The Brexit Betrayal is taking shape right in front of our eyes. It’s not just that the EU has again rejected the proposals in the papers produced by the UK government and presented by the Brexit Minister Steve Barclay to M Barnier yesterday. Far worse: there’s actual treachery afoot, both from the EU and Johnson.
First, let’s look at the EU leak. Non-paywalled reports are here and here, paywalled ones are here and here. We may well rub our eyes and wonder what was going on: didn’t we read only yesterday that Mr Juncker was not “erotically attached” to the Backstop, that M Barnier and Mr Barcaly were meeting to talk about those papers which were certainly deemed acceptable when Mr Frost, Johnson’s Olly-Robbins replacement, presented them? Is it possible that Mr Barclay was somehow bamboozled by Barnier when he said:
“On Friday Britain’s Brexit negotiator Stephen Barclay on Friday expressed optimism on reaching a Brexit deal with the European Union after he met the EU top negotiator Michel Barnier.” (link)
Perhaps M Barnier speaks ‘with forked tongue’? Perhaps he and Juncker have their strings pulled by the equivalent of EU ‘mandarins’? Perhaps, given the other Brexit Betrayal news below, Mr Barclay is just going through the motions? This report in The Times is interesting as it was published before or just as that leak story broke:
“Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead negotiator, and Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, met today in Brussels for talks before critical meetings between the prime minister and European leaders in New York next week. “We had serious detailed discussions,” Mr Barclay said after talks that lasted 20 minutes longer than the scheduled one hour meeting. “The meeting actually overran, which I think signals the fact that we were getting into the detail. There is a common purpose both in Dublin, in London and here in Brussels to see a deal over the line.” (link, paywalled)
What happened next was that ‘EU Officials’ leaked their assessment which they had sent to the 27 member state ambassadors:
“Brussels last night moved to rubbish Boris Johnson’s Brexit proposals before they have even got off the ground. In what will be seen in Westminster as a hostile act, EU officials leaked a withering assessment of new British proposals to replace the controversial Irish backstop. UK sources last night dismissed the assessment. But the decision to leak the document, which was circulated to ambassadors from the other 27 EU countries, will be seen as an attempt by European Commission hardliners to undermine talks which have been gathering momentum. The EU memo dismissed the UK’s latest proposals, saying they did not provide a ‘legally operational’ alternative.” (link)
There is that new EU expression which was first used in the Luxembourg communique on Monday: “legally operational”! It’s odd that it’s being used without comment or explanation, right across the board, by our government and of course by our MSM.
The following quote seems to indicate that our government, for whatever reason, is playing down this leak:
“EU leaders received the backstop plans on Wednesday. While the documents are not legally operable, Downing Street said it intended for them to be a springboard for talks. […] Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said after receiving them: “It is the basis of a deal. It is the starting and the arrival point.” However, just over 24 hours later, the EU leaked the critical memo, which said: “Such concepts fall short of satisfying all the objectives of the backstop.” Officials were also cited as describing the proposals as a “backward step” and “totally insane”. On Friday night Downing Street said the EU’s leak was “par for the course” […] The leak follows previous comments that the UK was not sharing papers because “the minute you share anything, you’re literally firing it to 27 capitals”. (paywalled link)
And lo and behold – EU officials leaked papers ….! In a fulminant editorial, the DT writes:
“Is the EU serious about finding a solution to the Northern Ireland backstop problem or not? They keep saying that they are open to new ideas but every time Britain offers some, they are thrown back in our face.”(paywalled link)
Yes, well – glad you noticed that! We’ve noticed that some time ago. It’s the EU way of stopping Brexit. They couldn’t have been clear about it. More:
“In Brussels, the backstop is obviously seen as the wheel upon which to break Brexit. The EU’s demands are thus as unreasonable as possible, and its behaviour as impolitic as it can be, precisely so that Britain will surrender to the logic that this just can’t be done. The EU bangs on about its commitment to the integrity of the single market: Britain is right to hammer away at its commitment to the integrity of the United Kingdom. We are not the ones who want to create problems, and the EU’s bureaucratic fanaticism is a reminder of why we voted to leave.” (paywalled link)
Good to know that some in our Remain MSM swamp finally acknowledge what the EU ‘negotiations’ were all about. We have known this at least since Chequers.
However, while we might look at those EU leaks and arguments as nothing new, par for the course, there’s serious treachery afoot. One is home-made, the other EU-made.
Some Labour MPs had visited M Barnier on Thursday. He saw them before he met with Mr Barclay. Now we read in the following quote how they have been aiding and abetting the EU in their hard-core stance. If it doesn’t make your blood boil when you read the following I don’t know what will:
“The MPs said Mr Barnier had been interested in the “parliamentary arithmetic” of what it would take to get a deal through and the potential stumbling blocks that might prevent them backing a Johnson agreement.” (link, paywalled)
Translated this means M Barnier received insider information and knows what and how much to concede to get the May deal through the HoC, with the help of the Remain Harlots.
It gets worse. Here’s proof that Johnson is preparing to present that May WA to the HoC, cosmetically tarted up, as we’ve been suspecting all along:
“Eurosceptic Tory MPs who refuse to back a new Brexit deal face being kicked out, the Daily Mail understands. Amid rising hopes of a deal, close allies of Boris Johnson are drawing up detailed plans for a Commons showdown at the end of next month. They say the Prime Minister is prepared to take the whip away from any Brexiteer ‘Spartans’ who refuse to fall in line.” (link)
It’s just a game of numbers for them, with the aim of having Johnson look like the ‘Brexit Deliverer’, no matter that this delivery is the Brexit Betrayal:
“Tory whips believe that the hardline strategy, coupled with possible support from Labour MPs who have voiced regret at their failure to back Theresa May’s deal, could be enough for Mr Johnson to push a deal through Parliament next month. […] But a number of other key figures, including ERG chairman Steve Baker, his deputy Mark Francois and the veteran Eurosceptic Bill Cash, have indicated they would vote against the Withdrawal Agreement even if the PM succeeded in stripping out the controversial Irish backstop.[…] Tory sources said that the votes on any Brexit deal next month could also provide a route back for the 21 Remainer MPs who were suspended. […] A string of senior Tories, including Theresa May, have urged Mr Johnson to allow the rebel MPs to return to the fold.” (link)
This then is what an ‘operational’ Brexit Betrayal looks like. I’m afraid it has a good chance of coming to pass. All the ‘negotiations’, the EU leaks, the ongoing rejections of anything which might get us Out, which will deliver what we voted for: just smoke and mirrors!
Yet another UK PM will be coming back from Europe with a white paper in his hand, declaring not ‘peace in our time’ but ’Brexit in our time’. There are too many Remain Harlots around to make this Brexit Betrayal possible. There are too many soft-core Brexiteers around who have become too tired to keep on fighting.
Barnier knows exactly how far he can go, thanks to the Remain traitors in the HoC, to achieve our eternal vassalage. Johnson and his supporters know how to play their numbers game to look as if he’s ‘delivered Brexit’ when he has done no such thing.
Apologies to all atheists and agnostics, but there’s this warning in the Bible: ‘put not your trust in princes’. Do we now put our trust in Johnson, the ‘Brexit Prince’, or indeed the ERG ‘Spartans’, who have been very quiet these past weeks? I think not!
Apologies for spoiling your weekend, but there it is, as we suspected: the Great Brexit Betrayal is underway. At least we’ve been forewarned …
KBO!
Hope xantilor is right. Boris certainly acts churchillian in his speeches. I expected him to say the aside of don’t know what we’ll fight them with in the Commons speech.
When we have an election, and the country will not function without one soon, I will be holding my nose and voting for the Brexit organisation. I am furious.
“Always look on the bright side of life” they sang in The Life of Brian.
My moto too. Gloom may be all around us on this side of the pond but
read this from the other side.
https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/edging-closer-to-a-brexit-deal-might-even-be-a-fair-one-6HRkSQ66K0-mAzwSrJZUJw/
Sounds as if you-all were just not listening to the greatest straight-talker of them all – our Nigel – he has been forecasting this scenario for many a long day – but, were you actually listening! A decided NO! Eliminate the manufactured spectre of the backstop – re-introduce the May agreement AND? Bob’s your uncle, we stay in and become that ‘Vassal State’ we were promised – Toodle-pip!
Thank God I am old enough not to worry about the coming conflagration, degradation, and subjugation.
Frankly I simply don’t believe that this ‘quagmire and culturally degraded’ country is really worth saving………..
Nigel was not the only one forecasting the present apparent sell out. Many on here including myself pointed out the likelihood of this happening on Boris’s accession, given that he and JR-M had already voted for the WA3. I’m sorry that you feel this country and it’s people are not worth saving, but the fact is that we have been under an onslaught of traitorous “elites” who have done nothing but lie and cheat us out of our democracy to an extent that we could never have imagined in 2016.
I for one am not giving up.
Well, we know that Johnson voted for May’s Surrender Treaty and, when he got the top job, said it was a million to one chance that we would be leaving with no deal so, contrary to what you say, we didn’t need to listen very hard to realize what was coming.
Unfortunately, as yet, we haven’t been able to do anything about it and neither has “straight talking” Nigel but, when the Tories are annihilated at the next Election, hopefully it won’t be too late to put things right.
misterpaul5a – You’ve said this before about our country. It’s not our country that you should be denigrating. It’s the people running it. To speak of our country as somehow to blame for all this is outrageous. You should show some loyalty and choose your words more carefully.
I, for one, am proud and loyal to our country. I wish the best for it and I acknowledge that we must fight for it, and not be defeated by those who would ‘degrade’ it, and speak defeatist words like yours, maundering on about our country being ‘worth saving’. If you feel like that, then you should leave. We can do without naysayers.
Our precious country IS ‘worth saving’ – the people who are running it are NOT.
Good to know what’s on Juncker’s mind, namely “erotic attachments”. So he does have a hobby other than drinking after all, and drinking places are not the only places of questionable repute he visits, it seems.
This all sounds very plausible, but for one thing: Boris Johnson’s ambition. He wants to be a great Prime Minister. He wants to be Churchill, not Chamberlain. Is his judgment really so poor that he thinks a May-type pay-to-surrender treaty will achieve this?
I’m hoping these negotiations are a stalking horse for the real plan, to get us out with no deal.
Perhaps I am being naive.
Xantilor – I hope not. I’ve often thought the same. BJ knows his history. He knows what disgust would await him if he fails – and he doesn’t seem the sort to be ‘bought’ or the sort who would relish being seen as a collaborator. Let’s hope. It’s better than despair. Our country deserves better than that – our giving up on it just when it needs our support.
It is following a familiar pattern for disentanglement from colonial rule.
1. Brexit is now accepted by both sides.
2. Local hardliners and both side are being faced down.
3. The withdrawal of colonial power is being organised.
4. Power, wealth, and influence will have to be withdrawn from those who benefited from collaborating with the colonial power. That is where a “civil war” takes place,
5. A separation treaty is only as good as an independent country will allow in accepting the residue of colonial influence after independence. Changes in the power structure should not be dragged out e.g. South Africa and Zimbabwe where colonial rule ended but little change took place.
Edward it is difficult to say what’s actually going on but regarding SA and Zim I think it could be argued that one colonial power (GB) was/is being replaced by another, the Chinese Communist Party.
One old Etonian underestmated the determination to cast off the EU yolk, will another one make the same mistake?
Thank goodness for the Farage backstop.
They might have well have left May in charge and just removed the Backstop at the last knockings to get the vote through. I guess the Kabuki theatre these worms are playing out required a better pantomime villain for the final act.
Exactly right. The difference between Bliar Mk III and Bliar Mk IV is that Bliar Mk IV (i.e. the blonde one) is more likeable and a better actor.
This doesn’t surprise me, I’ve long suspected that what we’re watching is a pantomime public entertainment and distraction, it wasn’t just Theresa May that was collaborating. My feeling is that Brexit and any agreements that we will have with the EU, a BRINO if even that, was negotiated long ago and this pantomime is just an attempt to keep the democracy illusion alive for a while longer and perhaps give the Tories some credibility at the next election.
The EU obviously know something that we hoi polloi do not. We may as well regard the Supreme Court, created by Blair as an EU institution and I’m not expecting good news from there next week and I suspect neither is Boris Johnson who knows full well what to expect. This set up has the fingerprints of Blair and Mandelson all over it.
We’re being set up to be fobbed of with a BRINO or just a token Brexit that’ll leave the way open for us to be sucked back into the EU in the not too distant future, albeit on very subservient terms. This really is a farce.
Only very drastic action will save us now, I’m not going to say what, perhaps you can work it out. Just bear in mind that you really are in a dire situation, the EU are about to achieve what Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler could not.
I fear you may be right, Flyer. I’d prefer to believe that BJ is honourable and that he wishes his legacy to be that of saviour of the EU. But this all looks fabricated so as to be an excuse for him to say ”Well, I tried” and then he can walk away with his reward, whatever that is. It is becoming obvious that the EU is more powerful than we thought – a ‘trading bloc’ my foot! – and wishes to keep us tethered as its cash cow. Remainers still think we’re a ‘partner’! After all the evidence, they still believe it’s a force for good, for us and the world.
Our only hope is that the US (hating the EU) can come up with something and throw its weight behind us – as they did before. Who cares if it’s for their own reasons, so long as our country is dragged from the EU clutches?
Amendment: ”Saviour of the UK” of course!!
I think you may have been correct the first time, only BoJo and time can tell.