Brexit: the complete works so far - Shakespeare, Beckett, Sherlock Holmes, The Crown etc

 Happy Christmas! Shakespeare, Beckett, Conan Doyle, Netflix - what the immortals of literature have written so far about Brexit plus secret recordings that reveal the inside story of the UK's departure. All on this blog:

Samuel Beckett's lost masterpiece Waiting for the German carmakers. World exclusive excerpt

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/02/brexitwatch-waiting-for-german.html

Shakespeare's lost masterpiece: MacBoris. A Tragedy (for the UK). World exclusive excerpt

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/07/brexitwatch-macboris-shakespeares-lost.html

The lost Sherlock Holmes story: The Mystery of the Level Playing Field. World exclusive

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/10/brexitwatch-level-playing-field-mystery.html

World exclusive sneak preview of Series 12 of The Crown - Boris Johnson's 115th Dream

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/09/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen.html

Plus three world exclusive secret recordings:

Inside DUP headquarters. How they decided to back Brexit and destroy the Union

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/09/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen_20.html

Inside Leave Campaign headquarters before the referendum

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/08/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen_17.html

And the Johnson-Macron phone call that sealed Johnson's Brexit 'deal'

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/12/brexitwatch-world-exclusive-that.html

Collect the set!

Europe: stay or leave? Focus on fact - 5

Today’s fact: other countries have rights and interests just as much as we do. 

The anti-Europeans are so focused on what they see as OUR rights and interests that they have a real problem getting their heads round the idea that our European neighbours have THEIR rights and interests too.

A similar thing happened in the Scottish referendum. The pro-independence campaigners were so obsessed with their own interests, they could not understand that the rest of Britain would consider ITS interests and say: ‘No. You can’t keep the pound.’

Because the other EU countries are better at selling things to us than we are at selling things to them, we have a huge trade deficit, but to the anti-Europeans in their parallel universe, this weakness is a strength, for it means the rest of Europe will be desperate to offer us a stonkingly favourable trade deal. Unfortunately it does not work like that.

Europe sells about 8 per cent of its exports to us. One would not want to give that up, but if push came to shove, one could do without it. Between 40 and 50 per cent of our exports go to Europe. If we lost that, it would destroy our economy. In any post-Brexit negotiations, the rest of Europe will have the strong hand, and we will have the weak one. We will be the ones desperate for an agreement.

The anti-Europeans want a relationship with the rest of the Europe that gives us all the benefits of EU membership with none of the costs, and they blame any suggestion of a refusal to give in to their demands on spite. Europe would certainly be justified in feeling spiteful when you look at the constant vituperation it receives from the anti-Europeans, but spite is not the reason it will refuse the Brexiters’ demands. The reason is that it is not in the interests of the rest of Europe to concede them. 

David Cameron and Europe - at last the truth

Like me you probably thought you were seeing things a couple of days ago when David Cameron suddenly seemed to develop a backbone as he declared that anti-European ministers would have to, er . . . follow government policy or resign. Indeed we were seeing things, and normal service was resumed within a couple of hours as Dave caved in to the anti-European fanatics.

I did warn that if the Tories won the General Election in 2015, Britain would leave Europe. It is not what Cameron wants. He and George Osborne understand it would be a disaster, even if the rest of their party do not, but having the courage to say so is, of course, quite another matter.

It’s clear that Cameron’s plan is to follow Harold Wilson’s recipe from 1975. Lace your speeches with plenty of anti-European rhetoric and agree to a referendum to placate the extremists in your party. Carry on a ‘renegotiation’ with your European partners. Gain a couple of cosmetic changes that you sell as major concessions. Win the referendum to stay in Europe by a comfortable majority.

I covered the 1975 referendum, and here is why Cameron will fail:-

1. Harold Wilson was one of the sharpest political operators Britain has ever seen. Cameron is simply not in his class.

2. The newspapers in Wilson’s time covered Europe reasonably fairly. Now the papers with the biggest circulations spew out an unremitting stream of anti-European bile.

Brexit looms. Will the last businessman to leave the country please turn out the lights.