Mrs May is off to Salzburg this week for an informal summit of EU leaders. She is hoping once again to persuade them to accept her Chequers compromise where Britain effectively remains in the single market for goods but not services, capital or people. She has the appearance of a frustrated primary school teacher faced with a class of 27 particularly dim pupils who are having difficulty in grasping a basic concept and so forcing her to repeatedly explain it.
In spite of extra one-to-one lessons delivered by senior UK government ministers, scuttling round Europe over the past few weeks in the guise of private tutors, she still thinks the class has failed to understand her proposal to "cherry pick" those parts of the acquis communitaire that are favourable to us while leaving behind all the unpleasant stuff like our multi-billion pound financial contribution and freedom of movement by those troublesome eastern Europeans,
Needless to say, she will fail, as the BBC's Europe editot, Katya Adler notes (HERE). There is no sign of any softening of the EU's basic position or modifying of Barnier's guidelines set back in April 2017 (HERE).
We continue to go round the same circle trying to find a way to leave the EU while remaining in at the same time. It is not the pupils who have failed to grasp the concept but the teachers. Before the referendum, the German finance minister at the time, Wolfgang Schäuble said, "If the majority in Britain opts for Brexit, that would be a decision against the single market. In is in. Out is out. One has to respect the sovereignty of the British people.” (HERE)
Yet for two years we have been trying to make "out" mean "in" and "in" mean "out". For the UK to be like a sub atomic particle which can be in two places at the same time in a process known a bi-location. Unfortunately, this happens only in the quantum world. A modern western democracy of 65 million people can only be in one place, we are either IN or OUT of the single market and the decision must be made very soon.
When Theresa May, or her successor, finally makes the choice it will provoke a crisis and what happens after that is anyone's guess.
