Bullying the UK is always a big mistake

MANY problems in history could have been avoided if our Continental neighbours had understood from the start that it is not a good idea to try to bully Britain.

Nothing could have been more calculated to unite the people of this country behind Theresa May than the ill-mannered and dismissive treatment given to her by the EU’s leaders in Salzburg.

Many Remainers, seeing Thursday’s display of Euro- arrogance, will have begun to share the view long held by Leavers, that Brussels has an inflated view of its importance and an inability to appreciate the needs and difficulties of individual nations.

Ultimately, it is driven by a purely political desire to create an ever-closer union, so narrow and dogmatic that it is selfdestructive. It was this attitude which led to what amounted to the mugging of poor, powerless Greece, and to the repeated and disgraceful overriding of referendums in EU member states worried about losing their freedoms and independence. This has done deep and lasting damage to the whole EU, which benefits nobody.

It led to the current crisis. An ounce of flexibility over free movement, offered to David Cameron in 2015, would have saved the EU a vast mountain of problems.

Yet still they cannot see it. Mrs May has handled a very difficult task with a great deal of personal dedication and skill. Even her critics concede that she has shown courage, determination and almost unlimited forbearance. She has fought to get a deal with the EU that fulfils the Brexit vote while balancing the often angry and impossible demands of different wings of her party.

Surely it would have been in the interests of the EU, which claims to be the inheritor of centuries of civilisation and culture, if its leaders could have recognised her difficulties and given her some help. Instead, they gave her the Salzburg Snub.

Now we have new talk of snap elections and leadership challenges. We all know where this might very well lead, which is why sensible people are against it. Do Messrs Barnier, Tusk and Juncker really want to find themselves talking instead to Jeremy Corbyn?

There is still time to avoid such an outcome, but it is the EU, not Mrs May, which needs to shift away from its inflexibility and bullying intransigence. In the meantime, the Prime Minister should be rewarded for her quiet, decent, old-fashioned patience with the equally old-fashioned loyalty which the Tory party can display when it is at its best.