'Sent packing': European press scathing on Theresa May's Salzburg summit

[OhSusana]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... heresa-may
Always interesting to read the foreign papers for their perspective on Brexit. A bit of the article -

Sheila Sitalsing in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said May had “stormed the European continent like a Don Quixote”, Chequers plan and Brexit conditions under her arm: Britain wanted to “keep playing footie and snacking at the canteen, without paying any subs, wearing the club strip or doing bar duty”.
The EU27 had “sent her packing in Salzburg”, Sitalsing said, where May had “desperately sought to win sympathy for a Brexit that would not send her population straight back to the Middle Ages”.
Her threat that if she was replaced things might get worse “did not impress” EU leaders – but May still seems to believe their hard line “is just a negotiating tactic”. She has got it all wrong: “Poor Theresa May. Poor United Kingdom.”

In the Spanish paper El Pais, Álvaro Imbernon Sainz said that since May took office in July 2016, her entire negotiating strategy had been “to postpone decision-making as much as possible, without putting together any kind of clear vision” – but the chickens were now coming home to roost.

[PhotoLady]

You can't be a member of say your local golf club for many years then decide to cease being a member but still expect to receive the same perks or benefits when you suddenly become a non-member.... It wouldn't go down very well with the fully paid up members, so why do our negotiators think we can get away with it now?

[OhSusana]

Indeed.

Found this also in the bbc

European press views May 'ambush' with sympathy
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45601152

Extracts
El Pais says in an editorial on Mrs May's "ultimatum" to EU leaders on Brexit.
"Mrs May wanted to flex her foreign muscle to the ultras of the Conservative Party before their annual conference. Big mistake. She misinterpreted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Donald Tusk's good intentions as support for her plan, rather than a demonstration of diplomatic courtesy."

..."Salzburg sadness for May" is the headline in Italian conservative daily Il Foglio. "France gets tougher on the UK with every passing day...

For Germany's tabloid Bild, Theresa May is "banging her head against a brick wall with her new Brexit plans".

[bromerzz]

I thought Mrs Mays response today was excellent.

[kingfisher]

Her speech was laudable. Mrs May unequivocally confirmed that the largest democratic exercise ever conducted in the UK was not going to be either repeated, or overturned. She confirmed that we indeed leave next March 29th. And importantly, that
the EU was not going to dictate where the UK put its borders. She confirmed that no deal was better that a bad deal.
She now needs to make common ground with the right of centre in the Tory party, [note JRM’s approval of her speech], and get their support.
All- in-all a quite satisfactory day.

It is really quite simple.
The UK leaves the EU on the 29th March 2019.
Deal or no-deal.
Life will go on.

Come April, the media will find something new to work the sheeple into a frenzy about.
Snowflakes will melt.
Neurotics, obsessive/compulsives, and hysterical types, will be able to recuperate before moving on to their next neurosis. Treatment centres will boom [Another Brexit opportunity- buy shares!].

[ApusApus]

I thought Mrs Mays response today was excellent.

It was but maybe a bit overdue!


Shane

[Jimgward]

So, the sME Mrs May who said, unequivocally, that she would not call a general election..

[OhSusana]

I thought Mrs Mays response today was excellent.

It was but maybe a bit overdue!
Shane

Yes, Shane. Overdue indeed - good read for you here -

"The most tragic thing of all is that she was too weak to do it when it counted. "
The author continues -
"What was truly pathetic was that here she was, 24 hours later, back in the UK, her composure regained, talking all tough to the bigger boys from a safe distance,..
The best way to track the UK’s leverage over the European Union is to track the price of the pound against the euro. The best price you’ll find in recent times was on 23 June 2016, when the UK was still a member of the EU and not expected to leave.
As she raged like, well, like someone who has completely lost control, the pound sunk yet further, and that will surprise no one. When you publicly announce the only card you have left is howling anger, don’t expect the money to fall in behind you."

from
Theresa May ranted with all the gravitas of an adult toddler – and with all the effect
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/th ... 49081.html

The Telegraph - main page - this morning -
Cabinet showdown - Ministers to demand Brexit "Plan B" from Theresa May after Chequers deal derided by EU
One source said: “Monday [Cabinet meeting] is the crunch point. That’s when every Cabinet minister will have to look again and reassess like Boris [Johnson] and David Davis did.”
One week away - Tory Party conference. I'm sure all will be made clear there!

[Jim B]

Hudswell. Royal. Bromerzz. AA
It comes over on the media this morning when listening to the commentators that her speech was more of an appeal to the mob and the right wing of her party than a speech of any substance.

Jim

[tyelaw47]

I disagree Jim.I listened to her statement live and thought that she came over as strong and positive although you could detect an anger there and rightly so as they have shown an appalling attitude,mocking and sarcastic which she does not deserve BUT it has in one way done her a favour as both Jacob Rees Mogg and IDS have come out in support of her and I am sure others will too as we are protective of our diligent and hardworking PM.

[Varky]

A day is a long time in politics (and the media).

[Jim B]

Tyelaw
That is what the pundits were saying; it was a delaying tactic to get the leaver MPs on side until the Tory conference and it seems to have worked. Bashing the EU is a sure vote winner for some. As I repeatedly informed Hudswell over the last few days; the Chequers plan was never acceptable in it's present form to the EU and the PM was aware of this so to claim she was ambushed and treated with disrespect is being economical with the truth.
The more this farce goes on the more I despair for my country.
Jim

[tyelaw47]

Jim you are quite right re the Chequers plan but what I am talking about is the silly childish and disrespectful behaviour displayed by Macron and Tusk. I believe Tusk realises he has gone too far and is attempting to make amends but too late for many. As far as I am aware there have been NO occasions of the UK negotiators or Mrs May ever being disrespectful to the EU

[Jim B]

Jim you are quite right re the Chequers plan but what I am talking about is the silly childish and disrespectful behaviour displayed by Macron and Tusk. I believe Tusk realises he has gone too far and is attempting to make amends but too late for many. As far as I am aware there have been NO occasions of the UK negotiators or Mrs May ever being disrespectful to the EU

Absolutly, and the "plan" in its current form may not have been acceptable, but it was dismissed out of hand, and our Prime Minister and country ridiculed. Unacceptable, the arrogance of Macron and Tusk are beyond belief, if anyone should be reconsidering their positions it is them. A Red Line? Oh they have crossed that one, common decency out of the window.

Hudswell
You are embellishing things again; there was no rejection out of hand, the PM was told numerous times that the Chequers agreement was unacceptable in it's present form but she insisted in trying to force it through .
Macron has every right to comment on the lies told by the leading leavers, his country and his citizens have been affected by these liers; I would hope our leaders would be prepared to speak out in similar circumstances.
As for Tusk; where's your sense of humour, appears to be sadly lacking amongst leavers these days and they call us "Remoaners"
Jim

[Jim B]

I really think we are just going around in circles Hudswell. As has been pointed out to you by many posters, Cameron had all the options available to restrict immigration but chose to make a grand gesture by going to Brussels and demanding action when in fact it was all grandstanding. The only piss take was Cameron on the British people. Quite probably the EU told him you have the tools available, use them.
As I repeat again; Brexit is affecting France as well and he is raising issues in Brexit that are affecting his country which he has every right to do.
I believe Tusk apologised (can't confirm) though many like me found it quite funny, anyway when you talk to people from around the world we are a laughingstock anyway.
Jim

[Lofos-5]

As has been pointed out to you by many posters, Cameron had all the options available to restrict immigration ....

Migration in Europe

How to bend the rules

Many European countries interpret free movement more loosely than Britain

THERESA MAY’S government has long insisted that free movement of people from the European Union to Britain must end after Brexit. Commentary on this week’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report has focused on its advice that Britain should not offer EU citizens preferential terms after it leaves. Yet the report pointedly adds that “preferential access to the UK labour market would be of benefit to EU citizens”. This clearly hints that a regime favouring EU migrants could be a bargaining chip to win better access to the EU’s single market.

The principle of getting free trade in return for free movement is implicit in the single market’s rules. As a matter of economics, a single market could be built around the free movement of goods, services and capital. But the EU deliberately adds free movement of people, which most citizens outside Britain see as a benefit of the club.

Yet it also permits exceptions. Harvey Redgrave of the Tony Blair Institute, a think-tank, notes that other EU countries have long been amazed that, given Britain’s hostility to EU migration, its government has never applied the constraints allowed on free movement. It was one of only three countries not to limit the migration of nationals from central and eastern European countries for the first few years after they joined the EU in 2004. Even today it is more generous than it need be. In June Britain chose not to extend limits on free movement from Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, for two more years.

Britain is also in a minority in having no registration system for EU migrants. Post-Brexit, it could use such a system, as Belgium does, to throw out migrants who have no job after six months. Denmark and Austria limit migrants’ ability to buy homes in some places.

Most EU countries are also tougher than Britain in insisting that welfare benefits cannot be claimed until a migrant builds up some years’ worth of contributions. Equally, the EU’s posted-workers directive is used by many to try to stop any undercutting of local labour markets. But Britain is lax in enforcing both its minimum wage and its standards for working conditions.

Non-EU countries in the European Economic Area have other options. Liechtenstein, a tiny principality, has quotas on EU migrants, despite being a full member of the single market. Article 112 of the EEA treaty allows Iceland and Norway to invoke an “emergency brake”, although they have never used it. And non-EEA Switzerland, which is in the single market for goods, not only limits property purchases but also makes most employers offer jobs to Swiss nationals first.

This particular concession was secured after the EU refused to accept a Swiss vote in 2014 to set limits on free movement. Yet a further referendum on the issue is now threatened, so Brussels may have to bend its rules yet again. All this comes as other EU countries besides Britain are looking for new ways to constrain the free movement of people.

The MAC report itself points to the irony that all this is happening as EU migration to Britain is going down fast. It notes that the country may be ending free movement just as public concern about it is falling. It is not too late for a compromise in which Britain accepts something like free movement in principle, but heavily constrains it in practice.

(Source: today's Economist)

[Varky]

And if the UK government had used the powers set out in Lofos-5's posting then there would not have been the backlash against EU immigrants and the Brexit referendum would not have been necessary or at least the result might have been different. Another example of how the present raft of UK politicians are/have been incompetent and have not served the country well.

On other threads WHL has requested proof of different immigrant policies being applied other than that employed by the UK....well here it is.

[Devil]

Another example of how the present raft of UK politicians are/have been incompetent and have not served the country well.

True!

[Jimgward]

Logos post shows and backs up what HiC, Jim B, OhSudanna, myself and others have insisted for ages. The UK voted Leave on a ticket of impositions if EU rules and too free immigration (pictured as all black faces by that odious creep Farage)

Had people known the truth, I am 100% convinced that Remain would have been 60-70% of electorate.

Anyone arguing for Leave, has always fallen back on these two points.