Brexit

The EU can still reject an extension. I know a lot of leaders have had enough of this whole situation. In my opinion that would be the best choice, because it would force the UK to hold a 2nd referendum immediately. This was only rejected yesterday, because the UK clearly doesn't understand the situation yet, and every divided politician is trying let it drag on for as long as possible to get their way. If they really understood the deadline, they wouldn't have done that.

If the extension is rejected a hard Brexit is forced. That will change perspective. In any case, also a soft Brexit or a deal Brexit, is still disastrous for the economy and households in the UK and other countries. Any Brexit has only losers.

Nobody wants this. But, at the same time, the EU leaders are too forced into a corner now, and after the 2nd referendum rejection, too scared that a no deal Brexit would happen, so they will probably approve of the extension, in hopes of a cancellation in the future. I hope May's 3rd attempt (she is trying to scare and manipulate people in the UK with the no-deal Brexit too as a strategy) will fail. The EU leaders actions may be guided by fear, I hope the British people won't do the same but instead, reject the deal again. Then the net will eventually close and no other option is left than to cancel Brexit.

Also, about the "ego" question, if there will be some kind of people's vote for or against a new referendum, that basically means the people who voted are admitting they were wrong/not rightly informed/lead by emotion the first time round. That is a public matter, not a government matter. That is more respectful to the people than what is happening now.

Yes it's always important in negotiations to leave the option of shooting yourself in the head on the table.

You should be afraid of it.

This mindset is the cause of the whole problem, people not seeing danger. It has disastrous consequences for households in the UK.

If it’s not a spider, I’m not afraid of it.

My opinion is it’s mindsets like this that have got us where we are - the scare mongering that we shouldn’t leave, that we shouldn’t have no-deal, that we shouldn’t leave with the only deal on the table and the constant support for further referendums.

People forget that Britain existed perfectly well without the EU before we were a member - we shall survive leaving it too. There is nothing to fear by leaving because we will get through whatever comes next - what choice do we have but to survive it? We are an island - we can weather a storm.

If we get a deal then fine, but people shouldn’t complain about every single scenario and act like there’s a miaracle solution just around the corner that no one has seen yet. There isn’t one and an extension isn’t going to miraculously resolve that.

I’m no Tory supporter but May is right in that no deal is better than a bad deal... and pretty much everyone thinks it’s a bad deal. So the path is clear.

Oddly enough she hasn't said that for a while...

Maybe she doesn't believe it? Maybe she never did.

The argument that we were fine before the EU and can be again so no deal will be fine so spectacularly misses the point I despair sometimes.

The point is that we have existed within the EU for 40 years and therefore all our trade deals and agreements are through the EU (which has a hell of a lot more bargaining power than we will on our own). No deal puts us immediately back to square one and then have to negotiate our way from there so there will be a major economic shock and many other things like medical supplies will be put at risk. Even the ardent Brexiters starting saying it would take 30 odd years to get back to what we have got now.

And what actual benefit do we get from this 30 years of struggle, who knows.

Personally I think that simplies thar argument, and quite ignorantly suggests supporters of a no-deal haven’t a clue what they’re talking about.

Trade will not be prohibited. We can still trade. Will things get more expensive? Sure, some things will. But we knew that before we had the referendum and we still chose to leave.

Well the walk in the park argument is what was originally sold to us about the negotiations and new trade deals, hasn't quite worked like that has it.

And I've seen lots of arguments along the lines, we survived the Blitz and the War so we can survive this, and it will be good for the younger generation to toughen up. Mostly from middle age men who weren't born until after the war, and completely ignores the struggles of that generation but never mind.

And as I say when even the Brexiters have moved to the it will take 30-40 years to get back to where we were which apparently every one who voted leave understood, yeah right, I just wonder what actually is it that is going to make potentially writing off a whole generations future worthwhile but no one can seem to give an actual concrete reason for that.

It's not fear-mongering. There is no question that No Deal will do serious long-term damage to our economy, and that we will at the very least suffer short-term food and medicine shortages, which will lead to deaths. People, and it's usually relatively privileged people, always act like saying "people will die" is fear-mongering, but look at statistics from how many people have died due to cuts in the benefits system already. No, we won't have bodies piling up and panic on the streets, but many highly vulnerable people will die.


The world has changed hugely since we joined the EU, and so has our country. It's naive to say "well we were okay before!" All our trading deals were negotiated as an EU member state, and will therefore become invalid when we leave. It's not like we just automatically revert to pre-EU status. And we currently import more than 40% of all our food, which is a massive increase from a few decades ago. The UK does not produce enough food to feed everyone and because we're so heavily dependent on food and medicine imports (especially considering the UK operates on a "Just In Time" import policy), means even minor disruption to imports -- imports that depend on trade deals -- can and will cause serious problems.

Any deal is better than no deal. And there are many other, better options, number one being a new referendum.

Be funny if we had European elections in June.

We won’t crash out without a deal, as there is no political will for this to happen.

Justin Tomlinson the Brexit supporting MP for Swindon North, should be down at the Honda Factory on his knees begging forgiveness.

Time to think again? About what, exactly? We want to leave the EU and we have a date to leave. That was the public mandate. A few years to rethink does nothing - it simply delays the process. We have had years to think. We have a deal the government and EU agree on but parliament does not. Fine - it doesn’t have to approve it. But it comes back to the idea that people are holding out in the hope the EU will offer something better.

They won’t - there is no other deal and our only bargaining tool was to tell them we would walk away and do it without them: which they won’t allow because that’s not in their interest. But no, we’ve told them we won’t do that. We backed down first and are now in the weaker position got it. We now go to them, cap in hand, asking for an extension in the hope they change their mind and thus give them all the power. 

There will be no second referendum. There won’t even be a change of PM as May cannot be challenged until December 2019 and I don’t see her going unless she wins the vote on her deal next week. I really hope one of the 27 countries refuses to grant the extension and forces us out so the we can just get on and deal with whatever mess we find ourselves in. 

Then we we vote every MP out and never give them a second thought again.