Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.
Not this again. There’s no “flexibility” that Leavers would buy that EU side would offer. bbc.com/news/uk-politi…
Or should offer, for that matter. Giving up a core principle to appease a country that’s already walking out would be very bad strategy.
Sat 15 Jul 2017 · on Twitter
I’m not generally enjoying Europe being so central to UK politics, but there are lovely moments bbc.com/news/entertain…
Sat 15 Jul 2017 · on Twitter
I thought this might be an analysis of how, now A50 is triggered, cancelling Brexit is not easy. But no, just sneering and UK blinkers. twitter.com/iainmartin1/st…
If you haven’t got a pair of UK blinkers, you should. They’re passport-blue and prevent you from seeing any political argument that isn’t
based in London and occasionally Edinburgh. Optional ear muff attachments allow you block out anything that might suggest other European
countries are democracies with their own politics and politicians, rather than just pawns.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 6 July 2017. View the original thread.
The Brexit conversation seems to have settled on the idea that there’ll be a really long transition period. I seriously doubt it.
Even if the UK Gvt could get years more free movement and ECJ past their rabid wing (including press), which I think they can’t, the EU side
wants to get certainty quickly, and European Parlt has talked about three years maximum transition period. And this is best case,
if the UK doesn’t walk out or fail to reach agreement. 29 March 2019 is pretty soon.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 3 July 2017. View the original thread.
Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.
Yesterday the politicians leak “we’re planning to walk”, today the officials leak “realism breaking out”. 🙄 theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
Mon 3 Jul 2017 · on Twitter
It’s been clear for a while that the think tank concept is dead but rigor mortis might be setting in: irishtimes.com/news/politics/…
Mon 3 Jul 2017 · on Twitter
Personally, I left the UK 30 days after #euref. It was something I’d been vaguely planning for years and the referendum crystallised it.
I haven’t regretted it for a moment. I’m half English half Polish, my kids are English-Polish-Swiss-Belgian mongrels. We’re happy here.
Also, as someone who works on democracy, Europe is an interesting and important to be in the next few years. In the words of Tom Paine
(the internationalist after whom my son, 15 today, is named) “we have it in our power to begin the world over again”. 🇪🇺
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 23 June 2017. View the original thread.
So the big and generous offer (speaking as someone who is directly affected by it) is incomplete and ungenerous. theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
Nothing at all here that is better for me than what the EU are suggesting. I’ll take that. Your immigration paranoia isn’t worth my rights.
This is going to create a lot of pain and uncertainty for Brits abroad. Sadly that will get more attention than same for Poles in UK.
But hey. Whatever it takes to get people to realise how their choice has real human interest.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 22 June 2017. View the original thread.
(1) they wouldn’t be
(2) it won’t be twitter.com/alaindebotton/…
The two things the EU side have to get at the end are “being out has to be worse than being in”, and “four freedoms are indivisible”.
There have an enormous negotiating advantage. Absolutely no need for them to concede on such major points.
And if they did (which they won’t) would the Tories really accept all the duties of EU membership with no say (plus an immigration brake
that would probably be virtually unusable, if other EEA models are followed). Seems unlikely to me, even if they were truly desperate.
Originally posted as a thread of 5 tweets on Twitter on 22 June 2017. View the original thread.
Brexit negotiations are not war. EU are not enemies. The EU has been one of the pillars of peace in Europe. Quit the jingoistic bullshit.
Nothing makes me more ashamed of my British passport than this “fight them on the beaches” crap from tissue-soft political journalists.
It reinforces the idea that Britain is wallowing in some half-remembered gin-soaked Simla imperialism. We look mad. But worse,
We look tacky and thoughtless. I don’t think Brexit can be a success but it can at least not be a national embarrassment.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 19 June 2017. View the original thread.
Just one poll, but it’s hard to see Brexit getting more popular … or politicians being brave enough to turn away. twitter.com/simon_nixon/st…
There’s a lot of fantasy about how we can “go back and get concessions greater than Cameron” and then stay in. We can’t. We can withdraw A50
but we need agreement and would probably have to give up things not get more concessions. EU won’t let – shouldn’t let – Britain’s emotional
spasm bring (what UK press wd call) benefits. Would weaken EU and give boost to populist cause just when it is being shown up as empty.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 18 June 2017. View the original thread.
Would not be a surprise. It’s an argument they literally couldn’t win. I’m increasingly thinking, like @GuitarMoog, that blow-up is the plan twitter.com/davidallengree…
@GuitarMoog That they looked at the practicalities, thought “shit, we can’t do that”, and faced with a choice of “compromise/back down” and
@GuitarMoog “Collapse talks and blame evil Europeans for everything”, they went with the latter. Hope I’m wrong. Hope if I’m right the blame is on them.
Originally posted as a thread of 3 tweets on Twitter on 17 June 2017. View the original thread.