On and off the boat: Dunkirk to Rosslare direct



This is our first proper family holiday in Northern Ireland post-pandemic and post-Brexit. In the past, we had usually driven to the West Midlands via the Channel Tunnel on the first day of travel, and then… https://t.co/AsJYrDLCzGfromtheheartofeurope.eu/on-the-boat-du…
twitter.com/i/web/status/1… The cost for four of us, including a cabin, is about the same as the Eurotunnel and Irish Sea crossings combined, plus you get four square meals en route. It takes precisely 24 hours (or at least, that is the schedule). Of course, to that you add travel to Dunkirk at one end, and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Let’s remember how we got here. Many Tories who supported Boris Johnson believed his assurances that he wanted to get a deal with the EU. But over the five weeks since his election, his govt has done nothing of substance to engage. (Photo-ops with Merkel and Macron don’t count.) If there had been any evidence that there were negotiations happening, it wd have been much more difficult to get MPs to block No Deal. EU also wd have supported govt narrative of positive progress in talks if the slightest reason to do so. EU wants to get this over with too.

LONG THREAD:

The #Spitzenkandidat process is in its death throes, after the other big groups in the European Parliament declined to endorse the EPP's Manfred Weber, & leaders at last week's #EUCO European Council (apart from Merkel) discarded it.

This is a Good Thing. 1/20 The Spitzenkandidaten idea was: voters elect President of European Commission by proxy, with European Parliament a sort of electoral college counting the votes for pan-EU political parties; this would democratise the system and bring voters closer to EU's leadership. 2/20

How the UK lost Brexit battle politico.eu/article/how-uk… Interesting, detailed piece by @herszenhorn and @TomMcTague. Good on chronology of UK’s failure, but I think some details are missing / slightly off. This thread details the UK’s 3 biggest strategic failures as I see it. 1/9 1) Not sufficiently emphasised in piece: UK failure to work out its own negotiating position until a YEAR after negotiations began was THE catastrophic mistake. EU tried its best to make sense of UK’s contradictory red lines because UK wouldn’t. 2/9

This is a thread about how Leavers are wrong about EU perceptions of the UK position on “No Deal”, ie leaving the EU without an agreement, and about EU27 perceptions of the UK debate as it is now. 1/20 Leavers are wrong to suggest that the UK should have been more assertive about the chance of choosing No Deal as an option, in order to get a better negotiation outcome. 2/20