Are Germany and other European states as upset about Brexit as they appeared to be when the result was delivered? Thomas Kretzschmar, a German teacher who lives in Darlington's twin town Mulheim and studied at Durham University, thinks not

BREXIT talks are jammed these days – literally.

EU regulation concerning jams and marmalades is hotly debated now that the UK wants to leave the EU.

When Britain joined the EU’s forerunner, the EEC, a jam and marmalade regulation was introduced to protect British marmalade, or let’s say to protect the British usage of the word “marmalade”.

Unlike in Britain, German “marmalade” can be made of any fruit, not only citrus varieties. In German there is no distinction between “jam” and “marmalade”.

The final outcome was that the EEC banned the use of the German word “Marmelade”. Ever since then German companies have labelled their jams “Konfitüre” (preserve) rather than “Marmelade”.

However the word “Konfitüre” is hardly used in everyday spoken German. It is one of the early “blessings” of European regulation and legislation that the traditional usage of a word had to be sacrificed in order to create a unified Europe. Well, not that unified after the Brexit decision.

At first European politicians seemed to be shocked at the Brexit decision. But only a couple of days after the UK referendum result meant a major EU member state had decided to take back power from Brussels, leading German politicians like Martin Schulz, then president of the European Parliament, demanded “more Europe”, meaning more power to Brussels. I wonder what these politicians don’t get.

And in contrast to political legend, it has not been only British voters who decided against “more Europe” and more power to Brussels. In 2005 voters in France and the Netherlands voted in a referendum against the so-called EU constitution which would have meant much more power to the EU institutions.

And in 2009 Ireland was put under pressure to hold a second referendum after the Irish voters, too, had rejected the EU constitution in a referendum a year earlier. No “Marmelade” for Germany, no free will for Ireland.

In the days of Trump and a growing feeling of insecurity the EU is sometimes portrayed as a cosy haven of stability and prosperity and Germany’s Angela Merkel as the last leader of the West. This seems to be a modern myth in my view.

By breaching German and EU law Chancellor Merkel opened the gates to a million people who want to make Europe their new home. Let us be clear, many of these people are not refugees according to international law. Emigration doesn’t turn someone into a “refugee” automatically.

Merkel’s “humane” decision as it was coined in the press had a more unsavoury aspect with the multiple rapes in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015 and recent terrorist attacks in Germany.

And then Brexit followed. I am pretty sure that there would not have been a Brexit without Merkel’s disastrous decision which made clear to everybody in Britain and the EU that we had lost control of our borders.

And Merkel is not viewed that positively in Germany anymore. In the final days of last month’s election campaign Merkel was booed publicly in almost any market place she went to.

Finally she gained for her party, the centrist CDU, the worst result ever in a general election (32.9 per cent). And a new right-wing, anti-immigration party, the AfD, gained about 90 seats in the German parliament. A day after the election Merkel told the press she did not know what she could have done differently.

In the end it seems to me that the political elite in Europe is not at all willing to listen to any voter, neither in Britain nor in Germany nor anywhere else. Their aim is clear and unchanging: more power to Brussels and the EU institution to create the “United States of Europe” – whatever the voters want, say or do.

Therefore the tears German politicians have wept about Brexit seem to have been crocodile tears. The UK has long been viewed by people like Merkel or Schulz as a stumbling block on the way to the “United States of Europe” which includes dissolving the nation state. In the end there are many of them who are pretty happy that the UK will leave as they now can press on unhindered with their vision of “more Europe”.

The crocodile tears have dried finally. It maybe just a small example but it tells us a lot about the atmosphere in the EU and what the elite really thinks about the UK and voters.

Jakob von Weizsäcker, German Labour politician and Member of the European Parliament has recently demanded that the pro-British EU regulation concerning jams and marmalades is jettisoned. Obviously he and many others cannot wait until Brexit becomes a reality.

These politicians do not care for referendums or the will of the voters. They only care for their own vision which is all too often connected to the will of big business and global players.