Despite their assurances, we shouldn’t naïvely trust EU

THERE is a line from William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, “the lady doth protest too much, methinks”.

In light of interchanges between Donald Tusk and Leo Varadkar earlier this week, one wonders if the phrase could be reconstructed as “the gentleman doth reassure too much, methinks”.

Donald Tusk’s scornful remark that there was “a special place in hell” for those who promoted Brexit without anything resembling a plan, and the amused responses, are hardly likely to make British agreement easier; indeed, it seems an intended insult to inflame British anger and force departure without any agreement.

In serious negotiations, it is usual for protagonists who seek genuine agreement while vigorously fighting their corner to refrain from serious or inflammatory insults and to make allowances for compromise so that agreement is possible.

This appears not to be the situation with Brexit.

It appears the EU is determined to make leaving conditions so difficult that the British will be forced into the abject surrender of abandoning Brexit altogether, or remaining bound legally to the EU for an indefinite period without the power of political input. Or that in frustration, the UK leaves without agreement at all.

This latter option, although publicly abhorred, may well be the desired result in the hope that British economics will collapse and deter any other EU member from ever again trying to leave the single market.

The greatest loser in such a situation would be the Republic of Ireland which, despite fine words and gratuitous support, would be thrown to the economic winds as acceptable collateral damage for consigning beastly Brexiteers to an economic hell from which it would be hoped, they never emerge.

Politics and power are dirty games; it behoves the weak and naïve caught up in the intrigue to trust nobody – especially those who protest or reassure too much. Padraic Neary

Tubbercurry, Co Sligo