May under pressure to quit
I would feel differently if this was a well managed process and the government was taking sensible decisions. But it is complete chaos
Gareth Rae, a protester from Bristol
london — Prime Minister Theresa May was under pressure on Saturday to set out plans for her departure, leading British newspapers reported, as her Brexit strategy lay in tatters just weeks before the United Kingdom was due to leave the European Union.
May’s Brexit deal has been defeated twice by lawmakers, and while she has secured a delay to Brexit until at least April 12, she hinted on Friday that she would not bring back the plan for another vote next week if she was not confident it would pass.
May’s office declined to comment on a report in The Times newspaper that discussions on a timetable for the prime minister to stand down were now under way. But a Downing Street source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the report was incorrect.
The Times quoted an unidentified Downing Street source saying that even her closest allies believed it was inevitable she would have to resign. —
Breaking up is hard to do, crooned Neil Sedaka in 1975, two years after the United Kingdom joined the European Union, then known as the European Economic Community, or EEC. About four-and-a-half decades later, in its bid to break-up with the EU, the UK seems to be living through what can be termed as one of the messiest divorces of all times. The party seeking the divorce (the UK) could barely make up its mind and it was, in fact, a ‘surprise’ vote, with less than a third of the pre-referendum polls predicting a ‘leave’ vote. The referendum numbers showed 52 per cent (17.4 million) voters wanting to leave versus 48 per cent (16.1 million votes) who wanted to stay. The other party (the EU) hasn’t shown much emotion either way but has let the UK keep a copy of the key to the house so far — in case it changes its mind and decides to stay back.
Three years since the break-up was agreed upon, the negotiations are at a stalemate, the divorce terms are yet to be signed and sealed, and the proverbial can keeps getting kicked down the proverbial road every time a key decision comes up for discussion. May 22 could now well be the new March 29 for an orderly, deal-backed Brexit. Or the cliff-edge date for a no-deal Brexit may get unceremoniously brought forward to April 12 if May’s my-wayor-the-highway proposal of a deal is rejected by British parliamentarians for a third time.
The EU may have kept the backdoor to re-entry open so far, but its leaders are now getting increasingly frustrated at the UK’s indecisiveness and procrastination. “The European Union is clearly facing a British political crisis. British politicians are incapable of implementing what their people have asked for,” lamented French President Emmanuel Macron. From a distance, it does seem as if the parties are treating it as open-ended negotiations, with all the options — including renegotiation, re-referendum and even rejecting the Brexit — still on the table. That’s surreal. It isn’t just that it has been three years since the Brexit referendum — more tellingly, we’re less than three weeks away from the revised cliff-edge date of April 12.
Deal or no-deal, the UK should have packed its bags by now if it was remotely serious about leaving the EU within the next couple of months. That clearly hasn’t happened — not yet in any case. To make matters worse, European Parliamentary elections are set to be held across member states from May 23, a day after the UK should have left in an orderly manner, with a deal under its belt. A scenario where the UK hasn’t exited by then — having sought a further extension or still unable to make up its mind — isn’t unfathomable here. So UK will still qualify for the EU elections. It’ll be a strange process in that, in a couple’s divorce, it would be equivalent to the ‘moving out’ partner participating in the process of deciding on the accessories, room remodelling and the colour of the paint of the house as it undergoes a refurbishment.
Perhaps it’s time British PM Theresa May put Sedaka’s 1975 hit in a loop on her playlist. The one whose lyrics go something like this: Don’t say that this is the end; Instead of breaking up, I wish that we were making up again; I beg of you don’t say goodbye; Can’t we give our love another try?; Come on, baby, let’s start anew; ’Cause breaking up is hard to do.