Back to days of wind and piss

The UK has released 5 'position papers' and another in draft form was leaked to el Grunadi on immigration policy in advance of the great debate on the  Reform Bill going on in Parliament.There are some really straw-clutching hopes that various Remainers will scupper the bill, advanced inevitably by the increasingly desperate-to-be-loved Nick Watt of Newsnight, a man who has schoolboy conjuring tricks that no-one wants to see.

The BBC seemed to have a plethora of 'why we should be worried' stories ,mostly relating to yesterday's news about a tighter immigration policy. An amazing spokesperson for the leisure and tourism business on Newsnight managed to argue both that the industry will be terminally scuppered if they can't get cheap labour with excess skills (like languages), and that her industry was innovative,dynamic, and an increasing source of interesting work for British people. 

Meanwhile the Guridan reveals to day that one of the major employers for EU nationals is -- domestic households [in my print edition -- couldn't find it on the web] . So it's a threat to cheap strawberries AND cheap domestic servants. God -- the horror!

The contents of the draft immigration papers seem pretty mild really, not really dissimilar to provisions for non-EU countries, and the Graun has to beef it all up with stories of symbolically hurt EU nationals promising to leave. The mild tone is repeated today in the EU's own position papers obtained by the Rudigan. Point one, 'likely to inflame Brexiters' is that the brand names of European produce be preserved -- French burgundy, Greek feta cheese and the like. How ghastly if we bought inauthentic alternatives by mistake!

Other tough demands include: 'Ensuring that any goods in transit on Brexit day would be subject to the jurisdiction of the European court of justice...A warning to the government that it must guarantee EU data protection standards on classified EU documents...Asking [sic] Britain not to discriminate against EU companies which are carrying out state-funded infrastructure projects'

The most problematic is the Irish border issue -- 'Brussels intends to say the UK should shoulder responsibility for the border'. As it has been a central issue in British politics now and then for about 250 years and has spawned really nasty violence, this is surely something that requires no EU nudging. Was the EU remotely interested before?

The impression I got was that the heat had gone from the issue, despite the routine exchange of insults about unrealistic thinking. The Graun and the BBC seem to have borrowed tabloid strategies to up their readership by repeating these pointless insults to 'inflame' the public.

In general, the mood seems more businesslike:

The plans had a mixed reception in Brussels. One source said there was anger and real frustration that the UK is going for a “hardcore domestic immigration policy”.
But many did not share this view. One usually outspoken politician, who closely follows Brexit, declined to comment, deeming the issue “a matter for the UK as a third [non-EU] country”. The issue came up at an internal meeting in the European parliament, where “there was a general sense that it was the UK’s sovereign decision to put in place a migration policy”, a source said.

Capitalism opts for business as usual -- quelle surprise!