What's the point

[medsec222]

What's the point of all this talking if the EU turn all our proposals down, as has been suggested.

[Workingman]

My honest appraisal is that of those who voted, and theirs are the only voices to count, there is not a majority for a hard Brexit, if ever there was one, the same goes for a soft Brexit and the same goes for Remain. We are split 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3.

All these "negotiations" are to give us something that very few voted for. They are more to do with trying to keep the peace in a riven Tory party. In the process of all this fudging it is the country that is suffering.

[cromwell]

The EU don't want to give us any sort of a deal. Why should they? We're walking out of their "project".
But Theresa May 1) doesn't want to leave and 2) Is trying to stay prime minister.
So we go through this pathetic farce of "negotiations" which will inevitably lead to us being screwed, big time.

[TheOstrich]

My honest appraisal is that of those who voted, and theirs are the only voices to count, there is not a majority for a hard Brexit, if ever there was one, the same goes for a soft Brexit and the same goes for Remain. We are split 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3.

All these "negotiations" are to give us something that very few voted for. They are more to do with trying to keep the peace in a riven Tory party. In the process of all this fudging it is the country that is suffering.

Precisely. People voted in a first past the post referendum to leave the EU. Hard Brexit, Soft Brexit, Poached Brexit - that wasn't the question, the question was Yes or No.

So my stance is that the bleddy politicians should honour that vote and get us out. I don't give a rodent's backside about the minutiae of the deal, and I'll be perfectly happy if there is no deal at all. Just do it. That's precisely what the majority of leavers voted for, and what the majority of leavers have always wanted. If May hasn't got the backbone for it, ditch her for someone who has.

[Kaz]

[AliasAggers]

So my stance is that the bleddy politicians should honour that vote and get us out. I don't give a rodent's backside about the minutiae of the deal, and I'll be perfectly happy if there is no deal at all. Just do it. That's precisely what the majority of leavers voted for, and what the majority of leavers have always wanted. If May hasn't got the backbone for it, ditch her for someone who has.

That's exactly what I think. I don't see that there is anything to negotiate - just get us out. We don't want or need the E.U.

I'm sick and fed up with all this talking . Let's just get out. We shouldn't have joined in the first place - we were tricked into it.

[Workingman]

I don't see that there is anything to negotiate - just get us out. We don't want or need the E.U.

If what Brexiteer cabinet ministers are now saying that could be very much on the cards.

They signed up to May's plan, though BoJo described it like "polishing a turd", and are now telling the EU to be more flexible or the UK would have no option other than to walk away without a deal.

Labour has also made a veiled threat using much the same language..

Unfortunately the only things we plebs have to go on are the interpretations of journalists from "hints" that have "leaked" from MPs who themselves only have a few page precis of the 100 page deal document.

[cromwell]

At a rough guess May will put these proposals to Barnier, Barnier will say No and May will then cave in on everything.

[Workingman]

The Chequers away day was supposed to come up with a plan and mend the rift in the Tory party; it does not appear to have done either very well. The vultures are circling.

Backbench Tory MPs have called Leave ministers "traitors". BoJo has been given 48 hours to resign. Others say adopting the plan will see the Conservatives out of power for a generation, and Rees-Mogg has been approached to stand against May. Apparently the 1922 committee has 46 letters and only needs two more to force a leadership election.

Meanwhile the EU sits back and basks in the sunshine.

[Suff]

Meanwhile the EU sits back and basks in the sunshine.

Indeed, although they are doing that in the UK too. It is pretty damned HOT here. We've just authorised €600 to fix the aircon on the big car...

I didn't vote because I left. However I will answer the original question.

We are leaving. What we are negotiating now is the way we'll interact with the EU post that exit. There is no scenario (right now), where we do not exit.

So once we have actually left and become a sovereign nation again, whatever we do thereafter is up to us.

For instance if we decide to do a trade deal with NAFTA and it is better than the EU deal, we could, simply, stop the EU deal and revert to WTO rules with them.

That is something we could not do before. Because we had to Leave the EU to do it.

That is the absolute point. Our destiny, post March 29th 2019, is up to us. Not 27 other states in the EU.