Brit ghost haunts EU bunfight

Good(ish) news on the EU crisis from the Grud today, but a strangely parochial tone. I thought it was only Leavers who kept harping on about British interests

As part of the deal, the “frugals” will receive significant increases in the rebates they receive on their budget contributions, a throwback from 1984 when Margaret Thatcher secured discounts on the UK’s outsized budget contributions.

Merkel said the British departure had changed the balance among the remaining 27 members and created a new dynamic.

At one point during the bad-tempered negotiations Macron had thumped the table in frustration and likened those thwarting his spending plans to the ill-fated British [!] in previous budget negotiations.

I reckon the EC needs us still as a kind of external threat, much like the US talking up the military capability of the USSR to get bigger budgets for defence. 

It actually looks like a classic EC fudge:  

The final outcome is a messy bundle of compromises. ...The compromise agreed by the leaders...puts off designing a rule of law mechanism for another day with agreement to be made by a qualified majority of member states.... The final deal also swung in Poland’s favour by watering down a demand to link green transition funds to signing up to the 2050 climate target...the leaders will face severe opposition in the European parliament when it is brought to the chamber for MEPs’ agreement.