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jon henley
@jonhenley
Paris-based writer on European allsorts at the Guardian; views my own, RTs not endorsements, etc.
Paris, Francetheguardian.com/profile/jonhen…Joined June 2009

jon henley’s posts

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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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
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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
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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
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International Trade Secretary Liz Truss tells LBC the UK would not have been able to sign a £1bn trade deal with India if it were still in the European Union. @NickFerrariLBC lbc.co.uk/radio/presente
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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.
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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
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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
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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/
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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.
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Vive l'entente cordiale... Very much here for McVities' French marketing for choc digestives: 'They're English, but they're good...'
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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/…
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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.
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Peak France 70% of French back new 'lockdown lite' rules announce by Macron on Weds; nearly 50% say they'll probably break them
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EN DIRECT - Covid-19: sept Français sur dix approuvent les mesures annoncées par Emmanuel Macron, mais près de la moitié envisagent de transgresser les nouvelles règles bfmtv.com/sante/en-direc
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"allow" So that'll work every bit as well as the truck drivers visa scheme then
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'We're going to allow butchers to be able to come in on a temporary basis' The govt will allow more foreign butchers into the UK and expects 800 butchers are needed to help prevent the culling of pigs over staff shortages, George Eustice has announced. trib.al/pRT443o
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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
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"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
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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.
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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.
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Amazing. All that, while we're still in the EU.
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Great to see demand for 🇬🇧 goods in non-EU markets is growing at its fastest for over a year. ⬆ British firms’ global exports totalled £679.5bn last year ⬆ 53% of goods exports went to non-EU markets ⬆ Exports of goods to non-EU markets up 7.5%
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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.
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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
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Unexpected 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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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.'
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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?
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Happy spring equinox, everyone. For the next six months the days will be longer than the nights. That's something, at least.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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. , 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
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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
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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
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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-
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