Digby Jones (Lord Digby Jones to give him his full title) is, I always thought, one of those self important blokes you meet occasionally who talks utter rubbish all the time but always seems terribly pleased with himself even when palpable nonsense is pouring out of him. You might take him along to a business meeting as a sort of clown, much as you might do with a puppy who wasn't house trained. He is never short of an opinion on any topic, particularly those topics he knows nothing about. Before the referendum he said there wouldn't be any pain from Brexit (HERE).
But he has given an interview to Bloomberg (HERE) and reported in the Express (HERE) which is so insane and buttock clenchingly embarrassing that you half expect men in white coats to rush on at any time, carrying hypodermics full of strong sedatives. It would be a relief to be told either he was suffering some sort of psychotic episode or the interview had been run through a number of foreign languages in Google Translate, going backwards and forwards several times before finally being posted.
Listen to this for sheer mangled logic:
“If I was Barnier, who is the man negotiating the EU, I think he hasn’t had to do anything. I mean, all he keeps doing is saying no. Let the Remain camp and the establishment elite in Britain do his work for him. And every single time, the British Government has said we are not putting up with this. We are not going to accept this.
He added: “Barnier just keeps saying no.”
I think we vaguely follow what Digby Jones was trying to say? But then comes this:
But Lord Jones said there is a “violent agreement” among the EU and UK. He added: “One reason is because Germany, aka Brussels, keeps saying no.
So, what’s the point? Why haven’t the EU got a plan? Their plans [sic] is ‘Germany, what’s in your best interests?’
“Well, that’s not a plan that’s going to help Britain. So, you need a compromise. You need a negotiation. Second thing that we want more than anything else is we need the single market customs union aspect of doing trade easily.”
He added: “Why are we posturing here on both sides?
Brussels keeps saying ‘no, no, no, no’ - well, it’s very difficult for anybody.”
Phew! After that tirade it's hard to know where to begin except to watch in slack jawed amazement.
The EU already have a plan for the Withdrawal Agreement that we have rejected, so he must be talking about trade but Brussels doesn't know what we want because we can't tell them until after the cabinet away day next week.
And he appears to think the EU have to produce a plan to "help Britain". What planet is he on? He wanted Brexit because he presumably thought it was in Britain's best interests but he is shocked that Germany might do anything in its best interests. I'm only surprised that he's surprised.
More than anything else, he says we want to have the "single market customs union aspect" - that would be the thing he urged everybody to vote to leave on 23rd June 2016. Now we want it "more than anything else" - what, more than Brexit?
