EU freezes Brexit talks until Britain produces Irish border solution – which may never happen
Ultimatum: Donald Tusk.
That’ll be the end of Brexit talks, then.
Theresa May and her hard-Brexit cabinet members have ruled out every possibility that could have saved the talks.
They have made it clear that, for them, Brexit means leaving the Customs Union and the Single Market. They won’t accept a hard border, with checks on goods and people crossing from the EU into the UK, either between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or between NI and the rest of the UK.
So they’re stuck.
And if they stay stuck, then we’re heading for a no-deal Brexit that means all trade with EU countries will be done on high World Trade Organisation tariffs, sending the cost of living for ordinary UK citizens through the roof.
Oh, and it also means a hard border between NI and the Republic, jeopardising the fragile peace process there in any case.
Theresa May, her forerunner David Cameron, and the Tory governments they both headed have steered the UK relentlessly towards ruin.
This is probably why Mrs May is introducing pointless voter identification rules – to try to block the people who are most likely to be affected by her blunders from voting her government out at the first opportunity. She knows the Tories will be blamed for this, forever.
Well, timing is everything. It is possible that the consequences of her stupidity will catch up with Mrs May before she is able to do anything to mitigate the damage to her party.
And then they’ll really be in trouble.
The EU has thrown down an ultimatum to Theresa May in Brexit talks, warning that it will not open discussions about trade or other issues until the Irish border question is solved.
Speaking in Dublin alongside the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, European Council President Donald Tusk said talks would be a case of “Ireland first” and that “the risk of destabilising the fragile peace process must be avoided at all costs”.
“We know today that the UK Government rejects a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, the EU single market, and the customs union,” Mr Tusk said.
“While we must respect this position, we also expect the UK to propose a specific and realistic solution to avoid a hard border.
“As long as the UK doesn’t present such a solution, it is very difficult to imagine substantive progress in Brexit negotiations.
“If in London someone assumes that the negotiations will deal with other issues first before the Irish issue, my response would be: Ireland first.”
Source: EU freezes Brexit talks until Britain produces Irish border solution
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Good for the EU there thinking about there own interests and the Irish Republic and its people
Bhuahhahahaha A Hard Irish Donkey Laugh. Priceless!!
Can we get the Professionals in now, Now that the amateurs are finished?
Ironic to think that some in the UK government would accept trading under WTO rules yet bitterly complain that WTO rules aren’t good enough to force Trump to buy British steel! Either the WTO rules are fine for everybody OR they are too feeble to protect unhampered world trade. Which?
its not possible to have a hard border as you would hold up the vast amount of traffic day in day out leaving the drivers out of hours for driving
I’ll say it one more time: Why is it that not one person, out of the more than 1,400 M.P.s and £ords, raised the Irish boarder, during the Referendum Bill debates of 2015? Why was the Referendum allowed to go ahead, when this issue was obviously something that would need to be resolved? I am getting rather ti-red of people blaming Theresa May for everything; believe me, I am far from her biggest fan (she’s Tory, after all) but why did NOBODY see fit to raise this issue and have even a hint of a plan put into place before the Bill was passed? They had to make provision for but one outcome, that of the country voting to leave. Shame on our Parliamentarians, all of them and a pox on BOTH Houses!
The EU proposed that the border could end up in the irish sea…that will undermine the DUP and the collapse of the Tory government but at what cost.
The obvious solution of course is for the UK to remain a full member of the EU, in a full partnership with our neighbours and friends in Europe.