Proof Brexit is shot in arm
I’VE said before, if anyone has doubts over the wisdom of Brexit they should compare the vaccination rates of the UK and European Union members.
But even I didn’t think the issue would blow up in the face of the EU as badly as it did this week.
It’s in nobody’s interest for our European friends to get left behind in this life-or-death race.
The first-rate job our Government is doing (words you won’t have read often over the last few days) in getting jabs done would be wasted if much of the continent was still riddled with the virus.
That said, the vengeful way the EU has responded to the crisis shows why so many of the Europeans it seeks to control are rapidly falling out of love with it.
Look at the riots in the
Netherlands, their worst 40 years and in part driven by the woeful attempt to vaccinate its population. Similar disturbances have taken place in Spain and Denmark, and even in Germany the press are openly critical of Angela Merkel and claim she sacrificed lives by entrusting the country’s vaccine rollout to the EU. They rightly point out that when Germany tried to act independently and buy its own stocks it was halted by the EU, which also threatened to sue. Brussels can bully as much as it wishes – the figures are undeniable. While the UK can point to vaccinating more than 400,000 people in one day and having reached around 12% of the population, the EU struggles on just 1.9%. Faced with this, Brussels went back to its well-thumbed playbook and tried to blame others.
The real reason is simple: the UK ordered its supplies in May, while the EU was three months behind. That gave us three months to iron out any supply problems while the EU was dithering. Remember the adage: “In a crisis you soon learn who your friends are.” Regrettably, they currently do not include those within the EU. Their motives are admirable – they want vaccines rolled out at the same pace in Nice, Nuremberg, Rome and Riga.
In reality, that is utterly undeliverable.
Clearly, not for nothing is the EU known as a “bloc”.
THERE is despair in
Dubai as a horde of “influencers” strive to get back to the UK before travel restrictions kick in and they face the prospect of 10 days in the Premier Clink upon their return. Just who are these self-appointed and self-obsessed individuals who think they possess such appeal? If you have ever done, drunk, bought or borrowed something because of their “influence”, then you need to have a stern word with yourself.