Brexit is about compromise — so let’s see some from the EU too
AT what point does Brexit stop meaning Brexit and start meaning sell-out?
To some it will be learning that their new blue British passport — that beautiful, iconic symbol of our nation — will be made abroad by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto.
To others it will be hearing foreign fishermen will be free to plunder British waters during the so-called transition period from March 29, 2019, to December 31, 2020 — that is, after we have officially left the EU.
To many, the big Brexit sell-out has already happened.
They believe that Chancellor Philip Hammond feels exactly the same way about British fishermen as Prime Minister Ted Heath did in 1973 — that is, Phil doesn’t give a damn.
But we have to start recognising the difference between a compromise in the real world and a betrayal of Brexit.
It is quite possible that Brexit will be sold out and that we will leave the EU in name only.
That our spineless politicians will be so inept at negotiating a deal that we remain a vassal state of Brussels, the dream of restored sovereignty fudged by a combination of timidity, incompetence and deceit.
But it has not happened yet.
Is it really stark raving mad that the new blue British passports will be made by Gemalto?
The contract was awarded after a blind tender — meaning all bidders were assessed anonymously.
So before we throw a hissy fit and start acting like mouth-foaming, eye-bulging, toy-throwing Remainiacs, let us acknowledge that the reason Gemalto won the contract for replacing those ugly burgundy EU passports is because it promised to do it cheaper than anyone else, including British bidder De La Rue.
You could argue — and I would agree with you — that in a time of terrorism, British passports should be manufactured by a British company.
And although EU rules oblige nations not to favour companies from their own country, on issues of national security — including the manufacture of passports — you are allowed to opt out.
That is exactly what they do in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. And we could have done it too.
But Home Secretary Amber Rudd — who signed off on the passport contract — was not attempting to thwart Brexit.
She was simply trying to save the British taxpayer £120million over ten years.
De La Rue has one week to appeal against the passport contract going abroad. I hope it wins. But even if it doesn’t, it is not a sell-out.
The deal with our fishing rights is another bitter pill to swallow.
Brussels will control our waters until the end of 2020 and remaining in the Common Fisheries Policy after we have left the EU is a slap in the face with a wet haddock for every British fisherman.
But the bitter truth is that our fishermen were sold out half a lifetime ago, when Ted Heath sacrificed that proud and noble industry on the altar of EU membership.
I understand the fury about letting Brussels control our fishing waters after Brexit.
But what matters most is that they return to British sovereignty after 2020.
This is the kind of painful compromise that happens in any negotiation. But compromise should not be on our side alone.
The big-spending European Union will be insolvent if they do not get our £39billion divorce bill.
No deal will be bad for the British. No deal — and no £39billion — will mean bankruptcy for the EU.
Brexit has not been sold out — not yet. But we still want our country back, including our fish.
That should not be an impossible dream.
If the EU can’t do a deal with us, then Jean-Claude Juncker will be drinking methylated spirits.
So let’s start seeing some painful compromises on the OTHER side, too.
— VICTORIA BECKHAM gets slagged off for wearing a £90 T-shirt from her own collection while doing her bit for Sport Relief in Kenya.
But you can hardly expect Posh to pop in to Primark just so she can dress down for the cameras.
I have met Victoria – charming she was, too – and she strikes me as the kind of woman who would not step into her back garden without getting her hair, make-up and outfit exactly right.
A 90 quid T-shirt is probably what Victoria wears when she is digging her allotment.
ZUCKER PUNCH IN THE FACE
IN less than a generation, Facebook, Twitter and Google – which owns YouTube – have degraded and debased public life.
These morally blank platforms have enabled terrorists and paedophiles and made racism commonplace.
They have built their fortunes on the illegal, the extremist and the sick.
And they don’t even pay their fair share of tax.
So the controversy around Facebook pimping personal details of its users to anyone who wanted them has not taken Mark Zuckerberg’s company into the gutter.
Because Facebook was already in the sewer.
Facebook, Twitter and Google have grown big and rich because they have operated totally beyond the legal and moral constraints that are placed on traditional media such as newspapers.
But after the revelation that Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica to access details of 50million of its users in a bid to manipulate the American presidential election, the firm had £42billion wiped off the value of its shares.
The tide might at last be turning against the digital fat cats.
No wonder Zuckerberg, who lost £5billion of his personal fortune on Facebook’s falling share price, is looking even more dazed than usual.
Get real, Britney
FASHION brand Aerie has vowed it will never retouch photographs of its models.
Its Danish model, Nina Agdal – fresh-faced and lovely without any hint of Photo-shopping – happily boasts: “I embrace my curves.”
How different to Britney Spears in her new Kenzo advertising campaign, which caused shocked fans to suspect some kind of digital jiggery-pokery.
Britney looks awesome in the ads.
The problem is she doesn’t look much like Britney Spears.
— DEC looks desolate at the loss of his troubled best friend Ant.
Of course he does. Friends like that are irreplaceable.
You can make new friends.
But you can’t make old friends.
NOODLES OF WASTED CASH
OVER the next decade, President Xi Jinping’s booming China is set to become the world’s biggest aid donor, handing out £700billion across the globe.
So isn’t it queer that China still gets £45million a year from the cash-strapped UK?
When will we have a generation of politicians with the wit to end this foreign aid insanity?
Hat's a load of rubbish
THE scary thing about fake news is that it spreads at the speed of light while the truth comes plodding behind at the pace of a comatose tortoise.
In its report on the use of chemical weapons in Salisbury, the BBC’s Newsnight ran a picture of Jeremy Corbyn wearing the kind of Commie cap that would have drawn admiring glances from any well-dressed Bolshevik revolutionary.
A Guardian journalist accused the BBC of making Corbyn look like a “Soviet stooge” – as if Comrade Corbyn needs any help in looking like Putin’s pliant plaything.
It is true that Corbyn’s grizzled mug was placed in front of a graphic of a blood-red Moscow skyline, but Newsnight used exactly the same image when they interviewed the Tory Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson.
But the Guardian hack claimed that the BBC had Photoshopped Corbyn’s cap to make him “look more Russian”.
Not true, countered the BBC – as it posted evidence that showed Corbyn really does wear that ridiculous Lenin cap in real life.
But by the time the BBC had tweeted its denial, the fib that Corbyn’s cap was faked had been lapped up by more than two million people.
Some perspective, please. If Twitter ruled the world, then Hillary Clinton would be in the White House, Remain would have won the EU referendum and Jeremy Corbyn would be Prime Minister.
None of these things happened. Which shows the fatal flaw of the gullible, gormless Twitter mob.
If you spend your life ranting on Twitter, you can’t work up the energy to actually make it to a polling booth.
— HORRIBLE historian Dr David Olusoga accuses Winston Churchill of being a war criminal because of the Bengal famine of 1943-1944 and unspecified “war crimes in Africa”.
Historian Andrew Roberts explained in The Sun why what Olusoga asserts is rubbish.
“Some respected historians have argued convincingly that the Bengal famine would have been worse if it hadn’t been for Churchill’s actions in procuring grain as soon as it was safe to ship,” wrote Roberts.
Olusoga says he objects to “this idea of heroes”. What he really objects to is people feeling proud of this country and our past.
That and the fact that the greatest anti-fascist in history was an old, cigar-smoking, champagne-quaffing Tory.
MOST READ IN OPINION
— HARRIET HARMAN says that the next Labour leadership contest should be contested only by women candidates.
You can understand her concern.
The Tories are on their second female Prime Minister while Labour has not been led by a woman in its 118- year history.
If you believe in sexual equality, why would you ever vote Labour?
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