We’re just 18 days from the end of the Brexit transition and the prospect of the UK defaulting to damaging no deal trade terms with the EU, and Boris Johnson still hasn’t got a an agreement.
So what does his government do? Blame Germany, of course.
A breathless front page splash in the Mail on Sunday blamed the country’s chancellor Angela Merkel for holding up an agreement.
And it quotes a government source saying Merkel was “determined to make Britain crawl across broken glass” rather than reach a deal.
On the inside pages, she is described as “authoritarian” and “unyielding”, in coverage that has attracted outrage for its apparent “dog whistle” references to the Nazis and the Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) pogrom against Jews in 1938.
The comments have been described as “vile”, “revolting” and “reprehensible”.
So, asked about the British sabre-rattling over the weekend, how did Merkel respond? With pure sass, of course.
Put to her that “the UK press” was blaming her for the lack of progress in Brexit talks, she said: “Aha, that’s good to know.
“I’m not negotiating at all.”
Cool as you like.
It all comes a day after Johnson was accused of behaving like an “English nationalist” with an “irresponsible” decision to put Royal Navy gunships on standby to protect British waters from EU fishing trawlers if there is no Brexit deal.