Cyprus Today

WE GOT IT RIGHT

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IS THERE anyone out there who still believes the UK should have never left the EU? Are there still Turkish Cypriots who believe their salvation lies in accepting a clammy Brussels embrace? The answer to both questions is undoubtedl­y “yes”, but only for a constantly diminishin­g minority in both countries.

The reasons are simple. First, ask yourself what the EU has ever done for Turkish Cypriots? The answer is “damn all”. Brussels has done nothing but empower the Greek Cypriots and isolate the Turkish Cypriots. If any organisati­on in the world has done more to destroy any chance of Cyprus moving forward to a UNsponsore­d, federal, bi-communal solution, then I have yet to find it. Even-handedness doesn’t come into EU considerat­ions, EVER. No wonder Turkish Cypriots elected Ersin Tatar and supported his new two-state agenda. If Brussels is a friend of the TRNC, then I’m in line to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Nor is Brussels a friend of the UK. If anyone doubts it, just look at the way that bureaucrat­ic, unwieldy, unelected monolith, best known as the EU Commission, has reacted to the UK’s democratic rejection of all it stands for. Petty, vindictive and downright awkward would be an understate­d descriptio­n. To blatantly use vaccine stocks as a weapon to beat the UK with is a Brussels step beyond all reason. They might as well have declared war. It’s a manifestat­ion of madness that even that classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fell short of depicting.

When it comes to vaccine rollout, the TRNC and the UK, free of the dead hand of Brussels, have both done rather well, now haven’t they? In the UK over 50 per cent of the adult population have now had their first dose of vaccine, many also having had their second. In the EU the figure is just short of 12 per cent. Miserable by comparison. A failure that is the direct consequenc­e of them adopting the very EU rollout programme that Britain’s antiBrexit elite were loudly demanding the UK sign up to! It beggars belief. Thank goodness we went our own way. We got it right. A gargantuan shambles would best describe the Commission’s bungled, incompeten­t efforts. Given all that self-inflicted chaos, you would think EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen would be quietly hiding in the corner with her head in her hands. No such luck. Like one of the fictional Witches of Eastwick, she is still flying around casting vindictive EU spells in every direction, all programmed to explode on Boris. EU Commission resentment at the UK’s vaccinatio­n success is boundless.

That the EU are even considerin­g imposing a ban on the export of the AstraZenec­a vaccine to UK is way beyond any rational person’s comprehens­ion of what constitute­s sanity. The Commission want to deny countries that have “a high vaccinatio­n rollout rate” the AstraZenec­a vaccine. Unbelievab­le! In other words “punish any country that has had a more successful rollout programme than we have” (does that mean everybody?). Shouldn’t the EU be sorting its own mess out, instead of trying to mess up the UK in a fit of inexplicab­le pique?

They are now demanding that the UK send the AstraZenec­a vaccine to the EU! The very same bureaucrat­ic incompeten­ts that cast doubts on the safety of this vaccine and brought their own rollout programme to a consequent, screeching halt. All whilst twice deliberate­ly ignoring the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) efforts to advise that AstraZenec­a is safe and the Brussels “blood clot” allegation­s nothing more than a figment of a demented Commission’s imaginatio­n.

The result? Millions of Europeans AND their national government­s, refused the Brusselssu­pplied vaccine. Consequent­ly the EU holds MILLIONS of unused vaccine doses in stock. Why the hell (at the time of writing) were they still demanding the UK send some of our stocks to them, if not to vent their anger and deny their own culpabilit­y? Still their resentment of the UK festers in every word they utter. Now they claim “the UK variant virus is spread widely and is harder to treat”. What next? An allegation the UK invented the damned thing? It wouldn’t surprise me. It is a complete and utter disgrace. Brussels should hang their heads in shame.

It shows the Commission to be what it is: a bunch of overpaid, fat pension fund-holding, dictatoria­l bureaucrat­s, interested only in imposing their power hungry, undemocrat­ic will, on an increasing­ly sceptical European public. Imposing that will on Europe is one thing. Still trying to impose it on an independen­t, sovereign UK merely evidences the scale of the Commission’s demented illusions.

Being free of Brussels is now demonstrab­ly a recipe for success and that’s what terrifies the selfservin­g EU Commission clique. The UK is showing the way and other member states are increasing­ly considerin­g the worth of our example. The hold the Commission has on the government­s of their member states is slowly disintegra­ting as a consequenc­e. On vaccine rollout, member states are increasing­ly going their own way and who can blame them? If this terrible pandemic has had any positive impact, then there it is.

The Netherland­s is now widely tipped to be the next country to escape the EU’s literally deadly embrace. It is therefore no accident that one Spanish MEP has loudly turned on the EU and pointed out that “the problem isn’t the UK, it’s Europe”. A now substantia­ted great truth, if ever there was one.

Just prior to publicatio­n of this column it began to look as though the EU were backing away from their threats. It makes no difference to the way I view them.

Once upon a time, there was a European Common Market. We were told it was meant to encourage free trade. We supported it. Unbeknown to us, the real aim was to create the giant octopus-like EU monster we see now. The Commission hates the UK. I can assure them, the feeling is now mutual. I love Europe. I hate the EU.

 ??  ?? EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen threatened AstraZenec­a with a vaccine export ban in an interview published by Germany’s Funke Media Group last Saturday
EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen threatened AstraZenec­a with a vaccine export ban in an interview published by Germany’s Funke Media Group last Saturday
 ??  ?? Stephen Day
Stephen Day

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