Reading about Brexit from the EU perspective, there are times when all you can feel is profound embarrassment at being British. Reading this piece in The Guardian (HERE) by Jennifer Rankin is just such a moment. She has spoken to various diplomats in Strasbourg who seem utterly exasperated with the UK. They confirm there are no negotiations going on - just courtesy calls.
It must be obvious to everyone in Europe that the PM is playing for time. She knows the WA is not going to be renegotiated and is simply keeping up the pretence that changes are possible. It's a strange situation. Everybody knows what she's doing and she knows they know. Her own side seem to ignore it. Half of them because they think it's a negotiating ploy and the rest are happy to see us go over a cliff.
I quote from the article which is titled: EU officials: UK only 'pretending to negotiate' over Brexit impasse, some of it is painful:
"However, on Wednesday night European council president Donald Tusk said the EU27 was still waiting for proposals. 'No news is not always good news,' he tweeted, after meeting with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. 'EU27 still waiting for concrete, realistic proposals from London on how to break Brexit impasse,' Tusk said".
"Barnier, has said current talks with the UK do not even qualify as negotiations. In a call on Tuesday morning with Guy Verhofstadt, chief Brexit representative for the European parliament, Barnier said there were 'no negotiations' with the British".
“ 'These are courtesy calls at best and we have nothing new to say,' Barnier was reported to have said, by a source familiar with the conversation".
" 'They are pretending to negotiate while they still don’t know what they want and how they want it,' the source said, who described this week’s meetings as 'kicking up dust' and a series of 'photo opportunities and pictures'. 'We are willing to negotiate, but there is nothing on the table from the British side.' "
" Verhofstadt asked Lidington four times what the British proposal was and 'four times didn’t get an answer', according to the EU official, who described the encounter as 'very surreal' ".
"Another EU source said a separate meeting with the British ministers in Strasbourg revealed 'nothing really groundbreaking' ".
"An EU diplomat said May’s strategy was probably to run down the clock'sending her negotiators here and there' to buy time ahead of a European summit on 21-22 March. 'They come forward with the same proposals and they get the same answers,' the diplomat said".
"Numerous EU sources have insisted in public and private that there will be no re-opening of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, stressing that it is up to the British government to work out a plan that commands a stable majority in the House of Commons".
" 'Time limit, exit clause, magical solutions based on technology, these are all things we have heard before,' a senior EU official said.'We cannot start inventing solutions for the British.' ”
"The EU remains reluctant to firm up previous reassurances on the temporary nature of the backstop by putting them into a different legal document. Tory backbenchers have floated the idea of a codicil, a format that has no formal status in EU negotiations".
"EU sources remain unconvinced such a legalistic move would change minds.'I don’t think she has shown to anyone she could muster a majority,' said one EU diplomat. 'There is not much incentive to move.' "
"The senior EU official described the Brexit outlook as 'not encouraging', arguing that the prime minister’s decision to seek changes on the backstop had closed down options for a deal. 'Theresa May chose to ally herself with the most radical Brexiteers. She did so to reunify her party and frankly I don’t think any deal is possible on that basis.' "
Perhaps Robert Peston (HERE) is right and parliament is about to wrestle control of the Brexit process from Theresa May, who is recklessly driving us to a cliff edge because of stubbornness and selfish party management reasons. The only certainty in my own mind is that a great national humiliation awaits us. Paradoxically, Brexit may be the catalyst which finally allows us to see ourselves as others see us. In Burn's words:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!
Brexit may just be that power.
