Another strange silence

The Gurdina follows the simplest ideological tactic of all by seeming to simply ignore any news that might reflect badly on the EC, as we saw with the failure to report the scandal over the bent appointment of Juncker's deputy ( below).

Yesterday, the Times carried a letter from senior defence staff complaining about the behaviour of one Oliver Robbins, a senior civil servant heading the Brexit negotiations in Brussels. Brexiteers have long suspected he is a closet Remainer or has gone native. He is suspected of leaking UK plans to the EC in advance, and there are dark rumours about May preferring him to her own Brexit Secretary at the time, D Davis.Last weekend her current Brexit secretary, D Raab, apparently had to go to Brussels to tell the EC directly that a deal cooked up by Robbins to 'solve ' the Irish border question, by keeping the whole of the UK in the customs union indefinitely, would not get through Parliament.

However, the Times letter concerned Robbins and his team working quietly to involve UK defence forces in a scheme for a wider European Army. The Guardian explainer had tried to reassure us: 'Claims from the leave side about moves to unify Europe’s armed forces are nothing more than fantasy'.

But the armed forces people are not so sure:

Olly Robbins and his defence adviser Alastair Brockbank have serious questions of improper conduct to answer — Brockbank for the now infamous “Kit Kat tapes” on which he was secretly recorded seemingly advocating hoodwinking the 17.4 million Britons who voted Leave while covertly working to lock UK defence and security under EU control after Brexit; Robbins for failing to control him and, it appears, sanctioning the “technical note on external security” of May 24 that echoes the tapes...Veterans for Britain has just published a full analysis of how the prime minister’s proposals put the autonomy of our armed forces in jeopardy and risk fatally compromising our “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance. It is by far the worst aspect of the Chequers deal and hitherto has not been made clear to the British public... The withdrawal agreement and proposed defence treaty would keep the UK under EU power permanently after the transition period. 

Major-General Julian Thompson RM, chairman, Veterans for Britain; Sir Richard Dearlove, former chief of the Secret Intelligence Service; Rear-Admiral Roger Lane-Nott, naval board member VfB; Professor Gwythian Prins, academic board member VfB

It seems the KitKat tapes were leaked in a Sun exclusive in March :

Bombshell tapes passed to The Sun reveal senior civil servants secretly pledging to continue spending taxpayers’ cash propping up Brussels defence and foreign projects — including the controversial “EU Army”...EU military officials would be based in Whitehall forever...Senior Brexit Department official Victoria Billing sparked mocking laughter by describing the defence and foreign policy deal sought by the UK as a “KitKat” – a “cover” hiding the depths of the continued agreement...Alastair Brockbank - who works for top Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins - told the diplomats that Britain stood ready to continue paying “significant contributions” to controversial common EU defence and foreign policy projects adding: “We are interested in it all.”...And he claimed that Britain could yet fund the Permanent Structured Cooperation that will see 25 EU countries merge their armed forces...Mr Brockbank boasted that it was civil servants who “are negotiating the detail of that at the same time as we are discussing the political high-level fluffy bits that will go into any declaration that gets made public.”