Will Germany’s humiliation finish Merkel, rescue Brexit and boost Trump?

No. The answer to my question in the headline – will Germany’s humiliating exit from the World Cup finish a tottering Chancellor Merkel, save the faltering Brexit talks and boost the credentials of President Donald Trump? – is no, it won’t. Germany’s humiliating exit from the World Cup was bloody funny though.

Please, do not get me wrong. I adore (some) German music and German wine. We are (largely) pro-German at Reaction. I like the Germans, a lot‎. But the German football team? Not so much. There has been too much strutting about in victory and they are too good at penalties to make them appealing.

By the end of the Korea game today they were not strutting about. The Germans looked forlorn, crushed, lost. A team that won the World Cup four years ago in such style seems to have had all the life sucked out of it. When they needed to win, a plucky Korea ‎ran them ragged. It was magnificent.

‎Although I dismissed my own question posed in the headline, sport can have political implications and set the climate for current affairs. Berlin 1936 is an unpleasant example and in the glorious Russian World Cup another dictator is getting a propaganda boost.

Germany crashing out could not come at a worse time for Angela Merkel, as she fights to  stay in office and hold the EU together on migration. Her open door policy may be the end of her career. In that spirit, the Spectator cover this week speaks of “Angela’s Ashes.”

‎Will Germany’s gloom help Britain in Brexit? Not much, other than it will for a brief moment unite us in sharing a laugh with the French, the Italians, the Poles and the Greeks. But there is something unravelled about the EU right now as the Italian government engages in the extraordinary act of doing on migration what Italian voters want. The EU in its confused and deluded response is giving the Brexit British a run for their money in the shambles stakes.

I am not saying that this increases the chances of a sensible compromise with the UK, but German weakness might assist in the end if the stand off persists. German car companies and asset managers are issuing warnings about the damage “no deal” would do to them and Germany.

Now, we have the hilarious spectacle of Lord Adonis – a pro-EU fanatic – saying earlier that the EU must soften on freedom of movement to create a soft Brexit for Britain. Good grief some of the Remainers are incredible. They still buy this bogus idea that the EU – as soft-brexit thinker Roland Smith puts it – is a purely transactional, pragmatic body. The reality time and again is that the EU is a religion, an integrationist religion. We’re leaving the church and will be in the pub next door open to being friends.

For Trump – who seems to be aware of football thanks to his friend Piers Morgan – Germany crashing out will surely be the sweetest victory in Europe to date. For reasons it would take a Freud to work out, Trump’s least favourite country seems to be Germany, from where the Trump family hails.‎ Trump is planning around the Nato summit to, quite rightly, kick some German butt over Europe’s unwillingess to  ‎pay for defence or to defend itself. He comes to Europe with Putin back on the up, and Merkel in the departure lounge‎.

Bad luck Germany. ‎That second Korean goal was most unfortunate.