You can forget any cherry-picking when it comes to Brexit. That from France’s foreign minister, who has also said the upcoming EU divorce talks will not be aimed at punishing the UK. <br /><br /> “I say it clearly here, there will be no cherry picking, otherwise it means the end of Europe,” said Jean-Marc Ayrault. <br /><br /> “But it’s not about punishing the United Kingdom, who says it’s about punishment? I heard that expression used by my counterpart. In any case, it’s not the position of France.”<br /><br /> War movie ‘beatings’<br /><br /> It comes after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson raised heckles, by comparing any punishment attempt to a World War Two escape movie.<br /><br /> “If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anybody who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some sort of World War Two movie, then, you know, I don’t think that, that is the way forward,” said Johnson.<br /><br /> “I think, actually, it’s not in the interests of our friends and partners.”<br /><br /> Boris Johnson has likened French president François Hollande to a second world war prison guard. https://t.co/gFbotMXf9k— Financial Times (@FT) 19 January 2017<br /> <br /><br /> .TimFarron on Boris Johnson's "World War Two movie" Brexit remark pic.twitter.com/vpJRBKWfQ1— Lib Dem Press Office (LibDemPress) 18 January 2017<br /> <br /><br /> May’s vision<br /><br /> British Prime Minister Theresa May has laid out her vision for a clean break with the EU – by quitting its single market. <br /><br /> “Britain must face a period of momentous change. It means we must go through a tough negotiation and forge a new role for ourselves in the world,” she told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos.<br /><br /> “It remains overwhelmingly and compellingly in Britain’s national interest that the EU as an organisation should succeed.”<br /><br /> Parliament approval?<br /><br /> The UK’s Supreme Court is due to deliver its ruling next Tuesday (24 January 2017) on whether May can begin the divorce process – without parliament’s assent.<br />
