Brexit negotiations hit a Dead End

Martin Luther King once said, “there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”. I wonder if Theresa May and her cabinet deep inside know this is the time to start to position themselves for real and for once listen to other voices more than their own. We all have this sense of ambiguous calm regarding Brexit. The world hasn’t ended just yet and we are struggling with the same issues as before the Referendum. There has not been that massive Armageddon the pessimists were so adamant to predict. We all live in a Brexit denial. Denial for those who feel leaving the EU can’t come soon enough and for those who are spending a great amount of time holding on to the hopeless hope that Brexit can still be stopped.

This period all the way to Christmas will be crucial to determine the impact Brexit will inflict on the UK and in the EU territories, but I am afraid this Government needs to admit the mess they are in before any more progress can be made. May’s party is in turmoil and her cabinet cannot even agree on the only 3 things that both sides of the divorce are really keen on sorting out as soon as possible: how much the separation is going to cost. Citizen’s rights and Northern Ireland. May has promised to pay some money but rejects to give a final figure until the negotiations progress into trade talks. Unfortunately for the PM, failure to specify now how much and how the UK is going to settle its payments will be catastrophic. Brexit will stop being a pantomime to become an an extremely serious business and once we reach that point there will be no more living in denial for all of us. Damage will start.

As we have seen in Catalunya, just the thought of not being part of the EU if independence succeeded was enough to make almost 2000 businesses of all sizes to move to Spain. The impact was felt immediately. A messy and disorganised exit from the EU will have a similar effect in the UK. Instead of minimising the impact of Brexit you will get the opposite effect, multiplying the damage. It is beyond belief the current Government hasn’t explained with real figures the economical impact Brexit will have in a deal or in a no deal situation. The EU has been working on the 2020 budget because they know their losses after the UK leaves. Exactly 10,000 million of euros less every year. Give or take 16% less resources available for their regional programs. They are in no denial of the difficult times ahead. There is team called ‘Brexit preparedness group’ studying and preparing for the bumpy road ahead after the UK exit. Meanwhile what has this Government been doing? Rebelling against each other whilst promising us a land of opportunity and hope.

We are at a dead end. The EU is not bluffing. At the beginning of December Mrs May needs to send back Mr Davis to Brusselswith a bit more than words of good will. The EU might have not been saying it out loud, but what they really want to know is what the UK Government expects to get from Brexit, because to negotiate everything to remain almost the same, it makes people wonder why leave then? We are leaving, on the 29th March 2019. A date that makes Brexit as inevitable as death or taxes. No vote on the parliament can change that date which makes any debate on the deal a slightly pointless one. With a deal or without one we can only hope the Government’s vision for the country Is as full of detail and contingency plans as it is full of dreams and exciting possible enterprise. Gandhi said, “the future depends on what you do today”, well at this moment in time seeing what this government is doing I rather stay in this limbo for a little bit longer.

#Brexit