The UK prime minister’s visit to Luxembourg for a lunchtime meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and a talk with Xavier Bettel was announced last Friday. That sparked a flurry of activity on social media among British residents seeking details of the visit and planning a protest. Facebook group “British in Luxembourg” is organizing a “get ready for Boris” gathering on the place Clairefontaine, adjacent to the prime minister’s office, from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

As well as attending the lunch meeting, at which the UK’s Brexit secretary Steve Barclay and senior Brexit negotiator David Frost will also be present, Barnier will hold talks with Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn.

The weekend was spent with both sides making claims and counterclaims. The BBC cited a Downing Street source as saying that the prime minister “will stress to Mr Juncker that, while he wants to secure a deal, if no deal can be agreed by October 18 his policy is to leave without a deal on October 31 - and reject any delay offered by the EU.” And speaking on Sky News, Barclay claimed that a “huge amount has been happening behind the scenes”. But it was Johnson’s interview in the Mail on Sunday that really made the headlines when he claimed the UK will break out of its “manacles” like The Incredible Hulk.

Juncker: UK part time Europeans

Juncker, meanwhile, reiterated his belief that the British has always been “part-time” Europeans. In an interview with Euronews he said that no British government had ever publicly defended the UK’s place in the European Union, so it was no surprise that the 2016 referendum result was negative.

Meanwhile in Luxembourg Xavier Bettel has become increasingly exasperated with the what he sees as a lack of progress from the British. Last Tuesday Bettel said that he had “no clue” what, in fact, the British wanted and by Thursday he was saying that “at the moment, there is no reason to give an extension.”