Negotiation by dummies

We can now say a few things about the PM's skills in negotiation:

1. She can't negotiate with the EU as she doesn't know what her own positions is because of (2)

2. She can't negotiate with her own Cabinet, as the two sides are so entrenched

3. She can't even negotiate with one of her own backbenchers

Yesterday, I wrote it seemed that May had been outmaneuvered by Dominic Grieve, who tabled an amendment based on the HoL's amendments, and in a meeting with the PM the he and the 16 other rebels got verbal confirmation that their amendments would be in the update sent back to the HoL.

Only the PM lied, did not include their amendments, and doubled down by a statement by the DExEU stating that the Government would never be dictated to by Parliament.

It seems that May and her Brexiteers had a lack of knowledge in Parliamentary procedure, as it emerged that the HoL will simply re-insert the original wording back into the bill, and send it back to the HoC where it will be voted upon, again, next Wednesday, and where the rebels have already stated they will vote against the Government unless this is passed.

And of course, no words, no promises will work this time as the PM's words cannot be trusted any more. Maybe this was the plan all along, I suspect so, in which case it was a dreadful blunder by the PM showing herself to be untrustworthy, not just to her own party's MPs, but to the onlooking EU who must wonder how did our country become such a basket case.....

And as a final word on the above, UK has to start negotiating trade deals with up to 60 countries, at the same time, where your word means everything, how does the above tally with that?

Now, this is interesting; it seems the EU is preparing plans for there to be EU elections in May next year, in which current EU country as well as the other EU27? Yes, UK. The EU is preparing for all eventualities, not just a no deal Brexit, a hard Brexit, but no Brexit at all.

One of the reasons for triggering A50 when the PM did was that unless it was triggered then, then the UK would have to have elections during the notification period, it suited both sides, the EU and UK to have UK leave before the elections, so that all laws could be amended to reference the EU27 not EU28. This is potentially huge news, as leaving the EU, if the UK does, after May 2019 would be a logistical nightmare (worse than it currently is) and a legal one too.

Which is why there was a rush to trigger A50, that and to temper the Brexiteers who knew any delay would mean leaving would probably never happen. In the same way that if the UK leaves just the EU, but stays in mechanisms that duplicate the SM and CU then the referendum "mandate" would said to have been carried out, and in all likelihood, we would stay that way forever.

And yesterday, the Electoral Commission released its report into spending in the referendum, and concluded that the official Leave Campaign, as back by Aaron Banks, probably broke the law. Now we wait to see what the CPS will do, if anything. But, if an election was won by breaking spending laws, it would call into question the result, but in this? Probably nothing, but imagine f Remain had won under the same circumstances, we would not hear the last of it, and a rerun would be demanded. In fact, a rerun was demanded by Leavers before the result was in, so that the petition was hijacked by Remainers.

So there we have it, a typical week in Brexitlalaland. And remember, I suspect T. May will not survive next week as PM, so the ride will only get rockier.....