Brexit: A change of heart??

micky wrote: we can relate to that.. oh yes we can... at least our national nightmare will be over soon interesting posts guys.. thanks. @Chaser.. you do not mention not an extension of the Art. 50 process... but a revoking of it.  Sure it might be poltical suicide for May to do.. but isn't she dead man walking anyway...  I take it you think there is no chance she falls on her sword and in the absence of a orderly withdraw from the E.U and the potential of all the doomsday scenarios of a hard Brexit.. including a breakup of the UK .. that she does the responsible thing and revokes it.  Her final words before she is crucified being.. next time.. have a parachute on before you jump off a cliff.  I mean I've seen some stupid sh*t go down here in America.. but your government really took the cake on this one. Perhaps a stupid line of ignorant reasoning.. but to outside observers like myself.. it seems like the smart and responsible course and god knows it sounds like someone in your government has to the one to stand up and say.. wait just a damned minute here.. we are we doing here...

Coming back on this (sorry short post before because I had to go to the pub to discuss.... Brexit! Yes, my god we are obsessed with Brexit in the UK and god only knows what we're going to talk about when it's all over.... If it ever is)

So, Theresa May. Well, she already has fallen on her sword in that she's agreed that she will not be the Tory leader at the next election (i.e. she will stand down as Prime Minister)

She wanted her legacy to be reforming the National Health Service, or some such thing, but, anyway, that's irrelevant because her legacy will be BREXIT!

And I don't think history will be too kind to her either. Whilst everyone admires her fortitude, I mean she keeps getting punched but keeps geting up and carrying on, her deal is terrible and she has proved to be a poor negotiator. She should have prepared for a no deal Brexit from the start which would have put us in a stronger negotiating position, but while she said "no deal is better than a bad deal" everyone knew she meant "any deal is better than no deal"

She will not try to revoke article 50, even if she could, because the ramifications would be enormous.

Everyone is playing a game at the moment.

The EU's gameis to leave the UK with a choice between accepting the May deal, which means remaining in the EU in perpetuity but with no say over anything, or crashing out with no deal.

The EU are gambling that the UK won't jump off the cliff, but they may have miscalculated.

I think we might jump.

LOL, every time this topic shows up i'm reminded of this song for some reason.

Sean Trane wrote: Chaser wrote: If it happened it would almost certainly result in actual civil war in the UK. Which is worse? Leaving the EU and being a bit poorer or an all out civil war that would tear the country literally apart? I think we'll be leaving How on earth do you figure that??

Well, look, I'm not saying I expect a civil war in that scenario, but I do think it is within the range of possibilities.

The government themselves have said that unilaterally overturning the referendum result could unleash dangerous forces in the UK.

Of course they don't use words like "civil war" and I wouldn't expect them to.

However, the idea that the government could unilaterally revoke the decision to leave the EU and 17.5 million people would just say "ok, we accept that and we'll just carry on as normal" is, I think, extremely naive.

There would, I expect, be mass demonstrations on the streets (by both sides) and the situation would become highly volatile and unpredictable, which is why I say that it is not possible to be certain where it would lead. It would be a very dangerous situation for our country to be in.

^ more appropriate for the site. I even own that album!

Davesax1965 wrote: The last civil war in the UK was 500 years ago. The country has been through several rough times in the interim (including two world wars) without any sign of massive internal strife. Never happen.

Well I don't think the UK has been this divided in a very long time. Certainly not in living memory.

The world wars united the country against an external enemy, but this has split the country internally between different age groups, social classes, UK countries and ethnic groups.

The good news is that, in my experience, leavers and remainers are able to talk through the issues together without animosity, so that bodes well.

I hope you're right. What I do think is that if the government attempted to cancel Brexit then what little faith the ordinary people of our country have left in democracy would be gone forever.

LAM-SGC wrote: Talk of civil war is without grounds. The country was just as bitterly divided on going into the EEC in the early 70s.

Well, for anyone who's not a BOB (Bored Of Brexit) it's maybe time for an update on where we are with Brexit, as crunch time approaches.

I didn't see them backing down, but now I think they might (in terms of extending the Article 50 process, not anything else)

The key point is that there are elections to the European Parliament across Europe in May

At the same time there has been a big rise in anti-EU and far right parties across Europe.

The EU is worried that the far right is going to win big in the May elections.

If the EU refuses to grant the UK an extension and forces it to crash out with no deal, which will hurt economies across Europe, how will that play out with populist voters in the EU?

Will they blame the UK, or (more likely) will they blame the EU for its intransigence?

And will they then punish the EU at the polls?

Something for the EU to think about I think

no doubt...and I'm quite sure a lot of thought has gone into this on the EU side... but for many of those reasons one can see the EU (has and is) playing hardball with the U.K.