Originally Posted by
Drummond
Thanks to EU intransigence, if there's going to be any alternative to the current deal, it'd surely be to just leave minus one.
There are those who delusionally disregard people in the EU such as Angela Merkel, who say that the deal is the one they've agreed to, and there will be no prospect of any change to that. Mrs May is right about one thing: the deal she's come back with is the only deal we're going to get out of them.
If it were me taking over, I'd approach the EU, say 'This is what's unsatisfactory about the deal: it's a non-starter for x, y and z reasons: offer us much better terms, or, we walk minus a deal'. I'd, in all fairness, offer them that chance at reasonable revision. If they refused, I'd tell them they were killing any possible deal, then I'd walk out, pulling the UK out of the EU minus a deal.
In term of honour and principle, no other outcome could occur. Full autonomy over our affairs was what Brexit was all about, but Mrs May's fudge doesn't permit it.
The EU cares about two things. One, it wants to exercise power wherever it can, to whatever extent it can. The EU are well aware of what Brexit was always all about, but at no time have they ever respected the will of the British people. STILL, they want to deny us full trading rights, even after leaving the EU !!
Two ... they care greatly about funding we give them, as EU members. The current deal, locking us into a form of Customs Union, ensures that we still pay them for the preferential terms it gives us for pro-EU trading (nothing is for nothing !). The EU .. before they'd even BEGIN negotiating with us .. wanted many billions of pounds paid to them, as a 'divorce settlement'. We've refused to pay, thus far. We should take the line that payments from the UK should be in payment for a GOOD deal, not a BAD one.
This, in substance, is not Theresa May's position. I think the EU understood how desperate she was to return to our Parliament with a deal having been struck. They've played on that desperation for their own ends, with this shoddy deal the end result.
That's been our failing: enthusiasm for a deal overriding the Government's sense of loyalty to what Brexit was always meant to be. What we need is for May's replacement to re-find that loyalty, and insist that voters' wishes are fully satisfied ... and EU bullying tactics, be damned.