UK all but gives up on November Brexit summit

[muriel_volestrangler]

Britain has all but given up on a special Brexit summit at the end of November as there remain too many sticking points to complete the talks in the time originally hoped for.

UK and EU negotiators were talking until 2.45am on Monday night, Downing Street said, but sources downplayed the prospect of any immediate breakthrough as the impasse on the Irish border backstop continues.

Negotiations will continue intensively this week, but unless there is dramatic progress by the end of Wednesday, there can be no European summit to sign off a draft deal this month. “There’s no breakthrough at the moment,” a Whitehall source said.

The absence of a breakthrough means Tuesday’s scheduled cabinet meeting will not be the substantive discussion intended to sign off the UK’s Brexit negotiating position as had been expected. It will note developments and discuss no-deal planning instead.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/12/may-has-little-room-for-manoeuvre-brexit-german-minister-warns

Things are all looking a bit fucked, frankly. Ministers resigning, more ministers saying publicly they're staying in the cabinet to fight the deal May is proposing at the moment, the ERG stirring all the shit it can, and still no sign of any deal that preserves both the Good Friday Agreement and uniform treatment of all the UK.

[Girard442]

1. The Brexiteers have a delusion they have the leverage to drive a hard bargain with the EU.

But they got nuthin'.

[AlexSFCA]

2. EU must not compramise and make example of it

so other EU countries will see consequences for themselves. This may push UK to rejoin EU and pass legislation to protect it. When economy is in free fall, millions of jobs lost due to fringe politics, things may change.

[DetlefK]

3. According to Russia Today...

According to Russia Today, the EU is a big old meany for insisting on their terms. Why can't the EU simply let their members leave while giving them the same preferential treatment as before?

[APorter910]

4. Are the UK prepping for a hard Brexit or no brexit at all?

I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on this

[T_i_B]

5. We haven't even started to prepare.

The government doesn't seem to know what it wants from all this, which makes it very hard for businesses to prepare properly.

Also doesn't help that the government seems to think that everyone else will do the preparation for them!

[LeftishBrit]

7. The word 'prepping' doesn't apply to our government

They are like 12-year-olds saying that the dog ate their homework.

[LeftishBrit]

6. What a mess. What an ALMIGHTY mess!

[Matilda]

8. I flicked between CNN and BBC last night (Sydney time) and was fascinated.

I've not seen anywhere any detail as to just what's in the proposed agreement, so it's hard to follow. But there are opposing people saying "there will have to be another vote" and those saying "forget another vote, that's not going to happen". Those who say "May is finished, she should go now", and those who say "she'll stick it out, she's strong", and "It's this or no deal, there's nothing else" and those who say "they've got to rethink".

I did notice that as the day wore on, apart from regular notes that somebody else had resigned coming across the screen, the seats on the government side of the Commons were increasingly empty. A bit poor, I thought - in fairness, Cameron made this mess and then walked away; you wonder why anybody would have put their hand up to be leader at that time.

But it's hard to follow from a distance, because talking heads are very different to the people in the street - I'd love to know what the mood is there.