Key phrase: ‘don’t deliver on previous UK commitments’. When history of this grotesque saga is written, one conclusion will leap out: UK sacrificed all goodwill, credibility and trust.
Our ‘friends’ know us pretty well by now. If we can shaft them, we will. But not this time.
Our ‘friends’ know us pretty well by now. If we can shaft them, we will. But not this time.
Officials have told me that if UK had been seen as more trustworthy, EU27’s approach might have been more relaxed. Britain wouldn’t have had to be dragged kicking and screaming from backstop to withdrawal deal like this. Sadly, our reputation precedes us. Gov’s out of luck.
Instead, UK gov confirmed the old stereotypes. Tried to divide and rule and play member states off against each other; made commitments to Ireland without ever explaining how it would deliver them; and assumed that because we believed in our exceptionalism, so would EU. Alas, no.
UK has never understood weakness of its position. Perhaps truth was too shocking to compute. We assumed Commission would buckle. It didn’t. That member states would rush to help us. They didn’t. Other states value their own interests over ours. And now they’ve taken back control.
