the vote that we needed to 'have a bit of self-confidence', well we really need it now, and have to tell the EU to fuck off, to stop them shafting us. Make it work. That's what's important. I mean, I care about the peace and prosperity of the people of the UK, I care about peace and prosperity of those in continental Europe. I don't give a shit about the EU.

Jessica Reade said...

There should be a royal version of the Apprentice. It would be fun to see the royals working at the different tasks, and it would do wonders for the profile and image of the Family which has taken a few knocks over the past few years from a concentrated group of begrugers, communists and nationalists.

Come on BBC, you can do it!

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you're aware of it George, there's a petition to the effect sod the pussyfooting, bin article 50 and get out the EU asap. It runs until March and it's very interesting to me that the parts of Scotland with the greatest number of signatures are those that still have a fishing industry.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200165

Louis.

Anonymous said...

I’m old enough to remember before we joined the EU. We once had industry, we once had giant factories, and virtually nobody was long-term unemployed. The say the 1970s were bad but I was around during the 70s and believe me, as a working guy, the 70s were a lot better than the 80s or 90s. We had a good NHS, no food banks and heroin addicts were a black American problem. We had our British/Scottish customs, our religions, and our institutions. Our harbours were full of fishing boats. Most of our pubs and clubs have closed. Now today it’s virtually a crime to argue against anything they might like. Our political class including our trade union movement are rotten and corrupt. Our police are now armed to the teeth. Our prisons are over flowing. They have hate laws that make sure there is virtually no resistance. I'm surprised they haven't closed this blog down. The quicker we get out of Europe the better because if we don’t. Whatever is left of Britain/Scotland will disappear.