Thread by @StewartWood

Throughout the #Brexit negotiations, Brexiteers & Theresa May’s Government have consistently misunderstood the EU-27: their politics & their EU theology. Yesterday they doubled down on that misunderstanding.

Here are some of the ways in which the UK just doesn’t get the EU.

1/6

1. We think Germany is the only country that matters in Europe. We fetishise Berlin. We’re blind to the daily horsetrading & lowest common denominator politics of the EU. And underestimate the immense difficulty of turning the EU supertanker around on any collective position. 2/6

2. We chose Brexit, even though it will make us worse off, because we understand some things matter more than money. Yet when it comes to understanding the EU’s motives for a deal, we simply assert they need one to avoid economic damage. Perhaps contradictory, perhaps stupid. 3/6

3. We insist on reopening the Withdrawal Agreement to revisit the Irish Backstop, yet astonishingly think once Pandora’s Box is open again no other EU-27 country will want to revisit issues that they care about (fairly or otherwise) - Gibraltar, fish, money, security, etc etc 4/6

4. We have never understood EU leaders’ commitment to the integrity of the single market; how crucial it is to the EU’s conception of itself. As if trade & commerce can exist without attachment to the rules that were invented (by us) to make them possible across our continent 5/6

5. We’re dismissive/ignorant of domestic politics in the EU-27. Many EU leaders face significant challenges from populist parties angry at the EU & wanting a better deal. They fear the demonstration effect of a Brexit deal where we keep the good stuff & ditch the obligations. 6/6