[ianch99]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Are you still harking on about revoking Article 50?

That's funny

---------- Post added at 08:47 ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 ----------

It does seem Cummings is out of control though. He clearly does not tolerate leaks in No. 10 and so the "leaks" to the Spectator and the one about the Merkel phone call are clearly penned by him.

This description of No. 10 from the other side of the table is apt and accurate:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...brexit-trouble

Donald Tusk had read the reports while travelling to Berlin. The European council president was going to see Merkel at the chancellery as part of a routine tour of European capitals before next week’s EU summit, where Brexit is again crowding out the agenda. Tusk, an anglophile former Polish prime minister with a sharp turn of phrase, has been deeply frustrated by what he sees as Downing Street’s attempt to avoid responsibility.

As his car headed to the chancellery, he decided it was time to hit back and accused Johnson directly of playing “some stupid blame game” and making a deal impossible. “Where are you going?” he asked in Latin.

He was not alone in that view. In Brussels, European diplomats were aghast at what they saw as the No 10 spin machine out of control. “It’s incredibly immature. Kids in the kindergarten behave more maturely than this,” one senior diplomat said of the latest No 10 briefings. “It’s amazing, that’s all I can say.”

The diplomat told the Guardian it might be better to simply ignore the statements, suggesting they could not represent the strategy of a serious country. “This is so strange and immature. This can’t be government policy, this can’t be a majority opinion in Downing Street.”

The same diplomat described No 10’s account of the call with Merkel as “an incredible distortion of facts”, saying she would have repeated the EU’s longstanding position that a customs border was not compatible with the UK’s obligations under the Good Friday agreement.

Another diplomat described No 10’s account of the call as “quite shocking”, pointing to claims that Merkel had apparently said Germany could leave the EU “no problem” if it wanted. “She would never have mentioned Germany leaving the EU - it’s quite gross and ridiculous,” the diplomat said. “For me, it was obvious that it was designed for a domestic audience but, at the same time, how could they attribute that to the chancellor?”

Embarrassing times to be British ..