How many times in the past eighteen months have we read of May, Davis, Liddington, Hunt, Johnson, Raab and probably others being despatched around Europe in the belief that leaders of the EU 27 would somehow lean on the Commission to be reasonable and use the soft pedal with us. It turns out quite the opposite. The EU27 leaders were tougher than Brussels.
It would actually have been wiser, quicker and cheaper to go directly to Brussels and ask Jean Claude Juncker to try and persuade the EU27 to be lenient with us. No wonder the Commission are bewildered.
Katya Adler from the BBC says (HERE):
"[..] interestingly for those who believe the EU hands too much power to Brussels bureaucrats, the only ones who can change the content of the Brexit deal - signed off by the 27 EU leaders plus Theresa May back in November - are those 27 EU leaders plus Theresa May - not Jean Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk or any other 'Brussels bureaucrat'.
"Even well-seasoned EU officials don't want to predict with any certainty what may happen if 21 March turns into a showdown Brexit summit.
"Being within touching distance of a no-deal Brexit which the EU is convinced would be nightmarish, would certainly focus minds, as well as possibly kick-start the famous EU ten-to-midnight, deal-making tendency.
" 'Who knows what decisions EU leaders might take if faced with an imminent no-deal?' one senior source told me.
"But it's worth saying that up until now in the Brexit process, it's been the EU leaders taking the hard line in negotiations, not Brussels officials."
I think it demonstrates how our politicians have never bothered to observe how the EU really works. They read the Johnson columns in The Times and The Telegraph when he was Brussels correspondent in the eighties and nineties and actually believed all the nonsense he wrote about the EU being a dictatorial bureaucracy forcing European nations to heel.
We have mistimed, misread and misunderstood the withdrawal negotiations from day one. We started with no plan and no objectives. The one we developed and followed on the way was a bad one. We never bothered to understand the EU or its red lines and motivations. We acted as if it was still 1880 and Britain ruled the world, expecting everyone else to bend and buckle under our demands. How differently it has all worked out.
What started as a chaotic free-for-all at the start of 2016 has gone through disorder and disarray and is now coming to the first humiliating milestone an its way to an utter disaster.
But don't worry there is still plenty more to come.
