[mike_hearn]

I don't see that as an anti-EU rant but more like a neutral description of the situation. The EU has been completely open that its ideal scenario now is that the UK would agree to implement all EU rules and laws as before, but without being a member. It has been willing to enforce trade sanctions on the financial system in order to try and get what it wants in unrelated areas like immigration law. And the EU did nothing when one of its two most powerful members asserted its intention to use electricity supply cutoffs to gain leverage in fishing rights disputes.

These things are all matters of fact. From the EU's perspective these things are not "negative" exactly, but merely the way they play the game. Everything is connected to everything else and any inter-dependency may become leverage in any unrelated area of cooperation at any time.