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Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

30 Jun, 6 tweets, 1 min read

I know a few people a bit nervous about England doing well for “jingoistic/Brexit related” reasons.

Don’t be!

The England team is a wonderful group of lads led by a socially conscious manager.

& a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship win could help align/rejoin in lots of unexpected ways….

The connection between success in sport & jingoism is more complicated than many liberals realise.

There’s a school of thought that winning a sporting event can be quite useful to defuse feelings of unhealthy nationalism as this comes from an unhealthy inferiority complex.

3/

Next point:
What would you rather have?

Patriotic feeling channelled into Rashford Southgate & co or Brexit?

Some will of course do both, but it’s a lot more difficult to sing the praises of this England team & be rightwing as Tory MPs have found out

4/

The EM is “Europe in action” a shared culture, in a shared format, where we all know each other (unlike the WCup) & play by european UEFA rules.

What could be more European than that?

5/

“Pitiful failure”, unlike some remainers believe, won’t help rejoin.

Indeed it may engender even more self pitying victimhood which - let’s be honest - was partially responsible for Brexit in 1st place.

We need to get over this if we are to have a sensible enough EU policy.

6/

& finally Southgate is the ultimate calm, decent expert.
The sort of chap we need to see us back into Europe (& whisper it EU).

Not Warnock or some “blood & guts” merchant.

So come on England
We left
We learnt from our mistake
We became successful in Europe again

🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇪🇺

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More from @nicktolhurst

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

1 Jul

+UPDATE+

UK govt “offered full compliance” on the northern Irish protocol as a quid-pro-quo to getting the EU to accept equivalence for the city of London in European financial services.

2/

What’s surprising about this is how little it’s been reported on. Perhaps journalists are worrying about calling this gambit or outcome too early…

The Telegraph did a bit on this but (as usual) put a rather unhelpful top heavy Telegraph spin on it.

telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…

3/

Whether you think this tactic good or bad or even if you disagree with the way I’ve phrased this there can be no real doubt now that, for the UK govt, it considers the deal with EU still “up for grabs”.

In other words the Brexit negotiations “are ongoing”.

Read 4 tweets

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

29 Jun

Sterling scores 4 minutes after Chris Waddell demands he be substituted.

15 minutes of glorious torture now.

Can England see this out?

They have the players, do they have the temprament?

They have!

Read 4 tweets

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

26 Jun

+UPDATE+

Understanding of UK’s position on the Irish protocol is changing in the EU.

The original view was that the UK was “playing hardball” to extract advantages & “appease domestic voter base”.

This view is now considered to have been a false reading of UK govt’s policy…

2/

Emerging EU view now is that Johnson simply doesn’t want a Northern Ireland that can extract benefits from a compromise status which gives NI advantages over restUK due to a negotiated aligned position with EU.

As this would offer a template of successful EU-UK relationship.

3/

The debate in EU has been whether UK policy was merely “tactics” playing hardball to extract your extra benefits - or a “strategy” to reach a set final objective.

Turns out neither might be true & instead a permanent awkward dysfunctional status quo may be the real aim.

Read 4 tweets

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

23 Jun

+UPDATE+

EU to grant Northern Ireland an extension on chilled meat - the “sausage war” - for 3 months.

2/

This additional grace period agreed by the EU “assumes” that UK aligns with EU food standards rules during this time.

3/

This additional grace period also “assumes” (ie stipulates) that the UK works towards ways to undertake processes & actions that will fulfil the northern Irish protocol in a “sustainable way”.

Read 4 tweets

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

21 Jun

+UPDATE+

Grouping of EU states led by France to ensure steep reduction in UK TV productions becomes EU policy.

UK TV is seen as “overrepresented” as it ran under EU content rules despite being oft internationally funded.

In future UK TV will have to have majority EU content.

2/

By European content this means programs made in the EU.

This is likely to see an increase of “British productions” made (or majority made) in the EU.

3/

There is no real need for the EU to show as much UK produced TV on its screens as say US or Australian.

Read 5 tweets

Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺

@nicktolhurst

20 Jun

+UPDATE+

A number of Conservative MPs in southern “LibDem facing” seats have already told Conservative HQ they believe their 2019 election results “won’t be repeated” as the fear of Jeremy Corbyn getting in suppressed LibDem votes at the last election.

1/

Tory MPs in these areas think Starmer is effectively copying the 1997 election strategy whereby soft Tory areas go LibDem.

While “defusing” the Brexit issue in leave voting trad. labour seats where Tory gains in midland/north are expected to melt as Tory-Brexit reality sets in.

3/

Also the logic is that the demographic/social change in places like SW London & Buckinghamshire was already going on before Brexit but that Corbyn “suppressed” this vote.

In other words quite a large number of southern leafy seats are “ready to drop” with the right strategy.

Read 6 tweets

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