The Guardian's coverage of the EU's rejection of UK proposals for solving the Irish border problem is HERE. They say pro EU MPs seem to think Mrs May is deliberately putting forward proposals the EU will reject in order to give her leverage in cabinet for remaining in a customs union:
"Pro soft-Brexit Conservative MPs believe the government may be deliberately presenting proposals it knows will be knocked back by Brussels, to help the prime minister break the deadlock in Cabinet about how to proceed"
The Guardian also provide comments made by BoJo in an article for The Telegraph on Wednesday who apparently said, "Without your ability to do things in a different way if you want, and your ability to do free trade deals, there is very little point in Brexit. I think Theresa totally gets that.”
The Irish border problem is proving much more difficult than anyone on the Leave side thought or had the guts to tell us and now it may even be the issue that stops Brexit altogether, since if we stay in the customs union, as we must do as a first step, in order to preserve the border in Ireland as it is now, there is very little point in Brexit as BoJo admits.
He also says he wants the ability to do things differently if we want. But we can do this already if we want higher standards than the EU. No one in the EU would complain as far as I can see. The EU simply sets minimum standards. What most of us worry about is the UK going down market and cutting regulations to get an advantage. If the regulation cutting was slight or barely noticeable, this wouldn't justify all the upheaval of Brexit.
No, they want to slash regulations significantly otherwise, "there is very little point to Brexit".
Another good article in The Guardian HERE by Dan Roberts, Brexit policy editor, says the government has to stop believing in magical solutions:
The Irish government, in particular, fears the UK is not serious about its proposals but merely using them as a temporary sop to placate those worried about the peace process.
More importantly the EU senses an even more significant victory could be looming. If it can persuade the government’s own MPs that there is no hope of British proposals coming to pass, then remaining in a customs union is now a realistic fall-back solution. Downing Street acceptance of the need for “close regulatory alignment” suggests continued single market membership may not be far behind either.
Both would be an anathema to Brexit true-believers, but a relief to business, Brussels and much of Westminster. By playing hardball now, the worst-case scenario for the EU is that Britain becomes like Norway – a compliant, satellite state. By pinning all its hopes on “magical” proposals, which fail to emerge when the wand is waved, the UK may have left itself with nowhere else to go
