Tired rhetoric survives coronavirus

Pressure grows from the EU (needing UK funds as long as possible) and useful idiots in Parliament and the press (straw-clutchers who can't believe they lost,and think they will win if there is a next time) for an extension to the transition period. This bid seems to have been delivered with all the charm we expect, and with the same tropes that proved so helpful to the Remain case before:

Boris Johnson must extend the UK’s transition out of the EU for up to two years to avoid compounding the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic with a hugely disruptive and disorderly Brexit [please God...not the threat of expensive strawberries at Wimbledon time], according to a close ally of Angela Merkel.

Röttgen, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, said: “Before the current coronavirus crisis, I think it would have been possible to have a minimum agreement with the UK on the broad outlines to avoid a crash [the UK crashing out with no deal], {Welcome back!} with more detailed negotiations then taking place afterwards...“I can’t imagine now that this is possible, given the fact that all the EU countries, Brussels and London are so absorbed by the pandemic

Delays have crept in because the technocrats can't master Zoom.

EU officials have said that concluding deals on such complex issues – already a lengthy and tortuous process – is far more difficult without face-to-face meetings. One high-level EU source said: “You can get so far but what you can’t do is go away into small groups of six or eight people in a dark [no longer smoke-filled] room and hammer out the final, vital details. That is not possible in a virtual meeting.”

An open admission of caucus politics and conspiratorial underpinnings. The Observer link is to another story with the same themes which actually has nothing to say about the rival merits of f2f and online. It does name some possible useful idiots though: 'Philip Rycroft, a former chief civil servant at the now defunct Brexit department' and 'Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform thinktank'

The scheme faces the same problems identified in the GRaun earlier (below):

Johnson would have to reverse legislation that, in effect, bars him from seeking an extension, and he would have to agree additional financial contributions to the EU to pay for that extension....

No real chance then, but wait.... some more useful idiots might have been recruited:

Another senior EU politician involved in the talks said there were signs of division appearing on the UK side, with some civil servants and Tory MPs believing the UK had to find a way to abandon its opposition to extending the transition:

The Observer editorial already is on the battle bus, of course. There is a new twist (at first) to the links between the virus and Brexit:

It is now painfully clear, as the government struggles to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic, that Britain is paying a heavy price for the Brexit distraction in the early weeks of 2020...Brexit continues to be an unwelcome, unnecessary and damaging distraction today. Many, including this newspaper, believe it always was. 

A mere distraction that occupied over 2 years of debate and a General Election -- what was the fuss all about?

There is a different metaphor (at first) :

What sane government, at this time of unprecedented economic, financial, social and human distress, would deliberately risk further, massive disruption to vital trade, business, investment and security lifelines? Yet thanks to the Brexiters, this second catastrophe – a calamity of choice – is racing towards us like a runaway train loaded with explosives. [But then back to an old friend:] Britain is getting set to jump off a no-deal cliff [to avoid a train?] at its moment of greatest vulnerability.

We all know who is to blame:

There is limited capacity and even less inclination among EU leaders to divert effort and resources, amid an extraordinary crisis, into a rushed negotiation, just to suit Johnson’s artificial timetable...Britain’s negotiating positions are inflexible to the point of obtuseness...a no-deal crash [keep saying 'no deal' and 'crash', just as before] looms large because there is almost certainly not enough time to achieve the most rudimentary, bare-bones free trade agreement

These are not the acts of responsible, sensible political leaders [meaning only British ones,of course, not sophisticated if blasé European diplomats] . Brexit was always a largely delusional, dishonest project. Now it is entering the realms of fantasy and nightmare [must be awful, locked down in Islington] ...the only rational course is to swiftly apply for a Brexit extension of at least one year and preferably two, agree additional budget contributions and actively cooperate with the EU on measures to rebuild a pan-European economy that remains vital for UK prosperity.

The EU itself doesn't seem too keen on this pan-European economy though, does it? Pan-Europeanism seems a rather abstract and even more sentimental virtue to be signalling. The old claims to cultural superiority ('rationality') can still be maintained though, and there is now a chance for a bit of shroud-waving.

There are hints in Whitehall that more grounded Tories understand that continued intransigence over an extension cannot be sustained. It should be evident to even the most ideologically obsessed that taking back control cannot mean kicking away yet more human, economic and social props as the national edifice trembles and people suffer and die.  

And triumphantly to end, as a kind of schadenfreudisch consolation for the fury and terror they have worked up for themselves:

Brexit isn’t done.

Finally, The Observer cartoonist makes yet another witty and thoughtful contribution, more or less the same as several others. He is obviously exhausted. Can't they furlough him at least?