After Brexit: The Battle for Europe

[Maggie B]

Very thought provoking programme tonight (9th Feb) on BBC 2 at 9pm.

Try and watch if you can.

Maggie B

[keving]

Very thought provoking programme tonight (9th Feb) on BBC 2 at 9pm.

Try and watch if you can.

Maggie B

Maggie B, you are a tease. Please, please tell us what thoughts were provoked in you.

[Maggie B]

Nope. X

[keving]

Ok, lets kick off with this summary of the programme ..

"We still don’t really know what Brexit means for us, so for the BBC’s Europe Editor to explore the implications for “them”, over there on the Continent, was a bold mission. And an impossible one, as it turned out. An hour simply wasn’t enough for After Brexit: the Battle for Europe (BBC Two) to do anything more than skim the surface of this fiendishly complicated situation, although it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Katya Adler went to France, Italy, Hungary and Brussels, speaking to players including Front National head Marine Le Pen; Beppe Grillo, the leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement; and Martin Schulz, the ex-President of the European Parliament.

But with so many countries and issues to cram in, these exchanges amounted to little more than invitations to present soundbites, with occasional counter-arguments from Adler and several dubious claims left unchallenged. And with the situation so fluid, it already felt dated; there was no reference, for example, to the controversial alliance between Five Star and a pro-EU party, or the rise of French centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Seasoned Europe watchers won’t have found much new – mud-slinging, demagoguery, EU bureaucrats torn between despair and denial – although the odd discovery resonated. A redundant railway built in Hungary’s ultra-nationalist PM Viktor Orban’s village was funded by the EU, neatly encapsulating the hypocrisies and contradictions of both the European project and its most vocal critics.

Later, when Adler went in search of Guy Verhofstadt, lead Brexit negotiator, in the maze of the European Parliament, she found that room 5c011 wasn’t on floor 5 but floor 5 ½. Adler’s eye for absurdity was as unimpeachable as her neutrality.

As a one-off, it was inadequate; were it to be the first of many surveys from Adler, however, then this would be an appetising hors d’oeuvre. Or starter, as we’re probably meant to call it now"

[cyprusgrump]

Ok, lets kick off with this summary of the programme ..

"We still don’t really know what Brexit means for us, so for the BBC’s Europe Editor to explore the implications for “them”, over there on the Continent, was a bold mission. And an impossible one, as it turned out. An hour simply wasn’t enough for After Brexit: the Battle for Europe (BBC Two) to do anything more than skim the surface of this fiendishly complicated situation, although it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Katya Adler went to France, Italy, Hungary and Brussels, speaking to players including Front National head Marine Le Pen; Beppe Grillo, the leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement; and Martin Schulz, the ex-President of the European Parliament.

But with so many countries and issues to cram in, these exchanges amounted to little more than invitations to present soundbites, with occasional counter-arguments from Adler and several dubious claims left unchallenged. And with the situation so fluid, it already felt dated; there was no reference, for example, to the controversial alliance between Five Star and a pro-EU party, or the rise of French centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Seasoned Europe watchers won’t have found much new – mud-slinging, demagoguery, EU bureaucrats torn between despair and denial – although the odd discovery resonated. A redundant railway built in Hungary’s ultra-nationalist PM Viktor Orban’s village was funded by the EU, neatly encapsulating the hypocrisies and contradictions of both the European project and its most vocal critics.

Later, when Adler went in search of Guy Verhofstadt, lead Brexit negotiator, in the maze of the European Parliament, she found that room 5c011 wasn’t on floor 5 but floor 5 ½. Adler’s eye for absurdity was as unimpeachable as her neutrality.

As a one-off, it was inadequate; were it to be the first of many surveys from Adler, however, then this would be an appetising hors d’oeuvre. Or starter, as we’re probably meant to call it now"

Nice cut 'n' paste from the telegraph...

The comments on the article are quite interesting...

The comments from Schultz encapsulated why the EU is doomed to failure. He, and his colleagues at the top of the EU hierarchy, are simply incapable of recognising that THEY are the problem and THEY have created the problems facing Europe today through their blind, zealous ideology.

Like the countless species through time, they are incapable of adaptation and change and will, in time, become extinct.

If it did nothing else, this fascinating documentary showed how out of touch the EU elite are with the voters and events in the member countries.

Yep, fiendishly complicated with some EU states throwing up such opposition to the failures of an ideal grand superstate - failed in history many times.

etc.

[Maggie B]

Was that comment from you Keving A CUT AND PASTE?

MB

PS Austin7 I don't think you made a mistake in the 70's at all. It was a whole 'different ballgame then.

[cyprusgrump]

Was that comment from you Keving A CUT AND PASTE?

MB

Or a remarkable coincidence!