Brexit Ultimatums

Brexit Ultimatums Fly Freely Betraying Bad Faith

So the EU has given the U.K. a 48 hour ultimatum to come up with an acceptable change to the Irish Backstop. But, the problem is, and Brussels knows this, there is no acceptable change to the Irish Backstop.

There can be no re-implementation of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the EU will not accept an open border because then it will negate its entire legal structure as a customs union.

Rock meet hard place, but this isn’t the U.K.’s problem. It is the EU’s. 

And Theresa May has been avoiding the issue the entire time allowing Brussels to set the terms of the surrender negotiations rather than say, “Ball’s in your court. We’re happy to leave the border open.”

That arrangement is anathema to the other 27 countries in the EU. But, again, that is their problem. And it shouldn’t be Theresa May’s responsibility.

Brussels’ bullying on this is pure theatre. There is a solution but they don’t want to admit it. They don’t want to admit it because they don’t have to… yet.

Why? Because they still believe they can get the British people to stand down and allow Parliament to deliver BRINO (Brexit-in-Name-Only) using the Irish border as the stalking horse.

Because that’s what the majority of Parliament wants. What they don’t want is to be on the hook for it, so they can go back to their voters and claim they fought the good fight.

Time is running short for these kinds of games. 

Both May and the EU are playing hardball with a British people who are beyond tired of the shenanigans. Leave means Leave and the reality is that many of the important Labour Remainers are in very vulnerable seats if there is a betrayal of Brexit, regardless of how the media and the Twitterati try to spin this.

Because if the public opinion was so in favor of Remain, we wouldn’t be where we are today. There would already have been a second referendum called or Parliament would have voted for Mrs. May’s deal which is the closest thing there could be to BRINO.

The Remainers have made their case ad nauseum, ad infinitum and it is time to admit defeat. Gods know Mario Draghi at the ECB just did.

Every day the economic data coming out of the EU gets worse and the data coming out of the U.K. is better than advertised by the Europhiles. That’s why the fear-mongering isn’t working.

But it’s people like Hammond who will have to face reality that betraying Brexit will be the real shock. The next general election in the U.K. is 2022 but the EU in its current form may not last that long.

And the British people can sense this as well. What’s so great sticking around in a political union that is sinking into an abyss financially?

The institutions that make up the EU are fraying. Political unity is not a guarantee at this point.