
Ardent Brexiteer Quentin Letts has a habit of making statements that rile people up, and this time his point about the Swiss border backfired badly.
The journalist, who has written a number of books with provocative titles such as ‘Patronising Bastards: How the Elites Betrayed Britain’, made an implicit reference to the Irish border question in a tweet about his skiing holiday.
He wrote:
Just skied from the EU into independent Switzerland. Quite disgracefully, there was no hard border. Not even a line in the snow.
Just skied from the EU into independent Switzerland. Quite disgracefully, there was no hard border. Not even a line in the snow.— Quentin Letts (@Quentin Letts) 1550397693
The tweet appeared to compare the soft ‘snow border’ between Switzerland and the EU to the hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland that some predict will be introduced when Britain leaves the EU.
But Letts failed to mention in the tweet that Switzerland is in the Schengen Area, which allows the free movement of people between 26 European states.
People were quick to point out that Letts seemed to have forgotten this rather crucial fact.
Yes, this is because Switzerland is part of Schengen which means It adheres to EU freedom of movement rules. Howeve… https://t.co/KEDOlvp9Ou— Manuela Saragosa🌍 (@Manuela Saragosa🌍) 1550407502
@thequentinletts Less than a thousand hours to Brexit and you cunts still haven’t googled Schengen— James Felton (@James Felton) 1550402207
@thequentinletts It‘s called S C H E N G E N. But this tweet does show that Brexiters are ignorant of the EU and it… https://t.co/k8uNdynOHn— Grahame Lucas (@Grahame Lucas) 1550409702
“Alexa, what is the Schengen Area?” https://t.co/Jke9Z1KYwt— George Aylett (@George Aylett) 1550407345
@thequentinletts That's Schengen...and I'm assuming you weren't towing a 40 foot trailer behind you.— Back on Plague Island Soph 📉📈 💚💛 🦌 (@Back on Plague Island Soph 📉📈 💚💛 🦌) 1550398389
And others highlighted that in fact there are some passport checks between Switzerland and the borders of other EU countries.
@Otto_English @thequentinletts Here in fact is the clearly labelled customs check point between France and Switzerl… https://t.co/ssSeLf2j5r— NiK (@NiK) 1550420638
@thequentinletts But there are hard borders where roads cross the border eg at Geneva between France & Switzerland… https://t.co/aWm858Lo00— Kenny Anderson (@Kenny Anderson) 1550411108
In response to all the attention that the tweet generated, Letts wrote another tweet doubling down on his argument.
Good grief, have had hate emails for my little Tweet about skiing across Swiss border. Europhiles, acidic, say this… https://t.co/pQPh61x6nY— Quentin Letts (@Quentin Letts) 1550426021
Needless to say, many people weren’t convinced.
@thequentinletts Congratulations, Quentin. It was such a bad tweet that you were trending worldwide on Twitter, and… https://t.co/jlUioRqrPK— Clive Peedell (@Clive Peedell) 1550434566
@thequentinletts No, the argument still doesn't work on its own terms - quite apart from having nothing to do with… https://t.co/K52Au4pTp6— Steve Peers (@Steve Peers) 1550428433
@thequentinletts https://t.co/GIIH1eksLh— Alan White (@Alan White) 1550435077
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