[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I'm not sure that you'll win round fellow debaters by suggesting they're sleeping on the job.
Surely every nation in the EU advocates its own interests. No one wins all the time but the UK has been successful in terms of its EU-lite approach with no euro, no Shenzen and opt-outs in areas like the 35-hour working week.

I don't expect to convince some contributors on German hegemony - although I don't understand how they can be in denial of the bleedin' obvious.

On your second paragraph, I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I've said that I could live with staying in the EU provided we could continue sticking it to them. But this Merkel move to get a German into the Juncker job is just too much for me. A tipping point.

The above said, I've carefully read Gove's statement in the past day or so. He said that the Chequers deal would do for now, but things might be different later. If this means that through Chequers we get some short to medium term stability while we sort ourselves out ready to take proper sovereign decisions about our future and lay the plans, then I could go along with that. We would be out on 29-Mar-19 and can plan to plough our own furrow with something in place to support matters as they stand.

Could be that May has been craftier than she has been credited, keeping cards close to her chest.