Ironically, UKREP - the UK's permanent representation, think Embassy - was one of the best

One of the very best in fact. Other countries openly envied us for our effectiveness at working with the various EU organs. Part of this was due to heritage, I think: Britain was notorious for past use of hard power (Empire, etcetera) but has always (at least until recently) been expert, arguably the expert, at soft power. Part was due to the use of English as the lingua franca - even though there are other official languages, and the French would ensure as much was done in French as possible, the reality is that English is simply more widely spoken. Being the native speaker in the room of the language in which the discussions are happening is a genuine advantage.

Cameron was inept, both to ask what he did and in the way that he asked it. No-one really believed we'd vote to Leave. It's possible if they'd realised they'd have given him something, I suppose: but Cameron's real fault, or genius depending how you see it, was ceding the referendum to that part of his party (Leave or Remain, I think we can all agree that part of the Tory party, the most Eurosceptic part, is quite deeply unpleasant: which is not to say parts of the Labour party are not also quite deeply unpleasant).

Posted By: Old Man, Mar 23, 19:24:00