@eternumviti - I think the deadlock has been due the the UK’s inability to reach an agreement on any part of the deal. The kind of sequencing used here is commonplace in big negotiations: without it, both parties would be tempted to revisit earlier sections over and over, which would eventually unravel any hope of a deal. It’s a measure to encourage good-faith negotiating, and the principle was accepted by both sides. On the WA itself, I don’t understand how a parliament that rejected May’s version three times would so enthusiastically accept Johnson’s more supine revision, one which only removed the threat of the backstop by unilaterally implementing it from Day 1. I’m cynical enough to believe that, as often with the Tories, it was never about the deal, and more about being seen to side with the “winners” in the hope of personal advancement, and the stories of Johnson reassuring MPs that he was intending to renege on the deal has too much of a ring of truth to it to discount…
@Brian - yes, years have been wasted on Brexit: you can see that in the decline of the UK since 2016: everything in UK politics has been polarised into Remainers and Leavers, preventing anything that might benefit all British people. Certain vested interests like this, and encourage it. After all, internal division weakens a nation, and the more time spent on Brexit, the less there is to look into what certain other countries are getting up to. And for the record, I think it’s grossly unfair to characterise Leavers as racists just because the statistically small number of racist shits in the UK were fervent in their support for it.
And you’re right again to lay the blame for this shit-show started at Cameron’s door: not for calling the vote, but for running away from the fire he started when the results came in (a show we see again, with higher production values, in the Johnson era). The whole thing shows up the lack of ability and attention to detail in the Conservative Party, and how far distanced it has become from the country it is supposed to govern.
I’m Irish, so in my life I’ve seen any number of attitudes here in Ireland toward our bigger, richer, neighbour: hatred, envy, grudging admiration, even friendship when we think you’re not listening. I’d never have put “pity” in that list, but in the last year or so, it has crept into a lot of the commentary and a lot of people’s conversations: that a country can be so badly run against the best interests of its population is a crying shame. Only Trump’s USA has fallen further.
@Brian - yes, years have been wasted on Brexit: you can see that in the decline of the UK since 2016: everything in UK politics has been polarised into Remainers and Leavers, preventing anything that might benefit all British people. Certain vested interests like this, and encourage it. After all, internal division weakens a nation, and the more time spent on Brexit, the less there is to look into what certain other countries are getting up to. And for the record, I think it’s grossly unfair to characterise Leavers as racists just because the statistically small number of racist shits in the UK were fervent in their support for it.
And you’re right again to lay the blame for this shit-show started at Cameron’s door: not for calling the vote, but for running away from the fire he started when the results came in (a show we see again, with higher production values, in the Johnson era). The whole thing shows up the lack of ability and attention to detail in the Conservative Party, and how far distanced it has become from the country it is supposed to govern.
I’m Irish, so in my life I’ve seen any number of attitudes here in Ireland toward our bigger, richer, neighbour: hatred, envy, grudging admiration, even friendship when we think you’re not listening. I’d never have put “pity” in that list, but in the last year or so, it has crept into a lot of the commentary and a lot of people’s conversations: that a country can be so badly run against the best interests of its population is a crying shame. Only Trump’s USA has fallen further.
