In decades to come my children & grandchildren will want to know why Brexit happened and why it created the loss, waste, bureaucracy & damage it has ‘already’ started creating.
Here’s my pledge, as someone who was in Brussels then London:
I will remember it ‘all’.

#ShameOnYou I will remember the allegations of blackmail ahead of the Brexit votes in the @HouseofCommons & @UKHouseofLords , and then the intimidatory ‘staring down’ by @theresa_may in the Lords.

Yes @DKShrewsbury : UK’s share of trade with EU is decreasing; but no that doesn’t mean UK is best off outside EU - exact opposite: UK needs to access huge global markets so it needs the negotiating might of the world’s largest trade bloc (EU) now more than ever.
@AndrewCastle63 Why do so few get that the EU trade project isn’t just about people ‘inside’ the EU having access to each other’s market of 450million, but also joining forces to forge a negotiating powerhouse that can gain ‘way’ more access to global markets than smaller countries.

1/ My late father, Brian Rowntree’s (centre) letter home, from his ship #hmsindefatigable , about #VJDay
( #VJDay75 thread):
“Well, we have got a third and last surrender, after all that suspense. Censorship has been lifted this morning, so I can spread myself in this” 2/ “Rumours were driving us mental... on the morning the Japs threw in the towel, we were as usual at action stations & we had a strike out over Tokyo Bay. They came back, having knocked down six, and we cancelled our further planned strikes...

Wow. @BorisJohnson in today’s #PMQs called @Keir_Starmer ‘s question about why Johnson sat on the #RussiaReport for so long, when it stated Russia was such an immediate threat, ‘absurd’.

Absurd.

#NotMyPM Mike drop: when @BorisJohnson tries to avoid answering #RussiaReport questioning by saying @Keir_Starmer ’sat on his hands’ re Russia, Starmers replies that he was one of those involved in ‘prosecuting’ Russia in the #Litvinenko case.

1/‘Why should EU nationals get priority over people from other countries -like America or India?’ People still ask.
Because they got it ‘in return’ for something: ‘our’ right of free movement to 27 other EU countries. Brexiters might not care, but this was a ‘huge’ bonus for us 2/ EU free movement meant I could pack my bags & go study in Paris, then return - a French & UK qualified lawyer - and work there. When I fancied a career/country change, I just moved to Brussels: €800 pm salary? Sure, no problem said Belgium. No ‘minimum’ salary’ requirements

Struggling to read @FTLifeArts piece by #LouisdeBernieres for its absurdity; the worst being “It was easier for continental Europeans to compromise on democracy because they do not have the advantage of being protected..as we are..by..being an island.

google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.c… @FTLifeArts Christ, he goes on about Germany’s role in WW1 & WW2 & concludes: “in view of what has happened twice in one century, is it unnatural that some people are wary of this?”. Perhaps if you’d worked with Germans in Brussels, as I have, you’d realise how absurd and offensive that is.

Thread.
1/ Let' just 'deliver Brexit'? That's just fluff. Here's why:
Yes, the UK would 'Leave' the EU. But then nothing would change for years (transition period + multiple extensions - possibly until 2030 as that's how long a full trade deal takes to negotiate & ratify)... 2/ Except that, 'overnight' on Exit, the UK would lose 'all' its power in the EU (UK Commissioners, UK MEPs swinging votes in the European Parliament, UK govt veto in Council, etc). I worked with UK officials in Brussels: I saw our power first hand.