von der Leyen: "They have either to play by our rules, because this is a matter of fairness for our companies in the single market or the other choice is there is a price on it and the price is border and tariffs. And this is what we are sorting out at the very end.”
I’m pretty sure there could have been a more diplomatic way to say basically the same thing. At least in public.
Did she really say that? Fuck me.
Wonder if this is why dispute resolution clauses came into the main course at the end of talks; Boris probably thinking I’ll agree now and take issue later.
Doesn’t seem interested in helping BoJo with the domestic sales job, does she?
He has got some hard hitting backers including Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador and…err …Len McClusky.
Jeremy obviously has time on his hands now.
You can take the Ursula out of the country, but you can’t take the Ursula out of the Ursula. 
One of those comments that remind one that it quite hard in some languages directly to translate the English concept ‘tact’.
I’m not at all familiar with her but she’s clearly got a reputation from the comments I’ve seen you make! Abrupt, abrasive, rude, uncompromising?
I hope she said it with an over pronounced German accent like a scene out of ‘Allo’ Allo.
Nah, I don’t think that’s her general (public) image, I think she just tries to portray whatever role she thinks she’s supposed to portray at any given moment, not always succesfully and not always appropriate - I guess that was her impression of being tough and clear in negotiations.
Generally she’s been abysmal in all the jobs she’s been given imo.I still can’t believe that they made the person with a track record of being weak at running bureaucracies and making enemies within the head of the biggest bureaucracy in Europe.
Granted all of the above is my personal opinion.
There are plenty of people at NATO HQ who remain stunned at the choice.
Sounds pretty normal in politics. UK have Johnston as PM ffs.
No comment.
That’s what the situation has been for four years now. I’m only surprised there were no expletives in it.
You can’t have the benefits of membership without abiding by the rules of membership. If Johnson doesn’t know that he’s a fucking moron. If he does, then he’s being incredibly disingenuous.
I think its more the timing of these comments. Johnson knows the deal (or no deal). Its the fact that Johnson has to try to sell the deal he’s about to get to the 51%. Those comments are absolutely fine at any point over the last 4 years but not 20 days before he has to polish the turd of a deal that he will have negotiated to convince the 51% that he doesn’t hold a turd but a diamond.
Maybe the 51% need to grow the fuck up?
Mate, you only need to read BBC HYS to see that the most vocal ones have the intellectual maturity of a 5yo. “We won. Suck it”.
I know it‘s childish, but there is a part of me that wants those 51% of the voters who set us on this fucking nightmare to be fully aware that they won a turd. I want them to smell it. I want them to roll it round in their fingers, and know that this was what they voted for and what they were always inevitably going to get.
I don’t want any of them to think they somehow got a cracking deal and they were right all along, which is what Johnson is preparing to tell them. I want them to understand what they have done.
And if that happens, then maybe there is some hope that this damp little island can finally grow up. If Brexit is sold as a success, and comes to be viewed as a success, then there is no hope for us.
Nowhere more has the charge of Federalism been so clear as it has been in these negotiations; its not as if the only dissent of the EU lies solely in the UK.
Surprises me that the detriment of a no-deal is only ever framed in terms of impact to the UK, but the EU budget will be down, and the superstate will be looking to balance that.
And then came Grexit, Porexit, Denexit, Italexit and Netherexit. In no particular order of exit.