Grudniad reasoning*

A marvellous editorial in teh Graun today, part of what seems to be a rising panic. It begins by arguing that the best reason for staying in the EU is that we are not really in it anyway:

[Inside the EU we get] more of the benefits and suffer[ing] less of the burdens of membership. This country is outside the euro, is not part of the Schengen border-free area and gets a hefty rebate from the EU budget.

Of course, if we left altogether, we would get even more of these benefits. The 'hefty rebate' is the Remainer Great Lie about how the EU philanthropically builds motorway flyovers and youth clubs in Northern England, that we heard much about in the early days, and the embarrassment produced by the revelation of the real figures led to the hysterical denunciation of the 'lie on the bus'. The latest figures I can find say that the UK contributes £13.1bn to the EU annually and the 'hefty rebate' is £4.5bn, about 35%. The Gudrina has tactically omitted to mention an outflow of £8.6bn per annum.

The Grudian blackens kettles by blaming the ' self-inflicted blow of historic proportions, [as] enabled by preening fantasists who peddled falsehoods.'  Peddling their own [?] current line about 'realism' that  only Remainer bourgeois had grasped all along (below). They admire  EC/EU politicians, of course, in this case the PM of Luxermbourg's smart arsery of 2016: “Before, they were in and they had many opt-outs; now they want to be out with many opt-ins.”.Many Brexiteers will think that is the right way round, of course.

Brexiters are shocked to discover what was obvious all along: there is no easy, cost-free way for the UK to leave the EU. Theresa May’s blueprint sees Britain being out of Europe but run by it for at least two years.... next two years of Britain’s life outside the EU will see this country subject to the vast majority of EU laws, but with no say in Brussels.

We have a huge say in Brussels now of course. Better to leave now than pay an even bigger price in the future then, Brexiteers might think . But if the EU is so benevolent, what's the problem for Remainers with being run by it for two more years? 

There is a scary prospect for Guarinda seers to add to Project Fear Mk x:

what if Donald Trump chose to restart trade wars with Brussels? The UK would have to follow the EU’s lead, applying sanctions and tariffs that might suit the continent’s economy, but leave ours exposed to retaliation. It might force Britain to choose between allies and friends.

This seems to me to be a problem that can take a general form with EU membership.  Some people think the issue would crop up  if the EU starts a trade war with China over cheap steel. Great reasons for not belonging if you want an (only ever nominally) independent foreign policy. 

The Graun sees no problem with the Chequers proposals for Ireland: 'Letting the EU have a joint say on the backstop is a sensible idea' [!]. This would thwart: 'Conservative Brexiters [who] have long shown they simply could not care less about Ireland. Their wish to leave the single market and customs union was made without reason'. No reason ever reported in the Durgian anyway.

The EU has nothing but benevolent interests and good reasons for weaponising the Irish border, of course.The Graun useful idiots trot out one of the most recent threats, designed to stave off any attempts at renegotiation: 'The reopening of the question of Gibraltar is a sign of things of come.' No doubt if that one is unpicked, Cyprus bases will suddenly re-emerge as an issue?

The main problem for the Graun, evidently not entirely convinced by its own arguments so far is to give the Scot Nats a run out:

If Northern Ireland outside of the EU ends up able to trade, through some [suspiciously?] clever alignment mechanism, with an EU member state via an open border, then it will lend credence to the idea that other parts of the UK could also be in closer orbit to Europe than England and intra-UK trade ought to be unaffected. That might be why Mrs May is refusing to send powers to devolved parliaments.If this continues, it will bruise the UK’s internal institutional relationships. If left unattended, they will end up functioning even more rancorously in the years after Brexit than they do now. In the worst case, the union might be rent asunder. It is Brexit, not the EU, that represents a very real threat to the UK’s integrity.

The Gdurina, the journal of the Unionists (except in Ireland).