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Prosceccogate. – Or the Boris Johnson method of diplomacy. (Prosecco is a very average fizzy Italian plonk)
Boris Johnson may have thought he had discovered Italy’s Achilles heel when he suggested in a private meeting recently that the country would capitulate to British demands in Brexit negotiations because it would be loath to “sell less prosecco”.
But in Veneto, where the fizzy wine is made, Johnson’s threat against one of Italy’s most fashionable exports to Britain was met with bemusement and even confusion.
“It was quite funny … He’s like an actor. He’s not in a position to manage Prosecco and the taste of the English people,” said Filippo Cigoli, the UK export manager for Maschio dei Cavalieri.
In the last 48 hours, Cigoli said, he had not heard a word about the controversy from his customers in the UK. “I just received orders,” he said with a laugh.
He gets so many orders, in fact, that Cigoli regularly turns down requests from British supermarkets for more and more prosecco, because he simply does not have enough.
“I refuse a million bottles per week, as if it’s peanuts. As if it’s a glass of water. What can I say? Maybe there is something behind Johnson’s words that we don’t yet understand, but considering how the business is going, it will not change anything,” Cigoli said.
The controversy began when Italy’s economic development minister, Carlo Calenda, said he had been insulted by Johnson who had been discussing Brexit.
“He basically said: ‘I don’t want free movement of people but I want the single market,’” Calenda told Bloomberg Television. “I said: ‘No way.’ He said: ‘You’ll sell less prosecco.’ I said: ‘OK, you’ll sell less fish and chips, but I’ll sell less prosecco to one country and you’ll sell less to 27 countries.’ Putting things on this level is very insulting.
Guardian 19 November
This message was last edited by Mickyfinn on 19/11/2016.
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Time is the school in which we learn
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz.
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Perhaps the Buffoon in the UK FO and the soon to be Buffoon to enter the White House will get on well with the buffoons running the EU.
it only takes a few good men to do nothing for evil, or madness to thrive.
Allow the inmates to run an asylum and that's what you ll get.
oops am I allowed to say that? Now that freedom of speech is effectively banned.
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I would ask everyone who posts on here one question which I asked many of my friends before the referendum.
If we weren't already a part of the EU before the referendum and the choice was to join or not how many would vote to join?
My guess would be that the majority vote for not joining would be a far greater difference than the referendum vote.
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One hypothetical question deserves another.
Do you believe Britain would be such a prosperous society if it had not joined the European Community in 1973?
Fact; The UK's per capita GDP relative to the EU founding members' declined steadily from 1945 to 1972. However, it was relatively stable between 1973 and 2010.
_______________________
Time is the school in which we learn
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz.
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Yes -In fact I believe it would have been even more prosperous - Notice I have answered.your question and not added another to avoid the answer.
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All the facts indicate the decline of Britain was reversed after memebership. Remember the bail out from the IMF, constant strikes, British Leyland, British Rail, British Steel.
Yes I would vote again to join. In fact I did back in 1975 when the remain vote won the day. Amazing what getting richer does to people.
_______________________
Time is the school in which we learn
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz.
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One hypothetical question deserves another.
Do you believe Britain would be such a prosperous society if it had not joined the European Community in 1973?
Fact; The UK's per capita GDP relative to the EU founding members' declined steadily from 1945 to 1972. However, it was relatively stable between 1973 and 2010.
Not taking into account then that England was broken, financially and physically to pieces after WW2 ended in 1945.
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Maybe if Mr Cameron was completely truthful with the public of the UK from the beginning ,by telling us that we could not control emigration from the EU because the EU now run the UK border controls and that your Income Tax will rise and rise due to the whole of the EU having the right to free health care /free dole money without paying a penny in to the system ,this would have caused a land slide victory for the OUTs ,so the INs would have no argument and we would all be able to get on with our lives.(Boy am I sick to death with this thread domineering this site.)
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All the facts indicate the decline of Britain was reversed after memebership. Remember the bail out from the IMF, constant strikes, British Leyland, British Rail, British Steel.
All what facts? Not the ones you are stating. Britains decline accelerated between 73 and 79, the era of industrial unrest. The bailout from the IMF was about 5 years after we joined. We were promised a market for our industrial goods and cheap food. We got expensive food and a flood of imports from Germany, Italy and France.
The end to Britain's Industrial troubles and improved economy were directly due to the changes wrought in the Thatcher years and were in spite of the damage done by the EU.
Javi is undoubtably correct. We would still have a fishing industry, cheap food from the Commonwealth and there might just have been more remnants of our industry had we not joined.
I suppose you could also argue that without the damage done by the EEC Mrs Thatcher would not have been elected, we would have continued to decline and still be the 'sick man of Europe'. Three cheers for the EU!
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Well said tteedd.
I think at least 2 people who post on here daily are not who we think they are. I suspect one of them is David Cameron and the other George Osborne....
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Nah. Not posh enough, not educated enough, not British enough, but not even as ridiculous as George Osborne.
Perhaps Abbott and Costello?
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Obvious that leavers feel they are on the back foot.
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Britain was virtually bankrupt when the referendum to remain in the EU was held and won in 1975. The IMF bail out was in 1976.
I lived through that period and I can tell you the EU was seen then as a saviour for the British. The country was on its knees mainly because industrial strife was writ large in the nation. The economy was manufacturing dependent and the trade unions held the nation to ransom.
However the reality is more complicated. The situation at the end of 1976 was not uniquely dire. The government had already made two applications to the IMF at the end of 1975, with far less publicity, and the balance of payments had been in much greater arrears then. Healey later claimed that the Treasury had grossly overestimated the public sector borrowing requirement, the key figure used during the IMF crisis, and that if he had been given accurate figures, he would not have had to ask for the loan. He also said that accepting the IMF’s strictures was a “Pyrrhic defeat”, forcing him into the proto-Thatcherite fiscal stringency he wanted to practice anyway.
After the bailout and yes the reforms of Thatcher, Britain began a process of recovery. I believe it’s membership of the EU under pinned that recovery. Had the UK been outside the common market as it was then called the situation would have been very different.
_______________________
Time is the school in which we learn
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz.
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Our failing was joining the EU without joining the single currency. That is what we should negotiate now in exchange for Freemovement of People reform to appease the Leavers.
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When we joined there was no such thing as a common currency.
Our decision not to joint the single currency has been the correct one to make and all our politicians, bankers and commentators agree with that.
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Best wishes, Brian
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Perrypower1 Scotland's SNP wants to join the EU and be governed by the EU but it still wants to keep the British pounds ,how is that going to work then.The EU has already said no comprise on the mass emigration from the EU in to the UK that means no border control what a crazy thing that has turned in to.
This message was last edited by windtalker on 20/11/2016.
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I lived through that period and I can tell you the EU was seen then as a saviour for the British. The country was on its knees mainly because industrial strife was writ large in the nation. The economy was manufacturing dependent and the trade unions held the nation to ransom.
For the first sentance you have your pink glasses on again. I too lived through that period. I voted in in 75. But in NO sense was the EU seen as any sort of savour. The much of the rest of what you say is perfectly true. We were in dire straits even though we had been told the EEC was a panacea. It was become clear that it was no such thing. Economically it's exports to us added to our woe, it destroyed our fishing industry creating unemployment and was a club we could not afford.
This message was last edited by tteedd on 20/11/2016.
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windtalker said
The EU has already said no comprise on the mass emigration from the EU
Where and when did they say this.
Yes the EU may have said no compromise on freedom of movement but this is twisting words and certainly not mass emigration.
As said amny times EU citizens come to UK for work and possibly the over generous benefit handouts that the UK DECIDES to give out
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge”
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That the UK DECIDES to give out is not the case: aren't we obliged to treat all EU citizens the same?
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I have a question, as things currently stand would it be deemed discriminatory if the UK Govt decided to restrict in-work benefits to nationals ( housing benefits and tax credits)?
This message was last edited by ads on 20/11/2016.
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