So I've only paid a small amount of attention to all this Brexit nonsense

[Monty92]

Yes that's true but as has now been pointed out to you twice, at this point it wouldn't have made any difference because the EU holds all the cards anyway and we are not currently negotiating the future relationship, only the logistics of how we will exit. This negotiation actually means very little so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

I don't see why it's improbable that a genuine threat of No Deal would not have lent the entire negotiations - including the withdrawal agreement - a different complexion.

[Burney]

I don't see why it's improbable that a genuine threat of No Deal would not have lent the entire negotiations - including the withdrawal agreement - a different complexion.

Well of course it would have done. A negotiation from which you're not prepared to walk away is not a negotiation, it's a document of surrender.

[Monty92]

Well of course it would have done. A negotiation from which you're not prepared to walk away is not a negotiation, it's a document of surrender.

Have you been following the Spectator's to and fro with Downing Street? It does truly seem this deal is as bad as anyone could possibly have imagined.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/1...10s-rebuttals/

[Burney]

Have you been following the Spectator's to and fro with Downing Street? It does truly seem this deal is as bad as anyone could possibly have imagined.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/1...10s-rebuttals/

Unfortunately, yes. It makes a profoundly depressing read. Particularly as we have signed up to things that we didn't need to that are simply an embarrassment.

In my more paranoid moments over the last two years I've imagined the idea was to deliberately create a deal so bad that it made the idea of remaining palatable. I've dismissed these thoughts as absurd - no British PM would dream of doing such a thing.

I'm no longer dismissing the thought. This is a Remain stitch-up.

[Rich]

Unfortunately, yes. It makes a profoundly depressing read. Particularly as we have signed up to things that we didn't need to that are simply an embarrassment.

In my more paranoid moments over the last two years I've imagined the idea was to deliberately create a deal so bad that it made the idea of remaining palatable. I've dismissed these thoughts as absurd - no British PM would dream of doing such a thing.

I'm no longer dismissing the thought. This is a Remain stitch-up.

I'm a leetle bit on the fence about it. However, I suspect May asked for what she wanted and was promptly told to do one by the EU. Unfortunately, leaving with no deal will 100% hurt most of the people that voted for Brexit (though I accept they didn't know what they were voting for at the time).

I think we'll need a final referendum to decide whether we want to accept the deal we do have or remain. I highly doubt we will leave with no deal since it means that everybody loses.

[Burney]

I'm a leetle bit on the fence about it. However, I suspect May asked for what she wanted and was promptly told to do one by the EU. Unfortunately, leaving with no deal will 100% hurt most of the people that voted for Brexit (though I accept they didn't know what they were voting for at the time).

I think we'll need a final referendum to decide whether we want to accept the deal we do have or remain. I highly doubt we will leave with no deal since it means that everybody loses.

Your solution is, of course, what this abject surrender was designed to achieve. Like I say, a Remain stitch-up.

[WES]

I'm a leetle bit on the fence about it. However, I suspect May asked for what she wanted and was promptly told to do one by the EU. Unfortunately, leaving with no deal will 100% hurt most of the people that voted for Brexit (though I accept they didn't know what they were voting for at the time).

I think we'll need a final referendum to decide whether we want to accept the deal we do have or remain. I highly doubt we will leave with no deal since it means that everybody loses.

Too many people state this as though it was fact; I have yet to see a sensible, objective analysis that makes it clear that it is fact.

And most of the people saying this, also told us that voting for Brexit would cause the economy to crash.

[Monty92]

Too many people state this as though it was fact; I have yet to see a sensible, objective analysis that makes it clear that it is fact.

And most of the people saying this, also told us that voting for Brexit would cause the economy to crash.

This fella is a highly outspoken Brexiteer who thinks No Deal would be a total disaster (he favours the Norway model)

http://peterjnorth.blogspot.com/

[WES]

I don't see why it's improbable that a genuine threat of No Deal would not have lent the entire negotiations - including the withdrawal agreement - a different complexion.

What do you think we would have gained by doing this? How would the exit deal have been different had we done that and how would that have been likely to impact our future relationship negotiations?