The Brits say no to EU’s $112 billion Brexit shakedown

by WorldTribune Staff, May 21, 2017

The EU is demanding Britain pay $112 billion (100 billion Euros) to leave the union. The Brits are having none of it.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said negotiations would be plunged into “crisis” from the start because the EU refused to discuss a trade deal until Britain agreed to pay the “Brexit bill.” Davis warned Britain would walk out of talks unless the EU drops its demand.

The UK warned it would walk away from negotiations if the EU continues to demand the ‘Brexit bill.”

“We don’t need to just look like we can walk away, we need to be able to walk away,” Davis told the Sunday Times.

Following requests from several member states, EU negotiators revised their initial calculations to increase the liabilities the UK must help pay for, including payment of farm subsidies and EU administration fees, which could continue after Britain officially leaves the union.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said that unless she gets the kind of deal she wants from the EU, she will withdraw without any accord.

The “exit shakedown” has happened before, Monica Showalter wrote for American Thinker on May 21. In 1825, France demanded the equivalent of $40 billion from Haiti “to pay back France’s plantation slave owners upset about losing their ‘property’ after Haiti’s slaves revolted and declared independence from France in 1804 – in exchange for diplomatic recognition. The massive indemnification was one reason why Haiti stayed poor while its neighbors were able to progress,” Showalter wrote.

The EU wants that “massive shakedown cash not only to finance its floundering tax-and-spend empire, but to send a message to Britain that it really can’t declare independence or be independent without Europe.”

Showalter continued: “Presumably, Britain has gone along with it up until now, because it’s full of squishy Tory Wets (as Lady Thatcher called them) of uncertain commitment to Brexit, and because it wants to preserve its trade relationships with the continent.

“The reality is, it’s not worth losing independence over. With nation after nation knocking down Britain’s door in search of new trade treaties, Britain doesn’t need these greedy Eurochickens, so masterful in their rent-seeking, to drain massive resources from the country. Britain has been carrying Europe’s water for a long time, putting way more in resources than it got in return, which fueled the entire Brexit sentiment.

“It was the right thing to do. Independence means independence. Britain will not become the next Haiti. And Brexit means Brexit. Britain is right to just walk off and let them howl.”

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