This is it. Next week sees the end of the beginning of Brexit – and the beginning of the end. Theresa May is determined to offer herself for ritual lynching by her mob of free-trade anarchists, having spent two years failing to face them down. Parliament will then liberate itself from her torture, and seek a new way forward. The plan is for May’s defeat on Tuesday to be followed by a vote against no deal, and then by its only sane consequence, a vote to delay article 50. To make that delay acceptable to the EU, there must be a plausible reason for it. That means a plausible alternative Brexit agreed by the British parliament. What is that alternative?
The answer began to emerge last Wednesday from talks between the Nick Boles/Oliver Letwin group of Tories and Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It is for the UK to leave the EU, but remain a member of the European customs union. It avoids the Northern Ireland border issue, honours May’s commitment to “frictionless” trade, and meets a hundred other reasonable concerns of those involved in Britain’s dealings with Europe. There is no question that there would be a Commons majority for such a proposal, as there is already in the House of Lords. Only the glaring inadequacy of the two party leaders has prevented a multiparty agreement on remaining in the customs union being already reached.
Continue reading...from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2XOP5fx
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