Aaw, Nick, you do love the EU, don't you.
I'm sorry, I think you're going to take this hard, but I have to break it to you that the EU doesn't love you. It's worse, I'm afraid, it doesn't GaF about you. You know how it feels when someone you have loved, and who you thought loved you, and then you find out it was a sort of lie. Well the EU doesn't GaF about you, about the Scottish clam and langoustine fishers who still love it, and who they thought it loved them, nor the Scarborough cockle pickers, the Cornish crab fishers, the Mersea and Fal oystermen, the South Coast mussel growers, the Welsh hill sheep farmers, the wonderful artisan cheese makers who wowed continental buyers with the beauty and originality of their produce, or the little artisan chocolatieres who have made waves on the continent with their fair trade derived wonders. It doesn't GaF about Irish sentiments, about the Belfast Agreement that it broke, and then broke again for good measure. It doesn't GaF about French and Belgian bivalve mollusc processors, with their established business models, sources of supply and clientele, or for the thousands of family-owned wine and food producers for whom the UK is prime market. It couldn't give a toss about the seas that the CFP rapes with virtual abandon, nor the West African coastal regions who fall prey to the EU's bribes and then watch their own canning and processing industries die a thousand deaths through lack of resource. It doesn't GaF about Greek pensioners or Italian savers, or Spanish school leavers. It doesn't GaF about the people who die from its disastrous annexation of the European vaccine rollout, and its vindictive spite over the UK's relative success. It really doesn't. GaF.
It gives not AF about the in-house lies perpetuated by the powerful auto-industry lobby, nor the breeches of international law perpetuated by itself, and by its showcase corporations. It doesn't GaF about minorities, or workers rights, or the 'rule of law' when it applies to itself, nor international treaty. It gives AF about French and German bankers, about its own closely guarded insiders, the Mario's and the Joseps, the Ursulas, the Jean-Claudes, Michels, Leos, Kinnocks, Selmayrs, Verhofstadts, the multipresidents and brain dead functionaries.
And so it goes on, and on, and on.
But it still doesn't GaF about you, nor about your undying, blind, pathetic, beseeching, suckling love for it.
The EU is not cuddly, or benign, or nice.
It doesn't GaF about the Nicks, the Steves, the Sues or even the fawning Decs.
The EU cares about POWER, and about the ideology that power allows.