RE: The meaningful vote15 Dec 2018 18:15
Just a few words from a prominent MEP
For two years, we have been wilfully narrowing our options until, with 100 days to go, we have three ugly possibilities before us. “It’s my deal, no deal or no Brexit”, Theresa May kept saying and, at 9.00pm on Wednesday, that statement became true. The only way to widen the choice would have been for a different Prime Minister to go to Brussels with a different offer – a Prime Minister who was genuinely ready to walk away if the other side remained vindictive.
But there won’t be a new PM. Conservative MPs chose to keep one whose defining characteristic is inflexibility. Supporters call it resilience and opponents call it obstinacy, but it amounts to the same thing. The lady is not for turning. She is committed to her deal, backstop and all. She believes in it, she tells us, with every fibre of her being. Even if she were able to change it, she wouldn’t, and EU negotiators know it.
There was speculation that some MPs were looking for an excuse to drop their opposition to the proposed Withdrawal Agreement. But Mrs May cannot now offer them a fig-leaf, or even a pine needle. The EU isn’t bothering to pretend that it wants or expects the backstop to be temporary. Why should it? The backstop holds the British market captive for continental companies, who run a large surplus here, and removes any possibility that a more free-trading Britain might out-compete its neighbours.