As a European I feel disturbed and ashamed of how the EU, the self proclaimed "peace project", is conducting itself towards the UK - starting from the first referendum throughout the whole pandemic.
Or in other words: The excuse for being aggressivly nationalistic towards other nations, without the need to call it nationalism.
This behaviour is particulary present across European high-educated middle- and upper-class circles and in general in Germany. In short: in areas of a society which have trouble celebrating their roots, because it grounds them. Next to their lower class neighbours or distant un-urban relatives.
> While UK officials and media repeatedly demonized the EU for the past ~5 years.
From following the three elections regarding Brexit (the Referendum, the EU parliamentary vote and the British Election in 2019): to claim that a majority of the British media, politicians and business elites sturred the anti-EU sentiment is utter, utter nonsense.
The vast majority of domestic political parties favours the EU soley for the fact, that it gives them twice the amount of taxpayer payed positions they could shuffle their members into. And so did most of the British parties.
Wait until you learn that I'm Swiss, generally proud of my country and its history and people, do not have a European citizenship, have no form of high-education (my highest formal certificate is from an apprenticeship, I'm self-taught and built my software engineer career myself by learning directly on the job), and come from a single-parent family categorized as "lower class" by wealth statistics.
Other than attacking an imaginary "elite" persona I'm supposed to embody, do you have some actual points to discuss regarding feeling "disturbed" and "ashamed" by the EU?
Over the last decades many EU nations had referendums, and it was clear the majority of the people in many countries are agains further expansion of EU power. Yet the EU bureaucrats didn't listen and kept pushing as a result even more people feel alineated with the EU project, the Brexit is in direct line of these developments. And even now they still keep pushing.
No they didn't, the UK drew the red lines not the EU. The UK punished themselves. They could have gotten a Switzerland deal, a Norway deal, a Turkey deal, etc they decided they didn't like those deals.
This was not negotiated as a friendly trade deal as done with Canada, US, Swiss etc. It was clear they were doing something the EU doesn't want to make an example off. Tensions from both sides.
Edit: Aha, I understand know you mean they could have gotten the same deals as them. If you have sources for this, please share, but as far as I know this is not true. Take for instance this excerpt from the Financial Times:
"Slides presented to EU member states this week by the European Commission suggest it is looking for something far more sophisticated and hard-hitting for Britain. If Brussels has its way, the system will govern not just the two sides’ future trade relationship but several other partnerships in areas such as security and judicial co-operation, joint research, and aviation.
One of the key motivations for the EU is to avoid replicating the unruly jumble of agreements that govern its deep relations with Switzerland — whose population in 1992 rejected a proposal to join the European Economic Area. The two sides have subsequently built their relationship up over time, resulting in no fewer than 100 agreements governing their relations. "
Switzerland is part of the Schengen area and we regularly renegotiate (and vote on) new agreements.
Norway is also part of the Schengen area, but also part of the EEA (European Economic Area).
Turkey is part of the European Custom Union.
The UK decided to go its own way instead.
This interactive SVG gives a good overview: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Supranat....
CGP Grey did a great video in 2019, though it's of course a bit outdated now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agZ0xISi40E.
No, Canada and the US are literally an ocean away. The UK is so close you can swim there. The EU made it clear that a it makes no sense to have the same deal as a partner that is on the other side of the world than it does to have with a partner that is so close and have other interests and conflicts to discuss.
All the deals I used as examples are better deals than the Canada and US deals they were all offered and rejected by the UK.
The absence of a Swiss option was very well-known, even before the referendum, to anyone who paid any attention to actual EU policies. They see Switzerland as a mistake, ever since the country tried to walk back on its commitment to the four freedoms, and will absolutely not repeat that mistake ever again.
Hopefully they follow up with Pfizer and Janssen until such time that at least 50% of the EU is vaccinated.
And the fact before the referendum for Brexit the EU gave the UK better terms than they already had when they already had the best deal in the EU and you're ashamed of this?`
The whole vaccine thing seems to be the UK has their risk groups covered the EU hasn't. Seems one needs the vaccine more than the other in terms of saving lives. But honestly, it all really breaks down to the fact the UK has been pissing all over the EU for years. This is what happens when you have no politcal capital in a politcal arena.