Brexit and the government are slowly being swamped by problems of various size and complexity converging at speed on Westminster from every direction. After months of running down the clock, the government is about to be run over by it. The PM has been focused on using time slipping away as a blunt weapon against her opponents but is about to discover it works both ways.
"A fortnight ago, I committed to come back before the House today if the Government had not by now secured a majority for a withdrawal agreement and a political declaration. In the two weeks since, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the Attorney General and I have been engaging in focused discussions with the EU to find a way forward that will work for both sides. We are making good progress in that work".
It was enough for some MPs - certainly those that still had any confidence that she was capable of telling truth from fiction - who were "encouraged" by her statement (Alex Chalk, Con: Cheltenham for example). She said the talks were "constructive".
And yet, the progress doesn't seem to have been that good. Michel Barnier has apparently told EU27 ambassadors yesterday morning there has actually been "no progress" at all (HERE). According to The Guardian Britain keeps asking for either a time limit or an exit mechanism and they keep telling us we can't have either. It seems our negotiators have been to the Theresa May School of Arbitration. All the rooms are circular and everyone keeps going round and round the same logical inconsistencies until the talks break up acrimoniously.
It is completely farcical.
The man actually in Brussels making no progress is Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General (HERE). You can more or less guarantee that he will come back and declare the backstop is no longer permanent. Britain will not be in limbo forever, he will say. But the ERG have so little faith in Cox that they have appointed a panel of lawyers (HERE) to act as their own personal backstop. Cox will need to convince them he is not marking his own homework and giving it a pass. He will find they aren't called Eurosceptics for nothing.
The man actually in Brussels making no progress is Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General (HERE). You can more or less guarantee that he will come back and declare the backstop is no longer permanent. Britain will not be in limbo forever, he will say. But the ERG have so little faith in Cox that they have appointed a panel of lawyers (HERE) to act as their own personal backstop. Cox will need to convince them he is not marking his own homework and giving it a pass. He will find they aren't called Eurosceptics for nothing.
With just 28 days to go the food industry complain (HERE) they still don't know what tariffs their goods might face when exported to the EU or countries that have a FTA with Europe. They also haven't been told what information their labels will need to carry on March 30th if we leave on WTO terms. The Welsh NFU say the UK is already feeling the disastrous impact of Brexit.
BuzzFeed claim (HERE) May raised the question of a delay or an extension to Article 50 with Donald Tusk last week. She told him we would need more time even if parliament agreed to her deal on or before March 12th. I hope this won't come as a shock to the ERG. Bear in mind if we do manage to get a deal agreed very little will change on March 30th but the PM still thinks we aren't ready even for that! Ask yourself how much more time we need if we had to exit without a deal.
Chris "Failing" Grayling, the hapless Transport Secretary is in more trouble (HERE) after reaching an out-of-court settlement with Euro Tunnel amounting to £33 million after awarding contracts to ferry companies for extra no-deal capacity without asking Euro Tunnel to bid. Incidentally, as a measure of how the government has become a laughing stock read this very funny piece (HERE) by Marina Hyde in The Guardian about Grayling. It also has a bit about Dominic Raab trying to distance himself from the Withdrawal Agreement and blame it all on the EU:
" [The deal that] as Brexit secretary, famously helped to negotiate. If Raab seeks an aide memoire, there is extensive press conference footage of him perspiring next to Michel Barnier. Yes, I’m afraid Dominic Raab is the missing woman’s boyfriend who helps with the search".
Meanwhile the economy struggles along (HERE) as factories cut jobs and brace for Brexit. According to the latest figures, manufacturing hit a four-month low in February, and the fall would have been worse if factories had not rushed to build up stock to see them through any Brexit border chaos. Reuters say, "Stockpiling hit a record high for any Group of Seven economy while factories cut jobs at the fastest pace in six years and were increasingly downbeat about the future".
At last we've struggled back to the top of the G7 - unfortunately it's for stockpiling enough baked beans to blow us all to kingdom come.
And finally, to complete our international humiliation for this week, the USA published an 18 page summary of their negotiating aims when trade talks with the UK begin according to Sky News (HERE). As expected they want us to drop our standards to allow chlorine washed chicken and hormone fed beef into our market. I'll post more on this after skim-reading the document since it's an important pointer to a potential future for this country post Brexit.
What a bloody awful mess!
What a bloody awful mess!
