EMMANUEL MACRON, a tinpot Napoleon in oversized boots, is this year’s panto villain . . . and he’s behind you, Boris. Luckily for our Prime Minister, his Tory MPs, ex-Labour rebels and his entire Cabinet — including Remainers — are right behind him, too. They are all bound by the Brexit manifesto which won them an 80-seat majority just […]
EMMANUEL MACRON, a tinpot Napoleon in oversized boots, is this year’s panto villain . . . and he’s behind you, Boris.
Luckily for our Prime Minister, his Tory MPs, ex-Labour rebels and his entire Cabinet — including Remainers — are right behind him, too.
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They are all bound by the Brexit manifesto which won them an 80-seat majority just 12 months ago.
But now we’re in the thick of it, they all want a full English Brexit with no French sauce.
The fishing furore is a French red herring.
This is not just a fight over coastal waters.
We can’t catch all the fish in our seas.
A sensible share-out could be easily sorted.
The real quarrel is about why we voted to leave the EU in the first place — the freedom to operate as a sovereign nation state.
What we absolutely won’t tolerate are EU ploys to bind us into its tangled web of rules and regulations — and punish us for saying “Non”.
The EU’s so-called “level playing field” is a dead weight shackling the UK’s scope to trade on world markets on our own terms.
“They want to tie us in knots,” says a Cabinet source.
“I see absolutely no sign from the PM that he is going to cave in. If anything, the reverse is true.”
Indeed, barring a last-minute deal, Boris will go ahead today and scrap plans to put Northern Ireland under EU customs control — effectively a border down the Irish Sea.
“There’s still a deal to be done,” says Cabinet Brexiteer George Eustice.
“But there’s no denying the end of last week was quite a setback.
“We probably are now in the final few days in terms of deciding whether there can be an agreement.”
Most other EU states are ready to sign up after four long years of negotiation.
Blame for failure now will be laid squarely at France’s door.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s last-minute wrecking ball is a triple whammy designed to punish Britain, undermine Germany’s Angela Merkel and beat Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election.
He now risks plunging the whole of Europe into economic and political chaos.
The EU is already battling for unity, with 27 member states bickering over cash, human rights and corruption.
Dangerous cracks are opening beneath its £1.6trillion bail-out budget.
Hungary and Poland are in trouble over gay rights and immigration.
Britain cannot escape the backwash from a No Deal outcome.
But we will not be the first casualty.
Ireland risks economic collapse if it loses Britain as its land bridge to Europe.
“If French border officials create motorway gridlock at Dover, Irish truckers will find themselves at the back of the queue,” says a Government source.
“Why should we give them priority?”
Germany and Holland’s multi-billion pound exports to Britain will also be hit.
Macron himself risks a backlash from militant farmers, who would lose their biggest market for red wine, champagne and cheese.
Ex-Chancellor Gordon Brown gleefully predicts “economic warfare” with Europe.
The Scallop Wars will turn nastier, with the Royal Navy patrolling stormy waters.
But there is a silver lining.
Britain is buoyed by its own floating currency.
We have signed new trade deals around the world, with more to follow.
The global economy unleashed by Covid vaccines is set to boom.
Cash is burning holes in consumers’ pockets after months away from the shops.
Governments worldwide are pouring trillions into big-ticket spending.
And giant firms sitting on record-high cash mountains are ready to let rip.
Brexit Britain could not have timed it better to break free from unresponsive Europe.
Just compare the UK’s life-saving Covid vaccine break-through with the EU’s plodding, box-ticking bureaucracy.
American bankers Goldman Sachs predict the UK will “race back to health” over the next 18 months.
Anti-Brexit broadcaster John Humphrys speaks for legions of disillusioned Remainers.
“Even as one who voted Remain, I can’t help feeling we may have chosen a good time to shin down the drainpipe and leave.”
YOU have to wonder what colour the skies are in Grant Shapps’s world.
A sickly green, I’d guess from his lunatic campaign to paralyse motorists and hand cities over to cycling fanatics.
Transport Secretary Shapps, backed by Extinction Rebellion yobs and BBC hack Jeremy Vine, is spending the best part of £250million – money we don’t have and will have to borrow – to turn high streets into bike lanes.
Motorists who pay billions in road tax, petrol tax and parking fees are forced to sit in jams, burning fuel and poisoning the atmosphere while a few cyclists commandeer the rest of the road.
Nigel Farage’s new Reform Party will fight any politician who supports this madness.
Put my name down as a supporter, Nige.
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