A fundamental error here:

The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.

It’s not Brussels exporting anything. For it is not countries - nor cities - that trade. It is individuals and groups of individuals as companies that trade. It is not even true that it is a political unit that trades.

Some people who have a production facility that happens to be located in a pace where the rule of Brussels holds sway wish to trade with some other people outside that area where the rule of Brussels holds sway. That that external group is the government of another country still doesn’t make it countries that trade with each other. Nor political groupings that do so.

We could claim this error comes from the French Foreign Minster, we could say it’s the journalism of The Guardian at fault here. But it is still true that trade is between people and groups of them, not some reification of political power. The European Union, Brussels, France, they do not, never have done and won’t trade with anyone.

Now that we all properly understand that the correct response to the claim about preventing trade is clear. Who the heck are you to stop people peaceably exchanging with with other? Butt out matey.

Yes, sadly, politics is necessary because we do need a method of making sure the bins are emptied but that’s what the process is for, not interfering in matters that work entirely happily without that process.