Through the pages of The Telegraph, in the columns and letters, it is possible to get a glimpse into the self delusional thinking of the leavers and Brexiteers. I recommend it for any remainer who might doubt that we will sooner or later be back where we belong inside the EU.
For years the paper has carried a combination of sneering ridicule of the petty and "undemocratic" EU and outright hostility to the ambition of ever closer union. It has insulted just about every senior EU representative at every level and criticised everything the Commission has done and even on the odd occasion when the bloc achieved a measure of success, they grudgingly acknowledge it but find fault with the cost or the method.
The Telegraph sees British membership itself as a humiliation. Britain's empire and global power is undiminished at the "Torygraph" and however bizarre it seems, they genuinely think the UK and EU are equals. Even that they need us more than we need them.
Articles and letters (HERE for example) have been urging the government for months to "get on with it" and leave in March 2019 with or without a deal with little if any recognition or acknowledgement of the damage this would wreak on the economy. I don't think I have ever read an article or seen a letter that even hints at the difficulties or the cost in jobs and lost revenues that would be the inevitable result. Even if we assume the UK could be gotten ready for a no deal exit (there is absolutely no chance of this because we would need to be pouring concrete now on all the new customs facilities as well as training thousands of extra staff, among hundreds of major diplomatic and legal issues that need to be resolved and we are doing nothing) the EU27 also need to beef up their customs arrangements to handle hundreds of millions of extra shipments that will now need additional checks. So, if we were to leave in March 2019, with or without a deal, 44% of our exports and more of our imports will be affected. There is never a mention of these practicalities.
Take back control was the mantra and so egregious was the grip of the EU that it had to be done as quickly as possible. This is noted in Europe's capitals. But recently the tone has begun to change. The flimsy, half baked future partnership papers released by our government are seen by The Telegraph as clever and thoughtful even though they contain no concrete proposals at all. One wonders if anyone there has even read anything other than the press release before heaping praise on them.
Now the Telegraph thinks Britain, the country who in a shock referendum voted for Brexit, is being reasonable in offering a financial settlement (HERE) while the EU are being mean spirited. The thinking on our have our cake and eat it approach is that the EU are being intransigent and difficult if they stand in the way of us continuing to enjoy the benefits of membership without paying subscriptions or obeying the rules.
The latest falsehood is for Liam Fox our Trade Secretary to write (HERE) that we have "put our cards on the table" which is really rich since even the British people don't know where the government is taking us, and asks the EU to declare its intentions - as if they haven't been crystal clear from the outset that their priority is to maintain the cohesion of the 27.
And our idiot Foreign Secretary BoJo (HERE) now says doesn't want us, during the transition period, to have to accept new EU rules which come in and over which we will have no influence. He still wants to pick and choose what happens during a transition period which we haven't yet got and where the EU have already said we must accept the whole Union acquis. He still doesn't get it.
Eventually we will have to accept whatever the EU decide to give us - or go over the cliff. The Telegraph will no doubt portray this as all the fault of the EU.
