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Picture:
Toby Melville - Pool /Getty Images/Eurostat
Today is the 200th birthday of the bicycle.
Eurostat, the official statistics office for the European Union, chose to celebrate this in a topical way.
As every politically engaged person in Europe is probably aware, the UK just had a general election, in which Theresa May failed to increase her majority, instead only attaining enough seats for a hung parliament.
As she so often repeated in the campaign, the Brexit negotiations start very, very shortly.
Anyway, back to Eurostat.
They tweeted - or you could say trolled the UK - with the figures on how many bikes the Brits like to purchase from the European Union.
Hint: It's a lot.
In fact, it's the most of any member state.
Happy 200th birthday, dear bicycle! https://t.co/jHK8BOM8Rm https://t.co/9WyrvGkmqM— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) 1497250381
Ouch. It seems like our bikes are about to get a lot more expensive.
People wondered if it was a bit of a sly dig, given the political circumstances:
Your #brexit subtweet of the day https://t.co/DVIZ2lh9vY— Daniela Gabor (@Daniela Gabor) 1497267501
le trolling vélo https://t.co/Idj1Kr7M47— Katie Martin (@Katie Martin) 1497250449
The UK doesn't even make BIKES any more - prices will shoot up once we're out of the single market. Great... https://t.co/WSy2Q2tRc1— Chris Jones (@Chris Jones) 1497250843
Of course, this is all for the 200th birthday of the bicycle.
You must concede, though, the timing does match up beautifully.
Picture: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images
The UK told the EU 'on yer bike' on 29 March, by triggering Article 50, which started the formal negotiation process of exiting the European Union.
As a result the UK will quit the EU by 29 March 2019 at the latest.
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