And now the third piece of the jigsaw puzzle, to which I referred earlier:

German alarm grows over the EU’d dangerous ultimatum terms for Britain, runs the Telegraph business page headline to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s article of late last night. His report begins with my emphasis:

‘Ever louder voices in Germany are denouncing the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement as a fundamental failure of European statecraft that can lead only to a diplomatic debacle and festering animosity.

‘If the EU’s ultimatum policy causes a geostrategic rupture with a pillar of the European defence, security, and financial system – sooner or later, as it surely must under the existing terms – the recriminations in Berlin will be ugly.

“Europe is well on the way to inflicting huge damage on itself for decades by the way it has handled the failed Brexit talks,” said Marcel Fratzscher, head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin.

‘Professor Fratzscher says the EU is undermining its own democratic legitimacy by demanding that Westminster MPs swallow the Barnier package with a “gun to their chest” and subject to threats of “catastrophic consequences” after two-thirds have already rejected it.

‘Parliament is fully justified in rejecting a backstop arrangement that would lock UK in a customs union against its will.  “No sovereign nation could agree to such terms lightly. The Bundestag itself could hardly have voted otherwise in comparable circumstances,” he wrote in Der Spiegel this week.

‘He argues that if MPs capitulate and accept the Withdrawal Agreement this would be “just as catastrophic” as a no-deal Brexit.

‘The point is obvious: it is a constitutional absurdity to try to imprison a military power with a large industrial economy in the EU’s regulatory and legal orbit without EU voting rights. This must blow up in acrimony and end in an abrogation crisis.‘

After giving his detailed insights, Ambrose concludes:

‘Whatever is being said today will not last a week if there is a no-deal. The EU will resort to emergency standby arrangements to keep trade flowing for its own political self-preservation. It will discover the beauty of trusted traders, blockchain technology, and the once derided ‘MaxFac’ solution for the Irish border.

‘Discussions between Britain and the EU might suddenly take a very refreshing turn.’

Previous #13 Updates:

1. #13 – David Noakes on the ‘Fall of the EU’ (5 Dec’16)
2. #13 cont’d – The Demise of the EU (23 Feb’17)
3. #13 cont’d – Keep Watching the EU’s Fall (29 May’18)
4. #13 keeps rolling on: Brussels ‘Gravy Train’ Breaks Down (12 Jun’18)
5. #13 rolls on: Muslim Migration, EU’s Collapse – prophetical football?(28 June’18)
6. #13 yet again – 3 signs in 1 day of the EU’s shaking!! (On 9/11) (10 Nov’18)
7. #13 cont’d – Latest on EU’s Financial Shaking (20 Dec 2018)
8. #13 cont’d – Europe Is In Danger Of ‘Sleepwalking’ To Its Doom (13 Feb’19)
9. #14 Patsy Southway on the ‘Domino Effect’ (5 Dec’16)
10. #13 & #14 – ‘Watching’ Public Press Foresees A Leaderless EU! (7 Nov’18)