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What on earth happened in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon? In London, Boris Johnson was giving evidence to the Committee of senior MPs who chair select committees. Jeremy Hunt was seeking to
get the Prime Minister to agree that the UK should “retaliate” against the EU, in effect to launch a full-scale vaccine war. That reflected the mood in London. Tabloid editors were
preparing pages of denunciations by their best pundits, in a continuation of the war of words against Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, whose lamentably slow vaccination programmes stand in
sharp contrast to the near 30 million of us jabbed here in Britain. The President of the European Commission, tagged on Twitter as “Von Der Mengele” by English Europhobes, was coming under
fire for pointing out that, while the EU had exported 40 million vaccine doses, including 10 million to us, not a single vaccine made in Britain had been sent back to Europe. The atmosphere
was one of mutual denunciations about vaccine executives being “dishonest”, to quote the influential MEP Philippe Lambert on the BBC, or endless English attacks on President Macron’s foolish
and inaccurate denunciation of the efficacy of the British developed AZ vaccine — since withdrawn. And then suddenly, as if from nowhere, peace broke out. Boris Johnson agreed to a joint
EU-UK statement using language he had never before deployed in 30 years of fulminations against Brussels. Britain and Europe “are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes
cooperation between the EU and UK even more important”. Both London and Brussels should create “a reciprocally beneficial relationship between the UK and EU on COVID-19” This diplomatic
love-in went further as London and Brussels agreed: “Given our interdependencies, we are working to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all our citizens.” No minister,
certainly not the Prime Minister or his Brexit rottweiler, Lord (David) Frost, still less hardliners like Priti Patel or Dominic Raab, have used terms like “win-win” and ”cooperation between
the EU and the UK” in recent years. Is this a one-off, as Johnson realised that he risked losing the momentum of his politically all-important vaccination drive if he launched a jab war
with the EU, which can suspend exports of finished vaccines (or any of 200 elements that go into a vaccine) to the UK at the stroke of a pen? As news came in via the UK High Commission in
India, that India’s nationalist Hindu government would cancel deliveries of 5 million vaccines to Britain, did No 10 see its successful vax programme stuttering to a halt ahead of the
crucial mid-term elections on May 6th? On that “Super Thursday”, Johnson has to show he can gain votes from a resurrected Nicola Sturgeon and win the key red wall seat of Hartlepool from
Labour. He needs to prove that the Tory wins in Labour working class strongholds in the north were not just the result of Brexit and Corbyn in December 2019, but represent a lasting turn to
Johnson that will help him win the next general election. Perhaps the No 10 watchers, or journalists close to the Tory party and the Prime Minister, can find out and tell us by the weekend.
More important, just imagine the same language of “win-win” and “cooperation” being used to find compromises to unblock trade with the EU or between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland? Or
on continuing City access to EU markets. UK meat exports to Europe are dying away as the flawed Frost deal makes the Brexit bureaucracy and paperwork impossible for most farmers. The NHS in
Northern Ireland says it will vax Irish citizens as there is no point in one corner of the island of Ireland being made safe while the rest of Ireland is not fully jabbed. Is there a role
for the private sector in the tourist industry and airlines to fly vaccines to the Spanish Costas or Greek islands to speed up vaccination there to help open the summer tourist trade for
sun-starved Brits? The sooner Britain and Europe moves the Brexit debate to “win-win” and “cooperation” across the board, the better for us all.