Of all that I have read about Brexit so far, and that's an awful lot, nothing is more amazing than this story in The Times (HERE) about the meeting yesterday between European business leaders and Mrs May. She apparently told them that she doesn't know what the EU want from the UK in order to agree to move on to trade talks. Think about this.
We have been talking for at least four months, with six rounds of official negotiations and umpteen bilateral and multilateral meetings with EU leaders plus virtually daily contact between ambassadors and in all that time the EU have never told us what they want, according to our prime minster. More to the point, she has never thought to ask. What have they talked about for heaven's sake!
I think I could easily tell her. The EU want a bigger role for the ECJ, concrete and practical solutions for the invisible Irish border and proposals setting out our thoughts on which of our financial commitments we will honour. We may not agree with some or all of these things but this is not to say we don't know what they are. On a topic as important as Brexit why on earth doesn't she pick up the phone, call Barnier, and ask him what we have to do? If he can't tell us what are the talks about?
The report claims Mrs May will offer no concessions until meeting the EU council on 14th December, effectively cutting Barnier out. Diplomats have already ruled this out, saying that while “fine-tuning” the financial settlement might be possible at the European Council, Mrs May would not be allowed to bring negotiations to the “top table”.
And Mrs May apparently told the meeting with the CBI and 14 EU business groups that they should pressure their governments to make progress in the talks. In turn they urged Mrs May to do much more to bring certainty to the table.
I have posted before about what an utter mess we are making of the Brexit negotiations but when I read reports like this, which I believe totally, it simply shows the mess is far greater than my worse fears.
