Workingman wrote:I wonder when it will eventually sink in that Brexit negotiations are not going well or, more truthfully, that they are going badly. Even the most optimistic Leaver cannot possibly think that the UK is on a winner.
That really depends on your point of view.
Let us take the firm Brexiter. The firm Brexiter knows that what is needed to be done is to break ties with the EU, go back to WTO rules, negotiate all the key treaties, open skies etc, right now, then get the hell out and spend the next decade fixing the mess.
Once that is done, then we can talk about where the country goes from there.
So for the Firm Brexiter, this negotiation is irrelevant. In fact Boris' point about the NI border is exactly to the point. So little trade is done over that border it is almost an irrelevance. The ONLY relevance is to the EU because it is a back door to cheap EU trade to the UK if they don't close it. The UK? The firm Brexiter doesn't care because most of them are free traders, so cheap EU trade is fine with them. It is, however NOT fine with the EU.
These talks, to the Firm Brexiter? Irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. OK it would be nice to go out on a reasonable note, but if they can't be reasonable what the hell are we doing in a superstate with them? A question which was asked a few times during the referendum but NOBODY on the remain side wanted to tackle that one. Why? Because the only possible answer is.... Leaving.
Of course this negotiation is of vital and critical import to two sectors of the UK:
1. The wishy washy, blamanche strength, scared of their own shadow Brexiter who did one rebellious thing only once in their lives and now regret being so radical.
2. The Remainers who won't answer the question of if the EU is such an intransigent bunch of ossers why the hell are we in a superstate with them. Because they won't even entertain the notion that things aren't 100% OK as they are.
I must admit that the reactions of any Brexiter anywhere near 60% convinced is going to be that they don't give a damn what the people who want a good transition think. They just want to be the hell out and get on with it and tell the EU where to stuff it.
The people who know what they are doing in politics have told May and Corbyn, firmly, that those Brexiters, 60% and above convinced, will decimate any party which is tagged with killing Brexit.
Which is why Corbyn sacked one of his cabinet for speaking out, why May will not sack any of the Brexit leaning ministers and why May will not negotiate anything which leaves us fully in the EU after we have left.
Negotiation? Nice to have. Reality? Scared politicians are not going to bow to what the EU want and, make no mistake, there are a LOT of scared politicians. The average run of the mill voter may not understand what a 16% swing vote to a single issue party really means. But you can bet your life that any seasoned politician has had it beaten into them that a swing of over 4% is a political catastrophe.
The Commission and the Council of the EU is doing what it does best. It is stagnating progress, creating tension and making people scared. What the people of the UK need to realise is that the only way to fight these kind of tactics is to not be scared, to keep saying NO and to make the member states of the EU fear that the Commission is going to fail. Only when that happens will the member states take the power back from the commission and force it to deal.
I'm sure our current crop of politicians, who have deluded themselves into thinking that Brexit was a vote to give "them" power, will make a mess of it somehow. The only hope I have on that front is that the EU make the conditions so onerous that nobody will see it as a good deal worth keeping and the conditions to re-join the EU so odious, that even the hardest Remainer gets the message.
