Plan B? No, just B for Back to Brussels to Beg a Better Backstop, not even Botoxing her old plan A. Theresa May does not surprise. Wild rumours that she might dash for another election or resign mid-crisis fooled no one. Why expect better? If she pretended to listen to flotillas of visitors imploring her to see sense, change course, stop the madness, then she wore earplugs. Of course nothing changed. However, she has every reason for intransigence, strapped to her pilot seat, clamped in irons. Move an inch on the customs union, soften a red line and she would haemorrhage Tory MPs, winning few from Labour. Kate Hoey may cavort at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Bollinger bash at his home to celebrate May’s 230-vote defeat, but entices no fellow Labour MPs.
As the captive prime-minister-in-name-only runs the clock down closer to a nuclear no deal, how terrified should we be? Pay attention when her own business minister, Richard Harrington MP, warns that it would be such an “absolute disaster” that he would resign, warning of car industry collapse if supply chains were cut. Some cabinet ministers would walk, too, rather than take the blame for needless carnage. Every day brings more bad news: the International Air Transport Association warns that 5m sold airline tickets could be cancelled: no deal means no extra flights above last year’s quota.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2B6Cpr1
via
0 Comments