Butt out, Brussels

ANOTHER day on the road to Brexit, another burst of sneering provocation from the self- serving bureaucrats of Brussels, who seem as determined as ever to put obstacles in the way of a trade deal.

Says European Council president Donald Tusk: ‘A pick-and-mix approach for a nonmember state is out of the question. It is simply not in our interests.’

One crucial question: Just who does he mean by ‘ our’?

Clearly, the deal proposed by Theresa May – preserving tariff-free trade in such areas as the automotive industry – is very much in the interests of German car makers and other EU exporters who depend on British markets (and never forget, they sell far more to us than we do to them).

The same goes for firms all over the continent which depend on the City for affordable loans. Many would be devastated if they lost easy access to Europe’s only wholesale money market.

As for the European Court of Justice, the overwhelming majority of EU citizens simply couldn’t care less if Brussels loses its supremacy over British law – or, for that matter, if the Irish border stays open.

No, the only interests threatened by a pick-and-mix deal are those of the empirebuilding, anti-democratic Eurocracy, bent on creating a superstate despite growing popular resentment throughout the EU.

Mr Tusk says it is ‘not our objective’ to demonstrate Brexit can be a success. He should try telling that to the 500million citizens the EU purports to represent. They want success as much as we do.

Isn’t it high time their elected governments started calling the shots – and told the panjandrums of Brussels to butt out?