And now… complete capitulation… What’s going on?
Predictable
TM’s issue with the “backstop” agreement on the border always was illogical. After all, she’s totally confident that she will find a better solution, therefore why does it matter one fig what backstop position you sign up for if you know for a fact that you will never have to fall back on it?
Having said that, most of TM’s pronouncements on Brexit are totally illogical. You can’t help thinking it would save a lot of time if they just told Barnier to get on with it and sign on the UK’s behalf when he’s figured it all out.
It was because the DUP wouldn’t accept it. A week ago May, Wooster-Mogg and the DUP were leaping all over the place because of EU “interference” in internal UK matters, no border in the Irish sea etc., and now… silence. Very strange.
Easy for you to say
Borders aren’t internal, by definition…
Not sure what point you are making?
Yes it was easy to say because holding out until everyone is exasperated with the UK team, then agreeing to what the EU proposed has somewhat been the pattern of the negotiations.
EDIT: It should also be pointed out that the EU is only insisting that we stick to what was agreed in the Phase 1 talks.
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But with the backstop solution there would be a border in the Irish sea, that’s the point. An East West border between NI and the rest of the UK.
The EU hasn’t told us how to deal with the fact that NI would remain aligned.
In any event Mrs May and the team will be along any minute with a better solution,… Won’t they? 
This was in 2004 in Chamonix
I don’t know if this is still an issue there or if all these places still exist. I know two burned down and the Queen Vic was damaged in the fire. But it shows that this isn’t a new problem and it is/was a problem in France as well.
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I can remember being in Chamonix on a ski holiday in about 2008 going with a Welsh friend to try to find a French bar to watch the Wales France rugby. We had to look for a very long time before we found one. We saw lots of bars showing the rugby but they were English owned and he didn’t want to watch the match in one of those.
Exactly. Mrs May is going to find a creative solution and invent a borderless border. She’s promised. And the EU has also promised that as soon as she does, and proves it will work, the treaty will be amended. What it says now, is simply a place-holder while we wait for TM and BoJo to stop keeping us in suspenders as to the real narrative. It might as well say that the border will consist of an unbroken line of unicorns standing horn to tail,
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Problem is option one is pie in the sky and will require too many concessions by the UK and the EU and option two (technology) will not work. The backstop will end up the de facto option. I think the whole ruddy thing has just been kicked down the road again. More uncertainty until Christmas 2020.
If TM’s bluff is called then it will be. That’s the danger when you have a serious situation but one side still thinks they can get away with bluffing. Irresponsible or what. So let’s hope it’s not bluff and she can deliver.
I have no confidence in May, she’s like a straw in the wind and Davis is worse. His performances in front of the Brexit Commons select committee are always appalling. My one hope is that the customs union “red line” for the whole of the UK will also be abandoned in due course. Or at least kicked down the road for ten years.
Another little gem from James OB - another turkey who voted for Christmas!
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Apparently the future of the British fishing industry is whelk exports to Korea - WTF?
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You couldn’t make it up…
I’ve always taken the view that “ever closer union” is a fine phrase but in reality it’s no more attainable than " liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the US". The more members join the Union the less likely it seems to achieve a political union that all are prepared to agree.
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The phrase “herding cats” comes to mind as far as the EU is concerned. The differences between the individual US states is much les marked. The US political and fiscal union is also much closer given the overarching federal government.
While I am generally a Europhile I think that we are at a point where the EU nations probably do want to consider the future direction of the project - is it towards federal government in Europe, or at least common fiscal policy or do we try to keep as a more loosely allied co-operative group of nation states.
Given the above it is probably right that the UK, which generally has been on the lukewarm side about cosying up too closely with Europe (I’m not sure whether that is memories of two world wars, resentment about loss of empire or simple xenophobia), looks afresh at our membership.
I don’t mind debate - I do mind the situation in which we presently find ourselves.
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