Birds of a feather. They're both a little (a lot) quirky and neither seems to have much grasp of reality. In Donald Trump's case that goes for just about everything. In the British prime minister's case that centers on Brexit.
The European Union has been clear about its bottom line. First things first - Brexit and, only when that's wrapped, negotiations for some trade deal with the UK or whatever remains of it. The Tory prime minister insists on hammering out the trade deal at the same time.
May just entertained EU president Juncker at 10 Downing. Afterward Juncker reportedly raced to telephone Angela Merkel to warn that May was "living in another galaxy."
May asked Juncker and his colleagues for Brexit negotiations to take place in confidential four-day sessions each month. But she was told confidentiality would be impossible given the need to keep member states and the European Parliament informed.
May was optimistic in the meeting, saying "Let us make Brexit a success." Juncker countered that "Brexit cannot be a success," given its position as a third state.
"A third-party state cannot enjoy the same advantages or be better positioned than an EU member. I have the feeling that some people in Britain maintain illusions in this regard. They're wasting their time," Merkel told the German parliament on Thursday.
A UK government spokesman said in a statement on Monday: "We do not recognise this account. As the prime minister and Jean-Claude Juncker made clear, this was a constructive meeting ahead of the negotiations formally getting under way."
Time does not appear to be on May's side. With Scotland demanding another referendum and facing the prospect that Northern Ireland could choose to join the Irish Republic in order to remain in the EU, a rocky Brexit could weaken her ability to keep the United Kingdom united.
3 comments:
Beyond the fact that May isn't the brightest spoon in the drawer ever to have emerged from Reading, she has realized that Britain's moneyed class is 100% determined that its rank and privileges will NOT in ANY way be compromised by Brexit. What happens to the middle and working classes, she and the upper crust cares not a whit. Cut back all the social services from social payments to healthcare to housing and let the hoi polloi deal with it as best they can, nasty little whiners.
Hence the continual desperate twisting in the wind trying to snag a good deal of a sort from the EU, and may's absolute deafness to Junckers and Merkel's words, implying they don't really mean what they say. Merely the reflex action of the over-privileged to the distinct possibility that unless something is done, why there might be actually be a diminution in their income and social standing. Can't have that. So it's gloves off, demonize Labour of the Corbyn kind with slick BBC disinformation/character assassination shows, while appealing to the same idea that individual Britons tend to cherish that they are free men who turn up their noses at union types and agitators. Kind of like the USA, where dimwits supported Trump thus simultaneously shooting themselves in their own feet and cackling about it all the while. Thus May will win the election and the vast proportion of the British public will vote for its own demise.
British newspaper opinion is doggedly pro-Tory, the Guardian has gone rogue, and all are even less interested in the truth than the MSM outfits in the US were until they discovered they'd been Trumped. That won't happen in Blighty, they'll all band together.
In case the EU sends the UK packing, continues the thinking, we'd better make sure we keep our bread butter side up with the Yanks, hence the toadying up to Trump for a possible handout when things go pear-shaped, which they most assuredly will anyway. Ethics, truth, honesty? No, survival of privilege, handily disguised as great medicine for consumption at home by modern propaganda techniques and a bit of argy-bargy by the pro-Netanyahu fifth columnists. Arabs demonized as wogs, the Brits have hundreds of years experience in spinning their empire as enlightened culture, and passed it on to Canada and Oz as a way to keep the natives down.
Pretty sickening actually, and I was born there and inculcated with the Englishman's superiority to all others from birth in 1947. Stiff upper lip, that's not cricket, old boy, and other expressions were invented for the average man to follow, not the leaders. Good god, no - they knew reality and got down and dirty. Thank god my family emigrated to Canada so that after three score years I could wake up and see the lies all around me. All patriotic tripe of any kind is only for the commoners you know. One sometimes needs foot soldiers, doesn't one?
BM
Insightful and well put, BM. Thank you. I suspect you're right about Britain's Tories and their regard for the rank and file. In some ways it's as though May was sitting atop a powder keg with two fiercely burning fuzes - one representing the EU, the other Scottish and Irish disaffection. Maybe they'll change the name to England, Formerly Known as Great Britain.
Juncker called German Chancellor Angela Merkel early the following morning, telling her that May was "living in a different galaxy", prompting Merkel to warn May against her illusions.
The different galaxy that is the vicarage and life as it was during the Edwardian days or is that daze?
At least Maggie Thatcher had a vision for the future ( not that I agreed with it)
May lives in the past; an England that has not existed for decades.
As a woman of privilege she also aspires to re negotiate a relationship with Europe that has the benefits of , but not the responsibilities.
Typical English upper class.
TB
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