Press Courtiers Wrong Again On Brexit

As the saying goes, journalism is publishing what someone does not want to see published, and all else is public relations. And rather too much of what is published, especially by the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, is so obviously the result of taking dictation or recycling press releases that those whose names appear on the by-line would be horribly embarrassed, were they not so shameless.

Which brings us to the inevitable pushback by Government “sources” against the remarks last Friday by chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, telling anyone prepared to listen that the UK was doing its best to renege on the deal that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had signed on to last year. That the UK side was showing the world it could not be trusted could not be admitted. It had to be someone else’s fault.

And so it came to pass today with the Brexiteer fringe going totally OTT in no style at all, the Sunday Brexit (still called the Express) putting the result of their having obediently taken dictation on their front page. “BORIS WANTS TO FIX UNFAIR BREXIT DEAL … EU boss Barnier warned that he’s not referee of talks … he’s just a player”.

This weapons grade bullpucky has also appeared at the Mail on Sunday, where the paper’s deputy political editor, the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, has been taking dictation for the cause. Master Cole has told readers “The British Brexit trade team have accused Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier of behaving like a referee ‘when actually he is a player on the pitch’ after another week of testy talks”.

The analogy is as pointless as it is inept: Barnier is the EU’s chief negotiator, end of story. But do go on: “at his Brussels press conference on Friday, a visibly irritated Mr Barnier accused the UK of trying to water down the non-legally binding commitments signed by Boris Johnson last autumn”. That’s putting it mildly, 007. So what say Cole’s “sources”?

“British officials say the Political Declaration is meant to set the ‘parameters’ for the negotiations. ‘It doesn’t require everything in it to be agreed in treaty form,’ said one. And last night a source close to the negotiations told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The EU are unfairly characterising the Political Declaration. Establishing a framework is not the same as meaning everything must go in a legally binding treaty’”. It’s all so unfair!

Have another go. “There was also irritation in London that Mr Barnier used his press conference to again urge an extension to the talks, potentially delaying a trade deal by up to two years”. But enough. Let me put Master Cole, the Express, and the rest of the Brexiteers straight. This copy-taking is total horseshit. And it is going nowhere.

The EU, as I never tire of pointing out, is a rules based organisation. Michel Barnier is working within those rules. Moreover, he is pointing out that the UK is behaving increasingly like a bad faith actor, behaviour which, if it were to continue, would put every other potential trading partner off trying to do a deal with us.

Today’s headlines are for UK consumption only. They will change no minds and sway no opinion beyond the Channel. Barnier is playing by the rules. The UK is trying not to.

Cheering on an attempt to make you own country a pariah state. Way to go, press people.

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