Eurocrats and heads of other EU states made it clear just how badly they were going to punish the UK when its government was led by Brexiteers. But now they face a more difficult, touch-and-go choice between force and persuasion: they can use Brexit negotiations to continue to show that they’ll crush any country that dares exit, or they can approach negotiations in ways that support progressive Europhiles in the UK. Part of me hopes EU negotiators will just shuffle their papers until May’s govt collapses, but another part of me hopes they take aggressive preliminary stances aimed precisely — maybe even explicitly — at toppling the Tories. If they came right out said, “We’ll teach the f*cking Tories what ‘hard’ means, but Labour’s more flexible approach to Brexit would get much better terms,” they could push the Tories out — but the EU can’t make it that plain. And they may prefer instead to make an example of the UK regardless of who’s leading it. With the US leaving a power vacuum in Europe that Russia will gladly fill, the EU needs all the help it can get. Supporting Europhiles in the UK is the way to go. Knock on wood, and think twice about how you read EU negotiating stances, because they may be tactical.