Sky News reported yesterday that "government sources" are saying the civil service is working flat out to produce position papers (HERE). This is four month after triggering Article 50. One would have thought they should have been doing it before. It is apparently an effort to "counter the perception that the British Government is unprepared for Brexit". If this was the aim then it has failed. I had to check I wasn't on The Daily Mash website!
We are months behind the EU who apparently started to prepare for Brexit as soon as David Cameron announced the referendum in late 2015. The legal case by Gina Miller and others, to determine who had the power to invoke Article 50, was claimed to be only a tactic to slow Brexit down. It turns out we were never prepared anyway and the delay, if indeed there was one, could only have helped the government.
Position papers should have been published immediately the Article 50 letter was sent to the EU and negotiations should have started in early April. Instead we had an election and only now are we talking about getting round to publishing "position papers [that] will unify a fractious Cabinet". Four months wasted.
The anonymous source said, "we never sleep". Mrs May is on holiday in Italy - but apparently never sleeping.
