Recently, we have been told the the prime minister will make a speech setting out more details of the government's aims for the next stage of the Brexit talks. This has now been abandoned according to this report in The Times HERE. She is apparently worried about exposing the extent of cabinet divisions and I'm not really surprised.
Kicking cans down the road is becoming a speciality of Mrs May.
The reporter speculates that the differences between the two cabinet factions maybe so deep and entrenched as to be irreconcilable. Again, I am not surprised.
The lack of any serious deep papers about the options, the absence on one side at least of any belief in expert opinion and the studious avoidance of any debate at cabinet level of what Brexit actually means (apart of course, from Brexit) was always bound to lead to this.
Very soon we will need to start talking to the EU in detail about what our objectives are after Brexit and we will need to have a settled position. Big decisions are coming, decisions that will impact every person and business in this country. There is no unanimity in cabinet, in the Conservative party or in the country about where we are going. It is a recipe for disaster.
And it is not only in cabinet where the differences are irreconcilable. The Brexit divisions will take years to heal, if indeed they ever do.
The government is facing an impossible task. A huge section of the population and the cabinet are going to be unhappy. Perhaps indeed, nobody will be entirely happy. Even those who get their own way will be unhappy because the actual consequences were either not fully known or not understood.
