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Britain had an outsized influence in the EU, so in fact the strategy was to extract EU-internal horsetrading on the 'negotiating mandate' strong demands for the
by estaseuropano 5y ago
Britain had an outsized influence in the EU, so in fact the strategy was to extract EU-internal horsetrading on the 'negotiating mandate' strong demands for their own position which then became the EU position backed by the EU's entire weight.
Also the last time UK had to negotiate on their own it's economy was still bigger than China's. The world has changed and Brexiteers hadn't noticed that their lack of influence was not the EU's fault but rather a general shift of power to Asia.
- detaro 5y ago> Britain had an outsized influence in the EU Something which large parts of the British public and reportedly even of the politicians didn't really realize or appreciate, because Brussels was always a derided side-show, to a higher degree than for most other countries.
- fmajid 5y agoMore precisely the British were allowed to take point on a number of laissez-faire positions when it was politically or diplomatically awkward for others like the Dutch or Germans to do so. Playing bad cop, essentially.
- Chris2048 5y ago> Brexiteers hadn't noticed that.. I'm getting sick of people talking on behalf of brexiters, or what they know/think/believe - this colonial reference is just another "little Englander" smear.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- croon 5y agoWell, the alternative is that they had noticed it, which is worse.
- rwmj 5y agoThe other half was that if anything proved controversial at home, blame the EU for it. This method of getting controversial regulations through was known as "policy laundering".