4 ms·

I think you're exactly correct. I don't know whether the EU always knew but decided to maintain the pretence that progress might happen or if its slowly dawned

I think you're exactly correct. I don't know whether the EU always knew but decided to maintain the pretence that progress might happen or if its slowly dawned on them that the UK isn't serious about a deal. But I think they have mostly realised. Something about the lack of interest or initiative on their side, it's like watching a resigned spouse who knows they can't make it work if the other spouse doesn't want to... From a strategic point of view, I have to give it to the brexiteers. Parliament would never have voted for no deal. So they manoeuvred carefully to a point where it was the default outcome and then just didn't avoid it. It shows how naive the remain side (my side) have been. "surely no one would intentionally ram an iceberg, he must really believe we can turn on a penny at the last moment?" asked the sane 49% of the crew as the captain steadfastly refused to change course...

dane-pgp 6y ago
> It shows how naive the remain side (my side) have been. If it makes you feel any better, it's quite possible that a significant number of the Tory MPs who "fell for" this little trap were actually in favour of No Deal (perhaps out of apathy or a misguided sense of party loyalty), and just wanted the fig leaf of saying that they voted in parliament for a deal instead of No Deal. Had the Remain side noticed or publicised this trap before the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement, those MPs would have probably just said "Well, you got me!" and voted it through anyway. As for whether revealing this trap before the 2019 election would have made a difference, that's probably even less amenable to rational analysis, given that the Lib Dems increased their vote share by 4.2% of the national vote (compared to the Conservatives' 1.2%) but ended up losing seats (rather than gaining 48 of them).

4 ms·

I think you're exactly correct. I don't know whether the EU always knew but decided to maintain the pretence that progress might happen or if its slowly dawned

by LatteLazy 6y ago

dane-pgp 6y ago
> It shows how naive the remain side (my side) have been. If it makes you feel any better, it's quite possible that a significant number of the Tory MPs who "fell for" this little trap were actually in favour of No Deal (perhaps out of apathy or a misguided sense of party loyalty), and just wanted the fig leaf of saying that they voted in parliament for a deal instead of No Deal. Had the Remain side noticed or publicised this trap before the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement, those MPs would have probably just said "Well, you got me!" and voted it through anyway. As for whether revealing this trap before the 2019 election would have made a difference, that's probably even less amenable to rational analysis, given that the Lib Dems increased their vote share by 4.2% of the national vote (compared to the Conservatives' 1.2%) but ended up losing seats (rather than gaining 48 of them).