From today I will reverse the order of a day's blog, talking general politics first and personal news after..
Extreme rhetoric was the news of the day, with RyanAir CEO Michael O'Leary talking yesterday about the dire consequences of Brexit on the airline industry to the EU Parliament. With the cessation of the existing Open Skies agreement, his Ryanair flights between the UK and the EU will cease for weeks if not months and Heathrw will become idle. A Telegraph article on the session also quoted former British Airways chief Willie Walsh, now CEO of the International Airlines Group. Whilst not as extreme as O'Leary, he too stressed the importance of getting an agreement in place.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was also in top form in parliament today, answering a question on whether the UK would pay an Brexit divorce bill. In response he said "The sums I have seen that they propose to demand from this country appear to be extortionate. Go whistle seems to me to be an entirely appropriate expression."
Katja Adler writes a lovely commentary on interviewing EU politicians and policy makers in the BBC online. Once her part of the interview is over, the tables are turned and she is in turn quizzed about what politicians are thinking in the UK. There is incomprehension but acceptance that Brexit is going ahead - but not how and which UK voices they should listen to. Perhaps the greatest underestimation on the UK side, is that, yes, the EU wants a good deal - but the concept of Europe overrides the importance of, say, car manufacturing.
Perhaps the most memorable phrase of the day was coined by Michael O'Leary,
"Brexit will be one of the great economic suicide notes in history."
The second best phrase came from Nick Akerman, a former US attorney who worked on the Watergate case, to a New York Post reporter. Commenting on the publication of Donald Trump Jnr.'s emails showing links with Russian contacts during the presidential election, he thought This is “almost a smoking canon!”
The most interesting event for me today was an unexpected phone call from New Zealand, relating to the family history I am currently ghost-writing and researching. The caller couldn't sleep and, awake at 3 am their time, they called and filled me in on vital background information on the story.
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