The current Brexit Secretary, Stephen Barclay, assured the nation on TV last December that the meaningful vote would go ahead. A few hours later the PM decided that it wouldn't. He was assuring us yesterday that the UK will leave the EU on March 29th which means with almost 100% certainty that we will not. Even The Telegraph is coming to that conclusion.
Peter Foster, the Telegraph's Europe editor, has written (HERE) that an extension to Article 50 looks inevitable. I can't give you the whole article since I've already used my two free articles this week but another website HERE has some quotes from Foster's piece.
The Week says:
"The Daily Telegraph first reported that UK officials have been “putting out feelers” and “testing the waters” on extending the mechanism by which the Britain formally leaves the EU.
"This is because officials “can see that the time-horizons are getting dangerously, indeed perhaps impossibly short”, says the paper’s Peter Foster. "For now, rescinding Article 50 feels like a distant prospect given the state of UK politics, but if neither side backs down and the EU rejects an extension request it surely cannot be discounted,” says Foster.
"This is because officials “can see that the time-horizons are getting dangerously, indeed perhaps impossibly short”, says the paper’s Peter Foster. "For now, rescinding Article 50 feels like a distant prospect given the state of UK politics, but if neither side backs down and the EU rejects an extension request it surely cannot be discounted,” says Foster.
Incidentally, I note Jonathan Powell, Blair's former chief of staff, writing in The Guardian HERE on a similar topic, says:
"The reason why a no-deal Brexit is not going to happen has nothing to do with there being a majority in parliament against it. Rather, it is the instinct for self-preservation that will make the government pull the emergency brake in the end and ask Brussels for more time”, he says.
At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, this is exactly what I said last August (HERE) when David Davis was talking about walking away without a deal. When even The Daily Telegraph begin to see that leaving without a deal is a non-starter you can safely bet that it isn't going to happen. No government would or could take the risk voluntarily and deliberately. The risks may well be exaggerated as they claim, but governments do not gamble recklessly with anything, let alone our entire future trading relationship with the EU. Think about it.
At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, this is exactly what I said last August (HERE) when David Davis was talking about walking away without a deal. When even The Daily Telegraph begin to see that leaving without a deal is a non-starter you can safely bet that it isn't going to happen. No government would or could take the risk voluntarily and deliberately. The risks may well be exaggerated as they claim, but governments do not gamble recklessly with anything, let alone our entire future trading relationship with the EU. Think about it.
If no deal is out of the question and the time is getting 'impossibly short' there are only two options. Article 50 will be either be delayed or revoked and we definitely won't leave on March 29th. The Brexiteers will go absolutely spare, but this is what I think is going to happen.
It will be the first tentative press on the Brexit brake pedal since Cameron announced the date of the referendum on February 20th 2016 - rejoice.
