For those who don't do Twitter, here's an interesting exchange between Andrew Neil and ITN's Europe Editor James Mates:
Andrew Neil: Beware pundits who, having called stage one of Brexit talks wrong, now say stage two will be much more difficult. Could be. But not if:
i) The UK could actually make up its mind what it reasonably wants.
ii) There is goodwill on EU's part (and there could well be).
James Mates: Wasn't it Donald Tusk who said this morning Phase 2 will be much more difficult? I guess he might know.
Andrew Neil: James! He's about to start a new negotiation. Don't be naive. Why do UK journalists take everything Brussels bureaucrats/politicians say at face value, instead of applying the same scepticism we rightly apply to UK politicians/bureaucrats?
I do hope Andrew's BBC colleagues get schooled by his tweets too.
[P.S. The title of this piece and all this talk of 'schooling' is just me being masochistic. It's a pet peeve of mine that videos or posts which promise that we're about to see someone getting 'schooled or 'destroyed' or 'totally destroyed' by someone else over some political point or other almost invariably turn out to be deeply disappointing. Hope that's not the case here though!]
[P.S. The title of this piece and all this talk of 'schooling' is just me being masochistic. It's a pet peeve of mine that videos or posts which promise that we're about to see someone getting 'schooled or 'destroyed' or 'totally destroyed' by someone else over some political point or other almost invariably turn out to be deeply disappointing. Hope that's not the case here though!]
Not for the first time Andrew Neil expresses what probably 60% of the country are thinking. Why are these reporters so naive? Well they can't be really can they - nearly all highly educated and well read. They must know that people exaggerate, lie, obfuscate and all the rest during negotiations. No, the only explanation for their faux naivety is that they are committed Remainers trying to derail the implementation of our democratic decision.
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