In response to Paul Wood: At least no-deal will leave Irish eyes smarting,
Poliorketes wrote:
The EU was never interested in a mutually beneficial deal, the only thing that matters to them is the political optics that the UK must be seen to suffer for daring to leave. Merkel’s statement yesterday confirms they were negotiating in bad faith all along.
The only ‘deal’ they were willing to countenance was May’s surrender treaty, which would turn the UK into a colony. Johnson has been pretty canny in proposing to replace only the worst part of it, which has demonstrated how inflexible the EU are for all to see.
It also puts a lie to their protestation that the backstop was ‘uncomfortable’ for them and it was merely an ‘insurance policy’. The fact they refuse to remove it, even leaving all the other awful elements of May’s crap deal in place, tells you it is critical to their future plans for the UK.
As Selmayr said, they think the annexation of Northern Ireland is a fair price for leaving. Those are the actions of a hostile power, not a friendly one. MPs who have been conspiring with the EU (Hammond admitted the Commission’s legal services drafted the Surrender Act for the plotters) are traitors.
