Wednesday, 6 February 2019

Outrage, praise and jokes greet Tusk’s ‘special place in hell’ Brexit remark

Donald Tusk’s comment that there is a “special place in hell” reserved for people who promoted Brexit without a plan has been met with outrage, praise and more than a few jokes online.
By Alastair Reid, Press Association

Outrage, praise and jokes greet Tusk’s ‘special place in hell’ Brexit remark
The European Council president said he was wondering what the "special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit" without a plan.
Nigel Farage, who led one of the main Leave campaigns in 2016, said post-Brexit Britain will be free of “unelected, arrogant bullies like [Tusk]”.
“Sounds more like heaven to me,” he added.
Mr Farage’s former press adviser Michael Heaver called the comments an “irresponsible and pathetic EU attack”, while TV presenter Piers Morgan said the “EU clowns are turning me more pro-Brexit every time they open their insulting mouth”.
Prominent Remain MP Anna Soubry, however, predicted the European Council president would be “wildly misquoted” as she stressed he was commenting on leading Leave politicians rather than “the millions of good people they conned with fake promises they cannot deliver on”.
Her Conservative colleague Phillip Lee said the remark was based on reality, even if it annoyed those who “politically orchestrated Brexit”.
He tweeted: “My issue has never been with Brexit voters, it’s always been with reckless, shallow politicians who promised a Brexit they’d no credible plan to deliver.”
Scottish MEP Alyn Smith went even further, describing Mr Tusk as a “friend of the UK” who had been driven to such language “by two years of the lies of charlatans being implemented unchallenged by cowards”.
But among all the vitriol and politicking online were a fair few helpings of humour as people suggested what the “special place in hell” might look like.
Tory MP Johnny Mercer suggested it may look “a bit like Brussels”, while Labour MP David Lammy had a more specific suggestion.
“The Conservative Party’s annual Black and White fundraising ball is next month and it’s only £10,000 to get a table next to Boris Johnson,” he tweeted.
Other ideas included the Westfield shopping centre in west London’s White City, and simply “Milton Keynes”.
Another user, Ben Fenton, had a more literary answer.
The precise location would be the “1st Bolgia of the Malebolge, part of the 8th Circle of the Inferno, for Panderers and Seducers”, he wrote, drawing on Dante’s Inferno, the classic work about the circles of hell.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/outrage-praise-jokes-greet-tusk-142023908.html

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EU's Tusk rebuffs May, and says Brexiteers deserve a place in hell

BRUSSELS - The European Union will make no new offer on Brexit and those who promoted Britain’s exit without any understanding of how to deliver it deserve a special place in hell, Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.
FEB 6, 2019
REUTERS
Donald Tusk | AFP-JIJI
The United Kingdom is on course to leave the European Union on March 29 without a deal unless Prime Minister Theresa May can convince the bloc to reopen the divorce deal she agreed in November and then sell it to skeptical British lawmakers.
As companies and governments across Europe step up preparations for the turmoil of a no-deal exit, diplomats and officials said the United Kingdom now faces three main options: a no-deal exit, a last-minute deal or a delay to Brexit.
Rebuffing May’s bid to renegotiate just a day before she is due in Brussels, Tusk said he wished the United Kingdom would reverse Brexit but that the bloc was preparing for a disorderly British exit as it would not gamble on peace in Ireland.
He said he no longer believed there was a way to stop Britain leaving due to the “pro-Brexit stance” of both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.
“I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit, without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely,” Tusk said at a joint news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
The remark, which will anger Brexit supporters in Britain, was tweeted from his account as he spoke the words, indicating it was not an off-the-cuff remark.
Brexiteer Nigel Farage responded: “After Brexit we will be free of unelected, arrogant bullies like you — sounds like heaven to me.”
Varadkar said the Brexit deal, which was rejected by the U.K. parliament, was “the best possible.” He said Britain’s political instability was another proof of why the backstop was needed.
At meetings in Belfast, May tried to tackle the biggest obstacle to getting a deal ratified by the British parliament — an insurance policy covering the possible future arrangements for the border between EU-member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.
May said she would seek an alternative arrangement that avoids the need for a hard border or legally binding changes to the border backstop to introduce a time limit or create an exit mechanism.
Brexit has snagged on the 310-mile (500-km) frontier because there is disagreement on how to monitor trade without physical checks on the border, which was marked by military checkpoints before a 1998 peace deal ended three decades of sectarian conflict.
As a way to prevent a hard border, Brussels and London agreed a so-called backstop — basically a promise that unless the sides come up with a better idea then the United Kingdom would remain bound by EU market and customs rules so that goods would not have to be checked.
But the Northern Irish party that props up May’s government says it could endanger the province’s place in the United Kingdom, while Brexit supporters in May’s Conservative Party worry it would lock the country into EU rules for the long term.
British ministers, The Sun newspaper said, have been examining a plan drawn up by Japan’s Fujitsu to track trade across the border, while the Telegraph said ministers had discussed delaying Brexit by eight weeks.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/06/world/eus-tusk-rebuffs-may-says-brexiteers-deserve-place-hell/

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