Dear Brexit Diary: Barnier Book Recounts EU-UK Divorce

Brussels, May 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th May, 2021 ) :The EU's pointman on Brexit, Michel Barnier, releases a book Thursday recounting the insider track on Britain's acrimonious departure and teasing his ambition to become France's next president.

Written with his trademark courtesy, the book, "The Grand Illusion: A Secret Diary of Brexit" will disappoint those hoping for salacious revelations from his four years of negotiating with UK counterparts to fix the terms of the Brexit divorce and the follow-up trade pact.

Despite holding copious notes from a period that saw Brussels and London butt heads over everything from citizens' rights, money, Northern Ireland, fishing, energy links and import-export regimes, Barnier mostly couches his criticism in insinuation.

For instance, he compliments former British prime minister Theresa May, whose proposed Brexit plan was thwarted by the UK parliament, as "a courageous and tenacious woman surrounded by many men who put their personal ambitions ahead of their country", according to the French edition of the book.

This contrasts with current British leader Boris Johnson -- and May's predecessor David Cameron, who called the 2016 Brexit referendum -- who, Barnier says, bear "a real responsibility before the history of their country".

Nigel Farage, a former British MEP who played a key role in popularising Brexit, was "just as cordial and polite in private as he was violent and demagogic in public", writes Barnier.