Wasn’t much of a backstop!
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Pretty much agree with this, delay at this point is not useful.
There is a point where tenacity becomes revealed as boneheaded stubbornness and May is well past that point.
It is starting to look like May’s “strategy” is to delay things so much that there is effectively no other choice but her deal.
I cannot start to describe my loathing for this woman at this point in time.
And Corbyn is still asleep at the wheel as far as I can see.
The pair of them are playing for political point scoring when actual leadership and mature thinking are required.
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What exactly do you expect May to do?
That is a good question, if only because it is impossible to answer.
No plausible (or indeed implausible) path forward seems without problems.
My view is that the only path forward which allows us to leave the EU, not need the backstop and yet honour the Good Friday Agreement is to remain in the EEA either negotiated stand-alone or as part of EFTA, and we probably need to be in a customs union as well.
The alternative is to cancel A50,
The problem with both of these is the immediate backlash from the ultra Brexiteers. My own view is if that splits the Tory party so be it - something like 70% of Tory voters would rather see the union break up than abandon Brexit, personally I’d rather see the Tories break up than follow through on Brexit.
I’m not sure it would lead to civil unrest, it might, but the British don’t take to the streets in the way that the French do.
The backlash might be mitigated by a referendum, and that might be the only way of breaking the log-jam but I don’t expect that to be pretty, nor there to be a clear majority - just another narrow win, so there will be long term repercussions there as well.
But I don’t expect May to do either of these things - at least not willingly. She will put her deal above all else and Tory party unity above the Nation’s unity if she has her way.
i think the most likely “good” decision will be a referendum but time is running out.
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There is no easy or quick solution other than to accept the deal which obviously isn’t going to happen, it therefore seems apparent that Article 50 will have to be rescinded to enable either a GE or a second referendum to take place.
But that isn’t “an easy or quick” solution either,
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It would allow things to progress, at the moment we’ve got stalemate with the clock ticking.
But, as you say, things are not looking good for “the deal” at the moment.
Oh! I’m not so sure about that they certainly did in 1990! And we have been known to behead the odd unpopular king in the past to!
Maybe it’s time…???
I’ve seen a few “opinion pieces” saying that a “gilet-jaunes” protest could never happen in uk…
why not…???
More like the “British establishment” is running scared and hoping and praying that such a leaderless movement spanning the divide between left and right…devoid of the divide and conquer tactics of race and religion…could ever inspire a uk revolution…??? x 
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Well said, Helen. The British can be very inventive, and young and not-so-young are well capable of thinking outside the dusty boxes of ‘traditionally’ revolutionary thought and action, and of undermining some of the more enfeebled institutions of oppressive control upon which the establishment depends.
Who those new revolutionary cadres are we are not at liberty to say, nor to hint at whither their ideas and inspirations will arrive, or have already been consolidated. They will certainly come as a huge surprise to many when they are mobilised, if that is the appropriate way to describe what will take place. It won’t be graffiti, overturned dustbins or broken shop-windows though, and it won’t be hindered by teargas or tasers.
It sometimes shocks me how dull folk can be about the state of affairs and the conditions that apply in the 21st century, but it’s fairly safe to say that the future of popular dissent is going to be significantly different from what historical precedent would suggest. IMO 
!
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Very true, they invented the guillotine in West Yorkshire…
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Well researched, Graham. So that’s on Ilkley Moor 'baht 'ead, then ? 
Does that mean that you are planning insurrection or know of those in UK who are Peter, because it certainly sounds like it?
One hopes that we have gotten over wanting to behead our leaders - no matter how unpopular.
I certainly think that civil unrest is possible - especially in the case of the supermarkets running low on stock following a no-deal exit (three meals away from anarchy and all that).
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No it means nothing of the kind, Jane, I am not plotting insurrection nor am I engaged with any hypothetical individuals whom it might be conjectured to be doing so.
I can’t imagine why you need to ask me such a question, nor what kind of response you expected to get.
I’m just a harmless old codger who takes a lively interest in the tide of human affairs and finds ways of taking the pulse of what’s afoot and what’s in the possible offing, like most of the rest of sensate beings, including you. Some of my opinions and intuitions are likely to be wide of the mark of popular consensus reality, some may be prescient, if seemingly odd-ball. Time will tell, perhaps. Who knows? 
She bottled it and has run away. As the Beast said, she’s frit. She was praised for her persistence but that has turned into being plain pig headed. She has well worn out her welcome and the sooner she’s gone the better.
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The 48 votes required for a no confidence vote in Theresa May may now have received:
The 48 is not so important.
The 159 needed to remove her is the number that ('scuse the pun) counts.
Given that there are said to be well over 200 loyal party members who would have supported May had a vote taken place today it does not sound as though getting rid of her will be all that easy.
And if she wins she’s untouchable for 12 months.