Brexit

[Witton Park]

They should.
But they all want different things. This government has never expressed the details of what Brexit it wants.
Under what conditions will they want to trade with the EU?
Under what conditions will EU citizens be allowed to reside in Britain?
What type of border is there going to be in Ireland?
How much will Britain pay of its divorce bill?

These are major questions the government has not answered, they can't even agree among themselves. Until they give the EU-27 an answer they accept, there is no going to be a next phase. We all lose, and the UK is the biggest loser.
I'm not happy about it, and I'm not a UK citizen and I don't even live in the UK (not any more).

I disagree, but first you can turn that on it's head.

What conditions to the EU want to trade with the UK. I don't actually know anywhere whether they have said they want a comprehensive FTA.

What conditions will UK citizens be allowed to reside in the EU?

On the Northern Irish border, it is staggeringly obvious that this cannot be resolved until we have the outline of a trade agreement. The EU asks us for progress, but won't allow us to get to the trade element that will help resolve this part.


How much does the EU expect us to pay? We've only had some spin, nothing set out.


Now I work in various situations where we twin-track. The EU could drop us right in the crap if we agree a £ Figure now, talks move along, we agree a Citizens outline, talks move along, we discuss possible future involvement in projects such as Horizon, Erasmus.... and then we get to the end of next year and they change their mind and talks break down.

So we should try to reach a deal, but we should be 100% planning for no deal. We should make sure we have the WTO schedules established, set up our regulatory agencies and get them up and running to deal with the issues of air travel, nuclear....

So back to what the Government wants.

You have to remember that unlike most issues, this issue was fought across party lines and not along party lines.
So we end up with a Government that is made up of mostly Remain campaigners and the smae of the opposition benches.
So the Tories under May, have had to go away and do much of the prep work that Cameron neglected to do.

They presented the Lancaster House speech. That has been fleshed out with more detail since in two White Papers and the Florence Speech.
(I have to say I'm not a fan of the way it's been done - but it is there)

These have all carried a broad policy direction.

1. They want to trade with the EU on a Free Trade basis and they want to develop an accelerated customs clearance system.
2. They want EU Citizens to be able to reside here in the UK broadly as they do now. They have since put forward a simplified system of applying for residency.
3. They do not want an active border with Ireland.
4. They have said they will pay what is due. They have developed that to say they will not leave the EU short in this budget period, which in effect guarantees about £18-20 Billion on leaving.

So I'm not sure what more they could be expected to say at this stage.

I haven't yet seen anything on any of the issues from the EU and in particular, if the EU expects EU nationals in the UK to be under the jurisdiction of the ECJ after we leave, then they are being unreasonable.