A special place in Hell?

I used to think of EU council President Donald Tusk as being, as EU leaders go, one of the more sympathetic and helpful to Britain.

However, he set a few cats among pigeons today by saying and tweeting, in what was clearly a considered and deliberate phrase and not an off-the-cuff one, that

"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."

Needless to say this has gone down like the proverbial lead balloon, not only with Leave supporters but with pragmatic Remain supporters who think that further inflaming passions with that kind of comment is not going to help get a deal agreed which can both be approved by the EU and passed by parliament.

Despite the fact that I spent the EU referendum campaign complaining about the very fact that neither the official campaign for a leave vote nor their main rivals made any attempt to sketch out an actual plan, leaving it to the small "Leave Alliance" to put forward the "Flexcit" proposal, I tend to doubt that damning people to hell is a particularly good way of getting their co-operation

John Rentoul, Chief political correspondent of the Independent, put out a thread on twitter asking if anyone had any thoughts as to what Tusk thought to gain by what was obviously a deliberately thought through comment. Paraphrasing wildly, Rentoul received a lot of responses from Leavers along the lines of "he's an idiot" and from less pragmatic Remainers along the lines of "he's said it because it's true and leavers are idiots" and not a lot of responses characterised by light or insight rather than heat and passion.

Iain Martin was among the more polite of those whose response to Tusk's comment was

"Well done Donald Tusk for showing why Britain is right to leave the EU."

I think, however, that Stephen Bush in the New Statesman was right to call out that the most interesting thing about the Donald Tusk speech was his admission that those who want Britain to remain within the EU do not appear to be winning.

Tusk told the Remain side,

“I have always been with you with all my heart, but the facts are unmistakable. At the moment the pro-Brexit stance of the UK prime minister and the leader of the opposition rules out this question. Today there is no political force and no effective leadership for remain.”

Bush argues that Tusk has given up any hope that Britain will not leave and is now more concerned to ensure that Brexit is seen as a failure and one which is Britain's fault than in reducing the damage. I hope this is not true but I think tempers on all sides are getting very frayed and need to be calmed down.

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