The Brexit Thread

[Kirkland Laing]

How is Britain under Germany's boot exactly?

Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49970267


What boot?

This was Boris last week setting Germany up to take the blame in the British press for Britain being unable to make a deal. This has zero bearing on whether Britain in the EU is in any way dominated by Germany. You can't find any evidence to support the ridiculous claim you made because there isn't any.

Boris released a bunch of private details from a conversation. The details were already well known for three years now, Merkel was just restating the position of the EU 27 countries which is that Britain would have to agree to Irish demands over the Northern Ireland border if Britain wanted to make a deal. Boris eventually agreed to the Irish demands. This is an object lesson for how negotiations will eventually work out when Britain leaves. It turns out that twenty seven countries working together are much more powerful than one country. And that one small country (Ireland), historically dominated/militarily occupied by another bigger country (Britain) is now much more powerful as a member of the twenty seven than the bigger country is by itself.

It's also a textbook example of how the press in Britain, which forms public opinion, works. Look how the negotiations have been covered over the past few years. This from January 2017:



Look how accurate that was. Now Boris caved to EU/Irish demands by agreeing a border in the Irish sea, something a year ago he and May and the rest of them had said a British government could never agree to, and the press is selling this as Boris gets the deal everybody said was impossible to get.