May could exit before Brexit

With Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis throwing in the Brexit towel on Monday with their resignation from the Theresa May’s cabinet, the government has plunged into another crisis though the PM and what’s left of her team appeared to take it in their stride. May chose to portray the exits as a ‘new normal’ — which is unacceptable considering that the negotiations with the European Union are moving in fits and starts. One step forward, two steps back is a routine that’s only irking sentiments and feelings on both sides of the divide. The danger with the latest retreat beggars belief for ordinary Britons and other Europeans who are watching this messy divorce unfold before their eyes. The people of Britain voted to exit the European Union in 2016; the paperwork of the parting is to be completed next year, yet there is little clarity on how to accomplish it — the Conservative government has succeeded in turning a bleak situation into a farce by sidestepping the truth and turning into an embarrassment.

A clean break with the Union is certain but the government is struggling to come to grips with it, to reconcile to a situation where Britain will stand alone and would have to make its own deals with the world. Resistance to the inevitable split is futile. So up comes talk of a soft Brexit and a hard option. Maybe another vote to overturn the earlier referendum. Diversionary tactics notwithstanding, this parting will be bitter, it will hurt Britain and the country had better lump the damage to its image. Former Brexit secretary Davis (he has since been replaced by Domic Raab) said he had lost ‘belief ’ in the process, and reiterated that Britain was giving up too much for too little in return from the EU. The PM and most members of the cabinet closed ranks and came around to the view that closer ties with the EU was in Britain’s interest — they had no choice. Johnson’s and Davis’s departures could lead to a ‘Mayexit’ before Brexit. For Britain, the pain will linger if the ruling party does not bury the hatchet and strikes a limited facesaving agreement with Europe without delay. Some deal is better than nothing at all.