Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,987
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Much as my heart goes out to the O'Luvvies this piece from tomorrow's Sunday Times is more relevant.
Theresa May’s threats to pursue a no-deal Brexit are not believed in Brussels and she should return only when she has a deal that can pass the House of Commons, EU officials have told The Sunday Times.One senior figure compared May’s no-deal posturing to someone about to commit suicide warning a passer-by that their clothes might get soiled. “None of us wants a cliff edge. None of us wants a no-deal, but the idea that you can threaten member states on the Continent with that is ridiculous,” the official said.
“It’s like saying, ‘Do this or we shoot ourselves in the head. You may get some blood on you.’ . . . We never considered it credible.” Two senior figures in the Brussels bureaucracy said there was no point returning for further negotiations unless May can convince the European Commission and member states that changes to her deal will be approved by MPs. They said May’s demands for changes to the backstop at meetings in December were not taken seriously because “she had no mandate”.
Offering May advice, one official said: “If you want to put the EU in a difficult position you need a plan that is supported by a majority in the House of Commons. The leaders were very clear that she did not have a mandate for the things she was saying.” The other source added: “To negotiate you need to have a mandate. You need to demonstrate that if you do a deal you can deliver that deal.”
Both officials, however, said that if Ireland changes its approach to the backstop they would be prepared to do so as well.
“The problem of the Irish border is a real one. This is a key existential problem for one of our member states. We owe it to the Irish to stand by them,” one official said. “But at the end of the day it’s an Irish backstop that will be defined in Dublin. People around that table would be ashamed to put pressure on [Irish prime minister Leo] Varadkar but if Ireland changes its mind they will listen to him.”
In a further softening of the line, sources close to Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s key negotiator on Brexit, said officials are drawing up proposals for Britain to use a “pay as you go” membership model while the details of a deal are hammered out.
Brexiteer cabinet ministers are angry that assurances in a letter last week from Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, presidents of the EU Council and the EU Commission, were not legally binding.
“The Tusk/Juncker letter says if we enter the backstop we will leave it as soon as we can and this letter is binding but they won’t put it as an addendum to the withdrawal bill,” one minister said.
“That’s really pathetic. Are you seriously going to let the entire house of cards fall over something so trivial?”
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,987
69 days to go. Just saying.
Guest 3065 likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 3065- Registered: 10 Jan 2019
- Posts: 145
No deal is OK to many people doing project fear all they said that would happen they never I'm happy with a no deal brexit we trade with wto
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
I would be with the revoking of article 50 as the only alternative.
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,033
Almost anything would be better than the WTF rules mentioned by Captain Haddock and, for that matter, alluded to by DHB and Eurotunnel!
ray hutstone likes this
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
swings and roundabouts, lets do this .lets do that.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
UKIP were hoping for great results if a snap election is called, not anymore now.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8236819/nigel-farage-new-brexit-party/Guest 3065- Registered: 10 Jan 2019
- Posts: 145
Nigel farage and his new party, they won't let them stop brexit it will happen, all of us who voted brexit will vote for his new party to.
Guest 3065- Registered: 10 Jan 2019
- Posts: 145
Pablo- Registered: 21 Mar 2018
- Posts: 614
This is a pointless exercise. It’s not the Government that would make the decision but Parliament. You can sue the government but Parliament is sovereign and can’t be sued.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
A little lesson in project reality. Peter Lilley (remember him?) was on the Today programme this morning explaining how perfect everything would actually be in the event of a no deal. Funniest thing I've heard all weekend.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,033
There was a surprising glimmer of hope in the Guardian article:
"Wilkinson took a detour from his pickup point in Belgium to see the site earmarked by France for the new border inspection post, where food and animals coming from the UK will be subjected to mandatory health checks. But at the port’s planned border inspection post, no work has been done. It is an open field off the A16, the main road between Dunkirk and Calais".
Given that the border is inside the ferry terminals at Calais and Dover, and similarly for Eurotunnel, it shows that EU "meat" inspections don't have to be done on the actual border. Eire/Northern Ireland take note!
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
All this must be costing the taxpayer a fortune not forgetting businesses shelling out for space in warehouses and cold stores in the event of no deal. Whether or not a sensible leaving is negotiated prices for a lot of stuff will have to rise.
https://skwawkbox.org/2019/01/18/excl-leaked-email-reveals-govt-preparations-for-hard-brexit-and-no-plan-b/Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,987
67 days to go!
Guest 3065 likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 3065- Registered: 10 Jan 2019
- Posts: 145
Pablo obviously they can other wise thet wouldn't be talking about it
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
HMG have seen sense and waived the £65 settled status fee for EU nationals living here but I doubt it will mean Brussels giving any more concessions.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352