Mouse is shouting at the elephant

SEVERAL of our eagle-eyed readers have rang us up and written in to point out the picture we used last week was in fact the Lord Bassett Arms in Sapcote.

We were under the impression it was the Duke of Norfolk restaurant.

However, the pictures must have been mixed up somewhere along the line... It also leaves us with the question about the Duke of Norfolk and if there ever was such a place...? IT IS becoming more apparent through the deadlock in Brexit talks that the EU prizes its own integrity way above some sweetheart deal with the UK - and we should not, upon mature reflection, be surprised.

True, there may be (temporary) setbacks for - eg - the German car industry if tariffs make more costly their imports to us. (Bear in mind that VW is able to afford billions in rectifying its diesel fiasco.)

Our problem in all this is one consistent with the mentality of self-delusion and arrogance threading through many, many decades that we are still “more special” than other countries - which could be heard in Brexit nostalgic cries for a return to days of greatness, freedom and independence (and which had resonance in Trump’s winning campaign).

This aged mentality also generates the paranoia that we are so special as to be the prime target of the Russians, causing us to waste trillions on useless nuclear weapons, an expense spared less special, more rational countries which lie a good deal closer to Moscow.

This feeling of “specialness” also causes us to involve ourselves in costly and disastrous foreign adventures such as Afghanistan.

But to return to the EU debate, it is ironically the very industry which people like Fox, Davis and ReesMogg cite as wishing to avoid a trade war which is most vociferous in demanding no special treatment for the UK. I mean the German car industry. Why? Because the EU is becoming an integrated economy - not just a market - in which components, technology and expertise, sourced in many countries, can move seamlessly around.

No special sweetheart deal with Britain which might “unstitch” this integrity will be countenanced.

The Brexit wing of the Tory Party are so boneheadedly anti-EU that they fail to understand the sophisticated direction in which it is moving.

There can be no dialogue between Barnier and Davis because the latter misses the point entirely.

The EU sincerely wishes the UK gone - in its present stupid mood.

For Barnier, it is only a question of the financial divorce bill.

The mouse is shouting at the elephant - you know you cannot do without me! It should not be surprised at what happens next. John Payne