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Tweets of the Week: Strasbourg, Northern Ireland, Big Ben

By Jennifer Baker, Malte Ketelsen and Marlene Stocker | EURACTIV.com

17-01-2020

Brit MEPs will be missed in Strasbourg when they’re finally all gone, Northern Ireland executive finally sorts out what went wrong, and Brexit Britain won’t be happy if Big Ben doesn’t bong.

This week we are sponsored by Metal Packaging Europe, find out more about them at the end. 

It was the first Strasbourg week of 2020 this week and as the travelling circus made its round trip, it was the last visit for British MEPs.

Brexit MEPs like Rupert Lowe

And Belinda de Lucy

Were delighted to be leaving, but others, including 

Jude Kirton-Darling and Ellie Chowns found it “terribly emotional” and the “end of an era.”

While Magid Magid is simply going to miss keeping a close eye on all the fascists!

But EU work goes on, and Ursula von der Leyen showed up to say that 

Europe’s Green Deal will unlock “€1 trillion…and unleash a green investment wave” with the aim of becoming climate neutral by 2050.

 

Seb Dance said he was “Proud to have voted to support the European Green Deal” and called for the highest ambition and targets.

 

But not everyone was convinced, MEP Reinhard Bütikofer said that when he looks at the “actual figures, it looks more like a piece of political poetry than a political plan.” 

 

And Diego asked: “Is it me, or is it just impossible to understand the GreenDeal money thing?”

 

On Saturday, after three years doing nothing, Sinn Féin and DUP representatives in Northern Ireland returned to Stormont.

 

They’re in! reported Gavan Reilly. “After 1,096 days, Northern Ireland will have a devolved government again.”

 

Ursula von der Leyen wholeheartedly congratulated the parties saying it was an “extremely positive development” 

Northern Ireland Secretary, Julian Smith, said it was high time to get “back to work.”

Ireland correspondent for BBC, Emma Vardy shed a “tear of joy at no longer having to endlessly explain why there’s no government in Northern Ireland.” 

So good news all round, though several tweeters thought the £2 billion sweetener might have had something to do with it.

And Waterford Whispers reckons in Northern Ireland, everyone is just mad at everything! 

 

 

Finally, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

Some very over-excited Brexiteers have launched a #BongForBrexit crowdfunder! Yes Really!

 

Mark Francois MP thinks it’s inconceivable that Westminster’s Big Ben would not chime to celebrate the UK “becoming a free country again.”

 

Big Ben is currently closed for renovation, hence the need for members of the public to fork out the cash.

 

Spoof account, Mark ne-Francois-pas clarified that “It will be 11 Imperial Brexit bongs, not metric ones.”

 

According to Nigel Farage, “The world will see the UK as a joke if we can’t get Big Ben to sound on Brexit Day.”

I think that ship may already have sailed Nige!

 

Big Ben is s*** anyway joked Warren Jon Hughes: “It doesn’t even show the date or how many steps you’ve done.”

“Imagine negotiating a trade deal with a country that could waste half a million quid on ringing a bell,” said John Brassey. 

 

And Henry Cooke summed it up best: “Britain is like a weird divorced dad who takes his hobbies way too seriously!”

 

This week we are sponsored by Metal Packaging Europe, the unified voice of Europe’s rigid metal packaging industry. Follow them online to find out how metal can be recycled forever.

 

Join me again next week for more chimes, rhymes and crimes in the Brussels Bubble twittersphere.

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