Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
So the solution is to do random customs checks miles from the land border?
This is going to be fantastic- UK traders who perhaps aren’t even engaging in cross border trade being inconvenienced for living near the land border on the island of Ireland.
We’ve bullied ourselves into submission by starting off a timebound sequence of events with no coherent plan to reach a destination that we can’t even agree upon.
Conservative politicians arguing over policies they probably don’t even agree with just to position themselves to succeed Theresa May and a Government with no electoral mandate have weakened their negotiating position themselves.
The EU have just had to sit back and watch.
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Everything you say is correct. I just add the dimension of pushing back at the EU and the perfidious Irish government in preference to rolling over as May has done.
---------- Post added at 09:18 ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
As we approach the end of March and the cliff edge then we will withdraw Article 50.
If Brexit was going to happen it needed a larger mandate than 52-48. The funding controversies, fake news and xenophobia aside the 52 can’t actually agree what they want.
There also needed to be a second referendum to give the Government a mandate to go forward and pursue a type of Brexit (Norway, Canada, Switzerland, other). However, we know the problem with that is Remain would win unless it was kept off the ballot.
Ideally the UK also needed a decisive general election (regardless of who won). Neither party is unified to the extent they can rely on all of their MPs to vote one way. In the example of the Conservatives they probably need 400+ MPs to not be subject to the extreme wings of the party.
The EU27 obviously aren’t unified but they at least put up a single negotiator and have all stayed relatively silent throughout the process. We have live streaming our disagreements making it clear to the EU the people sitting in front of them are in a weakened situation.
May could easily be toppled from within, Labour could win an election and Leave would almost certainly lose if the question was put to the people again. At the same time they know, and we know, that No Deal isn’t a realistic option.
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A very sober assessment.
---------- Post added at 09:22 ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 ----------
I will venture another assessment. The draft political protocol that accompanied the draft agreement is all full of ‘best endeavours’ verbiage.
The Maybot is hanging her hat on that being an expression of sincerity from the EU side.
If that sincerity includes working together with the EU to speedily develop the technological customs solutions, then her plan stands a chance.
Question is, what are the EU’s real intentions?