Matthew Lynn

Michel Barnier’s Brexit diary shows he needs a lesson in diplomacy

David Davis was ‘truculent’. Dominic Raab was ‘almost messianic’. Theresa May was ‘rigid. While Boris Johnson kept asking to borrow a tenner and whether it would be okay if Carrie joined the meeting. 

Okay, I made that last one up, but the rest are among the startling revelations contained in Michel Barnier’s Brexit diary, published in France this week, and due to come out in the UK in the autumn. 

Why is Barnier publishing a diary at all? After all, shouldn’t the negotiations have remained confidential?

From the extracts so far, ‘The Great Illusion’, to give it is full-title, seems to be fairly standard Europhile stuff. Indeed, if you are stuck for what to give that special Remainer in your life for Christmas it will do perfectly. 

The UK didn’t understand what it was voting for. The negotiations were dominated by Tory in-fighting. The process was marked by betrayals, thwarted ambitions, and faded delusions of power.

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