In another example of how a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has had chance to get its shoes on, the increasingly desperate and downmarket
Telegraph has today splashed “
UK must be punished for Brexit, says France” as its lead story. But this is a complete pack of lies: France has said no such thing.
Teaboys gonna Teaboy
So the quartet whose names have graced the Tel’s by-line - Ben Riley-Smith, Lucy Fisher, Bill Gardner and Joe Barnes - should hang their collected heads in shame. More shameful is that the story does not appear to acknowledge where they got their supposed information. Because if it did, it would show why the Tel should have got a second source.
Oh dear
The “
punishment” claim came from Alex “
Billy Liar” Wickham, formerly teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, now at
Politico. In a series of Tweets yesterday, he claimed “
Extraordinary letter from French PM Jean Castex to European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen obtained by POLITICO … France tells Brussels it must demonstrate that Britain has been damaged by leaving the EU”.
There was more. “
The key line in the letter is where Castex explicitly admits the fishing row is about Brexit … He calls on the EU to cause ‘damage’ to Britain as a warning to other nations who might consider leaving in future … UK will seize on this as evidence of bad faith from France”. Others who saw the same letter reached a different conclusion.
Alexander Korff was one of them. “
Dude, do you even speak French? It says: ‘it is vital to show clearly to the European public that respect for signed agreements [by UK] is not negotiable and there are consequences for those who leave the EU and renege [from their treaty obligations]’”. Hand Niesund had more on the nuances of the original French.
He pointed out that “
‘dommages’ would be better translated as ‘drawbacks' rather than ‘damages’. Had he meant ‘damages’ he would have said ‘dégâts’. Nor does he imply the EU should go out of their way to damage the UK, but that there are consequences to leaving”. Hence Jessica Simor concluding “
You need to delete this. It is not true”.
Moreover, those who think Wickham - who the Murdoch
Times has reported to be a Godparent to Wilfred Johnson, the son of our alleged Prime Minister and his third wife - is making an honest mistake should consider his propensity to talk well, but lie badly. Especially his whoppers about Andy Burnham’s Manchester Mayoral campaign (
HERE).
Meanwhile, the Wickham mistranslation
has been incorporated into a piece for
Politico, whose credibility may be significantly eroded as a result. Here, he claims “
France has privately requested that the European Union steps up its opposition to British actions in the ongoing fishing row, telling Brussels it should demonstrate to the public that it is more damaging to leave the EU than to stay”. Downsides are still damaging.
Mutjaba Rahman, a columnist for
Politico Europe, concluded “
The spin and translation imposed on the French PM’s letter is misleading … Castex is not calling for Britain to be ‘damaged by Brexit’”. That’s the same
Politico that employs Alex Wickham. Which may put the latter into one of those Very Difficult Positions. Sooner rather than later.
And the
Telegraph needs to salvage its credibility sharpish.
If it can find any to salvage.
Enjoy your visit to
Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
6 comments:
Why on Earth should Brussels demonstrate that the UK has been damaged by Brexit when the damage is self-inflicted and there for all to see? It's like hitting yourself in the face very hard and banging your head against a concrete post, causing bleeding and concussion, and then thinking I would bother causing more harm by landing some blows myself. Why would I?
Minor bought-and-paid-for far right lying propaganda employees of Albion Perfide call "bad faith" on someone else.
Christ almighty. The death of satire.
Boris warns the EU not to side with France in bitter fishing spat:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10147075/Boris-Carrie-walk-Romes-iconic-Spanish-Steps-G20-summit.html.
So Bozo is saying that the UK shouldn't side with Wales if it was invaded by a foreign power. Worrying.
Yes. This is all about giving the Tories 'cover', thus deliberately misquoting the French PM and taking it out of context and showing that none of them understand French, in order to hide the compromises that will have to be made from a dim and moaning bunch of right-wing frog-hating gammons. What the French PM's letter was about, was the fishing problem off Jersey. Firstly, the EU and Britain signed a Brexit agreement with each side walking away not fully understanding what they had signed.In it, licences would have to be applied for by the french vessels who had traditionally fished in those waters. But they needed proof. Secondly, boats who fish in these Jersey waters from France are and always have been largely small fishing vessels that do not have GPS recordings. So, when the Brexit agreement was signed re fishing, and it said all those fishing vessels who have traditionally fished in Jersey waters (i.e British waters) may continue to do so as long as they can prove that they have traditionally done so to get their licence, no records existed. They have to find other 'proofs'-far more difficult to do and takes a very long time. As is often the case with the managerial class and bosses who sign agreements , it is the shopfloor workers who really knows how things work, (or in this case the trawlermen). Frost and and Barnier did not bother to ask them.
So now French fishing vessels are being turned away, livelihoods ruined; hence the retaliation. Boris and co never understood or cared what they were signing . For political self advancement they and Cummings thought, oh we'll sign anything, say we have Got Brexit Done, then renegotiate what we don't like. No wonder everyone in Europe and here, a much underestimated number of Brexit voting Brits, think the Tories and Johnson are know-nothing wankers and crooks, never to be trusted. Yesterday we heard the impact of Brexit on Britain has been more damaging than Covid. Oh if I could live long enough to read the History books about this ship of fools running the country into the ground. For we will never get the true story told until it has run its dreadful, sad and tragic course. But I know what historians will say. Johnson was the most debased and incompetent Prime Minister we have had for 100 years. Worse than Ramsay MacDonald. Worse than Heath and he was terrible. Worse than Thatcher, Neville Chamberlain, Douglas Home, Brown, Blair, Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Asquith or Baldwin. These Tories finished Britain off, while accumulating huge wealth for themselves and their chums. Dontcha just want to puke.
I am intrigued by Frosty The Wasteman's talk of legal action against France. Any decision handed down by a British court will cause the French merely to shrug inna-stereotypical-Gallic-stylee and, optionally, reply “Bof! You Ingleesh!” And in the light of the ongoing disagreement over the involvement of European courts in the administration of the Northern Ireland Protocol, he can hardly go to a Euro-Court. Frosty, m'laddo, did you actually read this stuff before you rubber-stamped it into law?
To 11:43.
Minor addendum: it would be "...Ingleesh Rosbifs..."
Post a Comment