At the very last moment, despite assurances to the contrary, Prime Minister May announced in Parliament that because she lacked the necessary votes she was postponing the vote on her painfully negotiated Brexit deal . She also announced she was embarking on a series of visits to EU leaders to see if she could win further concessions on the nature of the Irish backstop to meet the criticisms of many leavers in Parliament that it was not legally clear from the deal that the backstop could ultimately not prevent the UK from actually leaving the EU and being subject to its trade rules or on the other hand result in Northern Ireland de. facto being separated from the UK. This has been a long run problem in the negotiations and its not clear how it can be resolved. without further compromises by the EU . These are compromises that the EU negotiators and leadership have firmly rejected and today have reiterated as simply not possible. Instead they have stated that the deal on offer is‘‘ the best deal and the only deal possible.‘‘
So it looks like May is caught in a very awkward position trapped in an agreement she cannot get passed in the current UK Parliament and unlikely to win an election if one were to be called over Brexit. The alternative of crashing out of the EU without a deal is a worst case option that might now occur but it is very unwelcome to both business leaders and most of the public.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
About haroldchorneyeconomist
I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
haroldchorneyeconomist 