Macron: "This evening, America turned its back on the world ... On the climate, there's no plan B because no planet B"
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jon henley
@jonhenley
Paris-based writer on European allsorts at the Guardian; views my own, RTs not endorsements, etc.
jon henley’s posts
Maybe not right now?
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I am single and in my 70s. Should I have an affair with a married man? theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2
Great replacement for the Erasmus programme, guys: lower cost-of-living support, travel support means tested and above all *no tuition fee support*. That'll really get UK students queueing up to spend a year abroad won't it.
Who would have guessed he didn't have the first clue what he was banging on about
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Vienna Treaty protects rights of UK residents in France and elsewhere in EU! Brexit will make no difference #VoteLeave #InOrOut
The fact that the French appear to be less satisfied with the performance of their government in this pandemic than the British are with theirs says more about the natural propensities of the French and the British than it does about their governments.
This is not correct. Saturdays in Paris have been quiet, gilets jaunes-wise, since early spring. But today is the anniversary of a movement whose numbers have been declining steadily since its first couple of demos - so a bit of a flambée.
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For over a year now, Saturdays in Paris have been marked by demonstration, fire and violence. This from the Place D’Italie quarter this afternoon. twitter.com/CNEWS/status/1…
UK govt: "This isn't just a British problem - Europe hasn't got any truck drivers either"
Also UK govt: "Let's solve it by giving visas to the European truck drivers Europe hasn't got"
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new splash on @ft website:
Boris Johnson has given the go-ahead to ministers to relax UK immigration rules to allow more foreign truck drivers into the country to ease shortages at petrol stations and wider economic disruption.
ft.com/content/833516
It's not a trade deal - it's a bunch of private investment announcements - and it could almost certainly have been signed from inside the EU
Bonjour merci de supprimer ou corriger votre tweet qui est inexact: les débats sont en anglais et français et plus de 60 interprètes assurent la traduction
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Je décide de ne pas regarder la suite du forum macroniste pour la paix car tout est en anglais, sans traduction. La francophonie : Macron connaît pas.
France is going to start vaccinating at *weekends*
What is the country coming to
Modest of Dan, as ever, to presume he knows better than 27 European governments what their best interests are
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I hoped and believed that the EU would act in the interests of its 27 members and agree to a mutually beneficial deal. I was wrong. Boris had no choice but to walk away and prepare for no deal. We should now formally give notice that we are annulling the Withdrawal Agreement.
A "French mess" that has seen seven million more people get vaccinated, is backed by a large majority of the French public - many of whom think it does not go far enough - and has drawn a grand total of about 350,000 protestors over three separate Saturdays. Right.
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I wrote for @nytopinion on the French mess that is the introduction of the "vaccine passport" (#PassSanitaire) - featuring angry protesters, anti-vaxx agitators, deep-rooted distrust in the institutions and Macron's choice of control over dialogue:
nytimes.com/2021/08/03/opi
The attorney general, ladies and gentleman, replying to a yes/no question about whether or not she authorised a leak
This is where we are
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PARLIAMENT: Attorney General Suella Braverman accuses Emily Thornberry of being "embarrassed of our flag" 
Why does the Spectator keep asking people to write articles about France and Germany who manifestly have not the first fricking clue about either? This article is basically fiction.
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‘The French people are realising that the real absurdity is believing Germany still values France and is committed to the EU project.’
Gavin Mortimer
spectator.co.uk/article/france
Gavin Mortimer
spectator.co.uk/article/francePerhaps because Britain is their fucking home
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FIVE million EU citizens choose to remain #despiteBrexit: thesun.co.uk/news/14013733/
Slight problem with the argument that "we can leave without a deal then negotiate one during the transition period", : without a deal, there is no transition period.
FFS.
Just how dense really are the UK politicians allegedly leading this process?
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This deal is not what the people voted for. It will tie us to the Customs Union for years to come with no way out. But there is still time to negotiate a Canada+++ deal that delivers on the referendum. So let’s get on with it. conservativehome.com/platform/2018/
On the impossibility of translating French swear words et al I quite like this:
More than 510,000 doses administered in France today, and more than 720,000 in Germany - both new daily records. Looks like Europe's vaccine rollout may finally be starting to roll.
Vive l'entente cordiale... Very much here for McVities' French marketing for choc digestives: 'They're English, but they're good...'
#MacronBFMTV There's nothing worse than journalists (which these two actually aren't, really) who think they are part of the story.
He just gets away with it, every time
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Johnson: "We have the fastest growing economy in the G7."
Latest GDP growth figures:
3%
2.6%
1.7%
1.3%
1.1%
#PMQs
3%
2.6%
1.7%
1.3%
1.1%
#PMQs
Two horrified reactions dominating French Twitter this evening: 'We'll turn into Americans - dinner at 6, bed at 9' versus 'We'll turn into Brits - pissed by 9' #couvrefeu #curfew
Elysée source in briefing yesterday: "There is surprise here that there is surprise in the UK. Britain has left the single market and customs union. That's a structural change. These are the consequences."
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There is a sense of disbelief about the new trade problems between Great Britain and the EU / Northern Ireland. Which we need to lose. This is the new normal. And we face a difficult period of adjustment - immediate paperwork needs, and to longer term uncompetitiveness.
Of course it is.
That's because no other country in Europe is asking refugees fleeing a war zone to apply for visas.
National disgrace.
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The UK Government’s Ukraine Family Scheme is the first visa scheme in the world to launch since President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
It gives Ukrainian people the freedom and means to support themselves while they are here in the United Kingdom.
(1/2)
Replying to
Why is everyone ignoring the first half of that sentence: that complying with treaties one has signed has to be non-negotiable
This video is eye-wateringly brilliant: French military band plays Daft Punk to Trump and Macron
Just a nice detail, what with illegal immigrants being so popular and all ...
Misleading and actually offensive
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More than 3 million EU nationals have applied to stay in the UK
90% now have the right to Remain. Just 6 applications rejected (due to criminality).
Intolerant Britain? Hmm.
If only there was something, some kind of union, that could ... Oh I give up.
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The way to avoid a border in Ireland is to have an overall UK-EU trade deal based on mutual recognition of standards, veterinary checks etc. Those are the talks we ought to be holding. The delay is not on Britain’s side.
The British government's ignorance of how France actually works is just embarrassing
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Furthermore, La Réunion as an overseas territory is not part of Schengen and entry from la Réunion to metropolitan France is subject to full border and health controls... twitter.com/LordRickettsP/…
If I was a non-UK EU citizen living in Britain now, I’d be really concerned. There’s no way there will not be tens of thousands of Brexit horror stories; the baseline Home Office position is, and has been for some time: reject whenever possible.
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So, Twitter. In light of the ongoing clusterfuck that is #brexit, let me tell you a little about my white, Australian experience of dealing with the UK visa authority, a complete shitshow of a bureaucracy that is in no way prepared to handle what's coming.
There are entire countries built on this assumption
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Drinking red wine and eating cheese could reduce cognitive decline
trib.al/KIRB0GJ
trib.al/KIRB0GJ
Vacuous sloganeering to rival that of Liz Truss's Chatham House effort. How can they even imagine this kind of bollox will be taken remotely seriously?
Specs wearers, take note
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Bravo , bravo bravo bravo.
It’s not just Boris Johnson’s lying. It’s that the media let him get away with it
theguardian.com/commentisfree/
Does nobody on Valérie Pécresse's team watch the news? This has already happened.
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Replying to @vpecresse
Les sanctions prises à l'égard de la Russie doivent être durcies et étendues à la Biélorussie qui est désormais un État belligérant dans ce conflit. #Pecresse2022
Top trolling
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We have updated our map to include even more direct maritime routes!
There are now almost forty weekly direct sailings between Ireland and France, keeping our EU Single Market connected by sea 
There are now almost forty weekly direct sailings between Ireland and France, keeping our EU Single Market connected by sea 
Peak France
70% of French back new 'lockdown lite' rules announce by Macron on Weds; nearly 50% say they'll probably break them
"allow"
So that'll work every bit as well as the truck drivers visa scheme then
Robert Tombs just wrong on re supposedly low popularity of EU within EU. This kind of error/dishonesty really should be corrected on air.
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Replying to @patricksturg
Here's a chart from Pew showing high and rising (to 2019) favourability to the EU across member states. Other sources bear this patten/trend out.
A work of genius
The tu/vous minefield explained to English speakers:
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Le vouvoiement expliqué aux américains. C'est clair, non ? ;-)
Cracker: Home Office can’t find enough staff to register EU citizens, may have to hire Polish admin staff.
Genius (occasionally even laugh out loud) Irish Times review of Emily in Paris
I mean, utter bollocks. Another Spectator writer who just invents stuff about France. What's the point?
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'It is not hard to work out what has gone wrong. France relied on the EU to source vaccines for the country, but that was painfully slow. The shots were not approved quickly enough, and not enough had been bought.'
Matthew Lynn
spectator.co.uk/article/france
Matthew Lynn
spectator.co.uk/article/france
"Give us what we want because we're British... " Same killer mix of UK arrogance and ignorance that's been on display since the start. They've learned nothing. It's the British government that history - and voters - will judge.
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History will judge the EU if they fail to give the UK what need to get a Brexit deal through Parliament the Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt tells @BBCr4today
This has been the case in France since, er, July
This is brilliant and necessary from Emily Thornberry. Patient, detailed, fact-based dismantling of empty Brexit bollox
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Yesterday in the House, I confronted Liz Truss with her own Department’s report on the question she’s repeatedly refused to answer: what’s the difference, in pounds and pence, between her Japan deal and the EU-Japan deal it replaces? She didn’t look happy.
OK Danny, let’s knock that right on the head. The purpose of that tweet was to say 1) illegal immigrants get a lot of bad press, so it’s nice to see some good press. 2) It’s even more of a heroic act because as an illegal immigrant, he risked deportation.
Didn't hold back here, I have to admit, helped by Guardian corrs and a whole a lot of pissed-off European politicians and officials. Brutal.
Amazing. All that, while we're still in the EU.
*They* raised the barriers? How on earth does that work? The barriers already existed, for third countries. The UK chose to have them applied to itself, by opting to become a third country.
Even in the best of times, the French regularly claim to be unhappier and less optimistic than the people of Bangladesh.
Never ceases to amaze me how far some people are prepared to ignore what they know to be true, in order to promote what they believe should be true.
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If it takes a mere 5 days for the EU to agree the next 7-year budget and the intensely controversial Covid recovery fund, then 4 months to finish the EU/UK trade talks should be a doddle.
Replying to
If this really 'changes everything for you' I'm afraid you've suffered something of a sense of humour failure.
Constantly amazed that so many UK commentators seem genuinely to believe the continent spends its time obsessing about Britain
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‘He is seething at Britain not collapsing after Brexit, consumed with jealousy at Britain’s vaccination roll-out and bitter at Britain’s early discovery of a vaccine.’
John Keiger on Macron
spectator.co.uk/article/macron
John Keiger on Macron
spectator.co.uk/article/macronUnexpected plot twist: after all the (to put it politely) "so what do those paranoid Europeans think they're playing at" UK headlines, the MHRA is actually more cautious about the Oxford/AZ vaccine than the EMA
👇👇👇
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My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane
This is all going to end so badly.
He's contradicting his own government's conclusions, making it up as he goes along.
And he sounds like he's had a few too many.
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Replying to @ManufacturingNI
Most of the video (limited you 140 seconds) now uploaded
Exceptionally clear exposition by former head of EU legal service as to why UK is completely deluded on ‘deep and special’ bespoke trade deal bollox
I spent a delightful if brutal morning with the great - and fearless -
Hardly the first. Every European who got an AZ first dose but was then ruled at risk from AZ (so in France, for example, all under-55s) got a "mix and match" second shot, generally Pfizer. So at least a dozen EU countries have been doing this for months. twitter.com/SebastianEPayn
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I think what Lord Frost meant it is that the UK "is still getting used to the situation it negotiated for".
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Replying to @nickgutteridge
Ex UK negotiator Lord Frost says the EU 'is still adjusting somewhat to the existence of a genuinely independent actor in its neighbourhood'. Adds: 'I hope we’ll get over this. It is going to require a different spirit probably from the EU, but I’m sure we are going to see that.'
Love ‘Normal for Brexit’. Going to be my new watchword.
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Liam Fox on @BBCr4today claiming to understand moulded seat panel manufacturing better than the MD of a seat panel manufacturer. Normal for Brexit.
Can't spell soy. Don't know tariff is already 0%. Just spouting crass propaganda.
And a British govt department.
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The bakers used a lot of soya sauce in the first challenge on #GBBO, so it's a good thing it will be made cheaper thanks to our trade deal with Japan 
Lot of Macron-envy among UK commentators this morning. Smart, articulate, engaged, etc - whatever you think of his policies. When did so many of today’s top UK politicians decide none of that stuff matters, and make meaningless repetitive question-dodging their default position?
Happy spring equinox, everyone. For the next six months the days will be longer than the nights. That's something, at least.
"Shortages British made and British owned," "We told you not to do it," "Go boil an egg - if you can find one in the supermarket" and "Don't mention the B word" - European and US media not best impressed by govt explanations of UK supply woes
Has been clear for some time, I'd say.
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It will become painfully clear this is not a negotiation between EU &UK. EU presents its terms and say accept this or go over the cliff edge
Actually, I do. But you presumably don't read French:
leparisien.fr/paris-75/mamou
An actual MP
Difficult to exaggerate the irresponsibility
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No more talking or moved deadlines, let's just leave without a deal. The EU will soon come running back begging for one! #NoDealBrexit #GlobalFreeTrade
Er, you walked right into that one.
Try reading from the top ...
OMG what a devastating and entirely unexpected shock I am reeling how come we were never warned
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It may not be possible to negotiate as frictionless trade with the EU as we have now - Hamond
Here's a New Yorker writer comparing French laïcité to the Soviet purges and the Cultural revolution.
I mean seriously where to even begin. twitter.com/Alex_Lily/stat
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Replying to
Brexit is going to screw the UK for years in a way I never imagined: it's created a culture in which the country's current leaders and their party cannot actually tell the truth about quite a lot of things that matter, and therefore cannot truly fix them
Not if it wants to stay in the World Trade Organisation it couldn't. When are these ideologues going to stop making stuff up?
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Once out of the EU Customs Union the UK could unilaterally cut all tariffs on products we don't grow for ourselves or could offer to do so in return for some free trade response from those who would benefit. Inside, we can't do this as the others don't agree w/ this strategy.
A lot of talk at the Spectator, certainly. Not so much in actual France, about which Freddy Taylor clearly knows not very much.
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‘France is a very febrile place at the moment. There’s a lot of talk about a sort-of coming civil war, because a lot of the cities are in such a bad way. So it could be a very dramatic election.’
Freddy Gray
Watch in full
youtu.be/FwyjRfUsgZQ
Freddy Gray
Watch in full youtu.be/FwyjRfUsgZQ
The UK government's decision to keep the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated arrivals from France cannot be explained by supposed worries over the Beta variant, which represents a small and stable % of cases in France. So what does explain it?
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Dans les enquêtes Flash de séquençage aussi, le variant Delta est devenu majoritaire en France (55% des séquences interprétables dans celle du 29 juin, la plus récente). #Covid19
santepubliquefrance.fr/maladies-et-tr
Genuinely gobsmacked that even at this late stage, MPs continue to spout this kind of utterly delusional nonsense.
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In a free and fair referendum the people of the U.K. voted to leave the EU. To take back control of our laws, our money and our borders 
. The PM @theresa_may sets out how the @Conservatives Government will deliver on the instructions of the people 
#Brexit twitter.com/theresa_may/st
. The PM @theresa_may sets out how the @Conservatives Government will deliver on the instructions of the people #Brexit twitter.com/theresa_may/stNearly seven million more people have got vaccinated and polls show strong majority support.
In total about 350,000 have protested, over three separate Saturdays.
Sure it "didn't go well".
nyti.ms/3A58Z8I
I think we are entitled to ask at what point sanity might prevail
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Ministers draw up secret plans to stockpile processed food in case of a ‘no deal’ Brexit thesun.co.uk/news/6747231/m
. , the 24-year- old whose websites and app have made raw Covid data understandable to all and connected eager vaccinees with available doses, awarded France's order of merit. The lad done well.
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"A titre exceptionnel" et pour son année de services "dans le cadre de la pandémie", @GuillaumeRozier est fait chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite.
legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTE
An eloquent, evidenced and necessary counterblast from to France's habitual performative miserablism (goes without saying it won't convince many actual French people, obvs)
Replying to
You may have been a good athlete Jack but you're a truly terrible historian. This is demonstrably bollocks.
Euh, le Brexit n'a pas encore eu lieu. Donc tout ça à du se passer (ce qui n'est pas le cas, d'ailleurs) avec la GB dans l'UE. Incroyable, non ?
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"Depuis le #Brexit, la richesse nationale du Royaume-Uni a mieux progressé que celle de la zone euro, leur taux de chômage est au plus bas, ils ont créé deux fois plus d'emplois qu'en France, et les salaires ont augmenté après l'arrêt de l'immigration massive !" #OnArrive
You haven't actually read it, have you? It calls for a customs union. This is a bit like your amusing tweet about supermarket vegetables, which succinctly made the case for the precise opposite of what you thought it did... . Keep up the good work, Richard.
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Funny BBC & Sky not reporting German economists major report criticizing EU Brexit tactics & risks to EU countries digitaledition.telegraph.co.uk/editions/editi
More than 40 people infected after post-lockdown church service in Germany.
Physical distancing rules observed, but large indoor gatherings very plainly not a good idea... hessenschau.de/gesellschaft/e
This aged well
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Highly significant that the UK has avoided the Europe travel ban. UK outside of Schengen, has left the EU, and has responded strongly to virus threat. A big demonstration of strength of Special Relationship in Brexit era. bbc.com/news/world-us-