Olly Robbins - Deal or Extension and Backstop Bridge Not Safety Net

[Galant]

Oops:

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-02-12/...-or-extension/

"Last night, I’d been reporting on the meeting at the UK Ambassador’s Residence in Brussels between Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay.

They’d been joined for their dinner by their respective teams, including Olly Robbins, the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator.

I saw Olly Robbins leave the dinner and walk to his taxi as my cameraman and I were preparing to report live outside for ITV News.

Once we’d finished we returned to our hotel and decided to have a quick nightcap in the bar.

It was then, when we walked into the bar, we realised Olly Robbins was also in the same hotel. He too was having a drink.

He was with two colleagues in the bar and could be clearly overheard by other guests as he gossiped about Brexit, the cabinet and MPs.

He was speaking in such a manner that you didn’t have to listen hard to hear him. But to be clear, I was hearing chunks of their conversation and not every single word...."

"“The issue is whether Brussels is clear on the terms of extension,” he was overheard saying. “In the end they will probably just give us an extension.”

" “... Got to make them believe that the week beginning end of March... Extension is possible but if they don’t vote for the deal then the extension is a long one...”"

“The big clash all along is the ‘safety net’,” Robbins said. “We agreed a bridge but it came out as a ‘safety net’.”

More in the story above.


Others on the same story:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...r-a-long-delay

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...deal-fmhchm5wl

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/0...s-brexit-plan/

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presente...it-negotiator/

[Saracen999]

I've been listening to this story develop all day, and my conclusion is that somebody is lying their ass off.

The candidates appear to be :-

1) The journalist that broke the story created it, and it's pure fiction,

My verdict - possible ... but unlikely. First off, any editor I've ever met would want corroboration on this, even if it's another team member. Possibly, and preferably, i dependent 3rd party corroboration, like other individuals that also heard it. Those witnesses may well not be mentioned or their existence publicised, but they may exist.

Besides, if a journalist made this up and got csught, his career is over. He'd never be trusted again, and could at best hope to report on local fairs in Outer Nowhere, Noplace County.

So, possible, but not likely.

2) Olly Robbins actually said it, but was making it up, nwybe showing off in a bar.

My verdict - possible .... but not likely, He'd need to be monumentally stupid to do so, and stupid with bells on to so when press are present. And if he was, he deserves to be fired, and never work in government circles again.

So, possible but unlikely.

3) He said it, and it's true.

In which case, it's our glorious prime minister that's the two-faced, deceitful, lying .... whatever .... because she's beeen swearing ip one side of the Brexit issue and back down the other that this is not her plan.

I don't know who's lying, but I do know who I think is the Prime Candidate.

Anyone who watched the "Inside Eurooe" series (Zak started a thread about part 1 on Csmeron's pre-referendum Brussela negotiations), and the second two were about the Greek financial crisis and the Immigration crisis (mandatory quotas, closed borders, etc) will be fully aware that ALL the leading players, be it our PM, Sarkozy, Macron, Renzi, Merkel, Tusk, Juncker et.al.) all, and I repeat ALL treat us, their employers, like mushrooms ... you know, keep us in tne dark and feed us a diet of ..... sh.... umm, excrement.



My verdict - So who do I believe is a monumental Pinnochio? She who doth protest too much, of course.

[opel80uk]

and could at best hope to report on local fairs in Outer Nowhere, Noplace County.

Sounds like my local paper!