As you all know I’m a remainer. Totally anti-brexit and a European at heart. I absolutely see myself setting in Europe somewhere for my retirement. I have a European passport and oppose all anti-european sentiment. But (there’s always a but) all this rhetoric coming from the EU recently about vaccine shipments and triggering extreme article 16 measures to stop the UK from getting vaccine is casting a very poor light on the bloc.
The British government did nothing wrong here. They haven’t told a supplier to stop sending product to the EU. All they did was sign contracts and ordered vaccine for their population as any government would do. The EU on the other hand blocked progress with bureaucracy and lengthy approval processes resulting in them being one of the last Western blocs to approve vaccine. Now they are trying to cover that up by creating this war that makes it look like it is another government actors issue. That’s bad juju.
I suspect even without brexit the UK would have gone it alone with signing contracts for vaccine as its always acted in parallel to EU institutions. The fact that other bloc members decided not to is a matter of discussion for themselves.