France has been an outspoken critic of allowing the UK to extend its EU membership without a clear plan, suggesting that Britain’s crisis should not be allowed to take the bloc “hostage”.
If we had a clear plan all agreed upon then why would we be asking for a bloody delay?
Twats.
Is it really idiotic and are the French in truth typically idiotic?
A plan could be, for instance, May promising to revoke §50 by 30th June if she can’t get a Commons majority for anything else.
Oh frere Reynard, please don’t throw us in that bramble patch!
I think it was Vichy France that gave the French the idea of the EU. Let the Germans run the country and leave the really important stuff like art and culture to the French.
Sadly, my abiding memory of my visit to Paris as a child in the Sixties was of piss and Piaf, both thankfully out of fashion in Britain at the time.
What’s your point, Tim? If Britain really wants to leave, why grant us an extension unless there is a clear plan or statement of what we hope to achieve during that extra period? After all, we have had 3 years of this already, so what could we do in a few extra months or weeks that we could not have done already?
However we all know that May and the EU don’t want us to leave and kicking the can down the path is something the EU is very good at, eg the travails of the Euro. Macron just wants May to admit openly that she wants to stay rather than engage in this can-“kicking exercise
‘sfunny, I thought THEY were holding US hostage.
I’m with Diogenes. Does May have a realistic plan for this, or is she going to be wasting everyone’s time going to Strasbourg every month because her hope of a magic vote fairy sorting things out doesn’t emerge.
I mean, seriously, how is anyone this shit at negotiation at her age after a decade running a major department of state and being a councillor? Like, I’m fairly shit at negotiation, but at least I understand that I can’t keep sending over the same quote expecting clients to agree to it.
I’m with Diogenes. Does May have a realistic plan for this, or is she going to be wasting everyone’s time going to Strasbourg every month because her hope of a magic vote fairy sorting things out doesn’t emerge.
Isn’t the plan to fiddlefuck around with these fake negotiations until people get so tired of it that they agree to call the whole thing off?
It seems like it has a decent chance of working.
To be fair to transexual Wurzel Gummidge, most of her cabinet wouldn’t have done any better, because they’re similarly incompetent and dishonest.
Mrs Rudd’s only marketable skill is “being related to rich poshos”. Hammond would find a way to fuck up a cup of tea, while smirking greyly. Gove is literally Smeagol.
Maybe we missed a trick when we won at Waterloo. Say what you will about the frogs, they used to be good at l’audace.
JerryC,
And then what? Look, we got here because one of the few sensible things Cameron did was recognising that UKIP were killing the Conservatives. Enough voters were voting for UKIP that they couldn’t win enough marginals to get a majority.
Reneging on the referendum is not only going to see people switching back, but in even larger numbers because even mug Tory voters who thought they were Eurosceptic will get that they aren’t.
I’m kinda thinking that it’s going to be the French that save Brexit and get us out of the EU by not agreeing to any extensions.
Since we saved them from Germany 70 years ago, we can call it evens.
It’s just Marcon posturing and enjoying playing bad cop and adding to his supporter of Europe credentials, also means the EU can point to it and claim it’s not just a pre-agreed stitch-up
Then what? I think they’re still working on that part. No one has ever accused May & co of being political geniuses. Right now, it looks like they’re floating options like a second referendum and staying in the customs union as trial balloons, to see what’s going to hurt them the least.
We had a clear plan, to reject the backstop. And what happened….?
And quite how can the UK “control” its MEP’s if they are elected in the next Euro-election?
@Bloke on M4 April 10, 2019 at 4:58 pm
+1 Poll in DM today put’s Cons 9% behind labour; it was 5% behind at weekend
I reckon the Letwin/Cooper “No Deal” forbidden gaining Royal Ascent a factor
“I’m kinda thinking that it’s going to be the French that save Brexit and get us out of the EU by not agreeing to any extensions.”
They won’t sadly, they need the money. Which we’ve known all along – all we had to to was threaten to leave without paying a penny under WTO rules (and meant it) and waited. The closer it got to the leaving date the more they’d have shat themselves and begged us to pay and given us the free trade deal we ideally would like. It really was that simple, a 6 year old could understand the concept.
The French want to see a plan because that is what French technocrats do, they have a plan. It may be a waste of time, but they have one anyway.
I can’t help feeling that a banker like Macron would hold May in contempt for her obvious lack of negotiating nous, but the EU aren’t much better. The EU have made 2 serious mistakes: 1. winning the negotiation is fine, but if you reduce your opponent to the point that they can’t sign the deal, then you don’t have a deal. Always leave enough on the table that the deal gets done (that may have been their intention). 2. never enter into a detailed negotiation with someone who doesn’t have the authority to sign the deal they are negotiating. The EU should have negotiated an outline agreement, got the UK government to sign off on the principle and then worked up the 500 page agreement on the basis of the shorter term sheet. Elementary mistake, or then again, perhaps they foresaw it would end up like this..
Steve said:
“To be fair to transexual Wurzel Gummidge, most of her cabinet wouldn’t have done any better, because they’re similarly incompetent”
Agreed. One of the positives about this sorry debacle is that it’s shown the utter incompetence of MPs and ministers. I’m hoping that a few more people will realise the utter folly of giving that shower any power.
@Jim April 10, 2019 at 7:10 pm
+1 EC/EU allowing UK to be a member was always about plundering our assets (money, fish etc) and preventing UK being world’s 2nd largest economy. They waited until UK economy in a mess so we’d think they were being kind.