ANALYSIS

MACER HALL Political Editor

FITTINGLY, Theresa May last night made her latest pitch for an EU exit deal in a film location used for one of cinema’s great escape scenes.

In The Sound Of Music, the children of the Von Trapp family sing “So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, good night” while discreetly slipping away from Salzburg’s Felsenreitschule theatre.

Securing Britain’s goodbye to the EU is proving to be a far more drawn-out process.

In her address to EU leaders over a dinner of cream cheese and Wiener Schnitzel in Salzburg last night, she laid bare her frustrations with the glacial progress of the talks.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier might have begun to hint at some flexibility – but British officials have yet to see any firm proposals.

Mr Barnier’s team have doggedly stuck to textbook EU tactics of dragging every round out to the last possible moment, and Mrs May is all too aware that Brussels will do anything possible to delay the departure process.

Mrs May also suspects some EU officials are paying too much heed to the witterings about a second referendum from some quarters at Westminster.

Yet behind the increasingly curt exchanges about timing, officials are understood to be making progress on details.

And while Mr Barnier’s initial proposal is unacceptable to Britain, they are hopeful a more serious plan deploying technology to solve the Irish border conundrum is on the way.

Mrs May last night confirmed she will not tolerate a long goodbye and Brussels may be about to be forced to wake up to the realisation that Britain meant what is said when it voted to leave the EU.

Behind their posturing is a recognition that time is running out and the EU could face a shattering financial blow as Britain holds back much of the promised £39billion fee.

EU chiefs are desperately trying to climb down without losing face.