{"id":5195,"date":"2019-01-31T08:56:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T08:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=5195"},"modified":"2022-08-11T09:26:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T09:26:35","slug":"brexit-is-now-all-about-the-art-of-the-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=5195","title":{"rendered":"Brexit is now all about the art of the possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theresa May\u2019s current political strategy seriously risks running into a dead-end from which it will only be possible for a new prime minister, taking a completely different course, to extract the nation, writes Geoff Kitney<\/em>.<\/span><\/h4>\n

B-day is now just weeks away. And yet, after two years of the most intense debate about Brexit \u2013 the biggest decision Britain has had to make in its modern existence \u2013 its citizens are as deeply divided about whether or how to leave the European Union.<\/p>\n

With the UK\u2019s political institutions paralysed by the impasse between Brexiters and Remainers, even the most obvious answer to the crisis \u2013 to conduct a second referendum \u2013 is seen by many as too risky. What if the vote is narrowly in favour of Remain? Do we wait a bit longer and try a third time for a decisive result? What happens to the fabric of the nation in the mean time?<\/p>\n

But this conundrum reveals the reality. The question is simply too hard to answer. Whether Britain should leave the EU or remain goes to such profoundly complex issues, it is impossible to give a \u201cyes or no\u201d answer.<\/p>\n

This was the problem with the original decision by former Conservative leader David Cameron to simply put the issue to \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d answers to a ridiculously simplistic question: \u201cShould the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?\u201d<\/p>\n

So, the Brexiters won the referendum. But the reality that they won with an absurdly simplistic argument has become ever more apparent, witnessed by the fact that support for leaving the EU has steadily declined almost from the day the \u201cyes\u201d vote was recorded.<\/p>\n

Arguably, it would have been best if Britain had acted on the \u201cyes\u201d vote immediately and walked away from the EU.<\/p>\n

It may be that this is now the only way Brexit can happen. On March 29, simply say \u201cstuff you to Brussels, we are out\u201d.<\/p>\n

Once the issue became a negotiation with the EU and the process got under way of unmaking the long and ever deepening engagement between Britain and the European Union, it was inevitable that Brexit would become a bureaucratic and political nightmare.<\/p>\n

If you have tried to read and understand Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s draft Brexit agreement presented to Parliament late last year, you will understand how true this is. It is difficult to imagine how anyone could fully comprehend it and how any MP in their right mind could vote for it.<\/p>\n

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The problem with all of this is that the most important question of all \u2013 what is good for the UK? \u2013 seems to have been forgotten.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So where does that leave Brexit realpolitik?<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Theresa May is about to find out. On Tuesday she narrowly won support \u2013 with the help of opposition Labour MPs from mainly leave-voting seats \u2013 for a government-backed amendment to return to Brussels and demand concessions on the divorce deal, and in particular on the controversial Irish backstop. Almost immediately EU negotiators said the deal \u2013 signed off by Mrs May \u2013 was not up for renegotiation.<\/p>\n

The prime minister insists that she will not budge from fulfilling her responsibility to honour the referendum result and deliver Brexit. She insists that it would be a failure of democracy to do otherwise.<\/p>\n

But unless she is prepared to say \u201cno deal, we are out\u201d, she will have to extract herself from a quagmire to be able to honour that commitment, something that would surely require a lot more time, with no guarantee that time will ultimately make any difference.<\/p>\n

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My message to PM @theresa_may<\/a>: The EU position is clear and consistent. The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation. Yesterday, we found out what the UK doesn’t want. But we still don\u2019t know what the UK does want. #brexit<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) 30 January 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n