There is a nice article for remainers in The Sunday Times HERE about the paralysis in government on Brexit. I am not sure I would class it as news since this has been obvious for months. The article talks about Mrs May needing to put some meat on the table - I echo this, we're all famished from the lack of any for months.
The Brexit "war cabinet" met twice last week but reached no conclusions apparently with May herself say they didn't have to make any decisions at the opening of the first meeting. “The most depressing thing was that no decisions were taken and the prime minister didn’t express a view,” said one former cabinet minister. “For God’s sake, what’s she on?”.
Think about this. We are twenty months on from the referendum and ten months since Article 50 was triggered but the PM's views are still not known. Does she have any?
May has now ordered her ministers to present themselves for an away-day meeting at the end of next week at Chequers, her country retreat, where the key issues are to be thrashed out once and for all. “The cliff edge has been extended to the away day,” a cabinet source said.
The vacuum at the heart of government has caused four ripples that threaten to make May’s already complicated job more difficult. In the past week it has emboldened those remainers who wish to derail Brexit; led EU negotiators to take a more belligerent line ahead of the trade talks, due to begin after March; led hardline Brexiteers to pile pressure on May not to betray their vision of Brexit; and created fresh questions about the prime minister’s own future.
It certainly seemed to the ministers present that May was as concerned with secrecy as with progress. The papers on a future trade relationship were classified as “secret” and printed on pink paper instead of white. They were delivered to the ministers at their homes the night before to minimise the chance of leaks.
“It was very top-level stuff, with almost no detail and zero agreement on anything,” a source said. The problem is that May now has to make detailed choices with practical and political implications. Does Britain remain closely aligned with the EU and its regulations — or not?
Hardline Eurosceptics, however, are unnerved by Barnier’s bullishness and privately warning May that she needs to back them, not those advocating a soft Brexit. “It’s allowing the EU to unleash hell on us,” one MP claimed.
The Brexiteers thought the EU and Barnier would come begging but they and he have been far more robust - and much clearer - than we have. If IDS and company thought we would get our own way on Brexit, they are going to be sadly disappointed.
But I leave the best till last. According to the impeccably well connected Tim Shipman who wrote the article:
Inside the Brexit department there is dismay at the dawdling over deciding what Brexit means.
“It’s so much worse than anyone realises,” an official said. “We should have made these basic decisions months ago.”
What a joke. It's a bit like placing a contract with a builder to undertake a big remodel of your house while you're away for three months. You keep getting updates that at first seem to show all is well. Then, some delays, parts not available, unforeseen problems - nothing to worry about. This is where we are at the moment. Later, you become suspicious. A neighbour calls with news that doesn't quite fit the rosy picture from the builder. Finally, after six months you return to find you house is totally gutted, the builder is nowhere to be seen and his phone just rings out with all the money gone. This is 2019.
