The EU have agreed their negotiating guidelines (HERE). In what I imagine was a deliberate act, they took just four minutes to agree them and show there is complete unity among the remaining 27 members. So, it has taken one month after the Article 50 letter was sent for the EU to agree a common position. That's one month out of the twenty four allowed. Now we are in the middle of a General Election that won't be decided until June 8th, another month gone.
In August,France and most of southern Europe will be closed. Then there is the German elections in September. The time for negotiation was always thought to be tight but it is becoming tighter all the time. Having "taken back control" we are in their hands now like never before.
It also emerged at the weekend that last Wednesday's meeting in Downing Street went "really badly" according to accounts from the EU. Jean Claude Juncker and Michelle Barnier met Mrs May for dinner and afterwards a diplomatic source said it was "completely unreal" and her views on the Brexi bill "border on the delusional".
Apparently over dinner Juncker pulled out a copy of the EU -Canada trade deal and recommended she study its complexity. It is claimed that following the meeting Juncker called Angela Merkel and it was this call that prompted her speech to the Bundestag to include a mention about some people in the UK still harbouring illusions. She was talking about the Prime Minister!
Dominic Raab, former minister and foam-at-the-mouth Brexiteer, as if to prove beyond doubt that we are delusional said the reaction was proof the EU was on the back foot. "In any negotiation, the side least confident in their position ends up whingeing to the media. It is invariably a sign of insecurity not strength".
One gets the impression that our leaders do not realise what they have done, nor what they want or how they might be able to get it. Their minds are impregnable to reality. Let us hope that sooner rather than later, they come to their senses.
The British sense of entitlement that has bedevilled us for at least a century is being encouraged and reinforced from the top of government.
