Brexit: Deal 'essentially impossible' after PM-Merkel call - No 10
Source: BBC
Boris Johnson spoke to the German chancellor earlier about the proposals he put forward to the EU - but the source said she made clear a deal based on them was "overwhelmingly unlikely".
They also claimed she said a deal would never be possible unless Northern Ireland stayed in a customs union.
Mrs Merkel's spokesman said they did not reveal confidential conversations.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49970267
23 days and counting...
Grokenstein
(5,707 posts)of having to deal with one muttonhead after another.
She probably misses President Obama more than we do.
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)(snip)
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has posted a tweet responding to the briefing from No 10 today (see 10.25am and 10.34am). Unusually, he has directed it at Boris Johnson personally including a payoff in Latin (because Johnson, of course, is a classicist).
Verified account @eucopresident
.@BorisJohnson, whats at stake is not winning some stupid blame game. At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people. You dont want a deal, you dont want an extension, you dont want to revoke, quo vadis?
(snip)
Denzil_DC
(7,187 posts)The media insist on parroting whatever his ravings are on a particular day. They're always belligerent posturing with scant grounding in wider reality - pure rabble-rousing spin with an eye on electoral politics, not negotiation, decidely Trumpian.
For instance, here's "No. 10 source" briefing anonymously to The Spectator magazine the other day:
The rant is fatuous.
The EU negotiates trade deals as a bloc (something the UK government's Brexiteers took a long time to realize, and some haven't accepted as reality yet), so there's no way to peel off and "punish" individual countries in terms of trade, and little scope to do so in other areas. The UK government hasn't dealt itself a strong hand.
As for "defence and security cooperation will inevitably be affected if the EU tries to keep Britain in against the will of its government", here's the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland's reaction today:
Link to tweet
@JulianSmithUK
I am clear that any threat on withdrawing security cooperation with Ireland is unacceptable. This is not in the interest of NI or the Union.
Smith isn't the only cabinet member reported to be uneasy with Cummings's increasingly deranged and desperate anonymous briefings.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)IronLionZion
(45,252 posts)Opening that border was one of the reasons the troubles stopped. No need to be divided if everyone is European.
The backstop proposal is to remain in the customs union and Northern Ireland to keep some aspects of single market with Ireland for a bit longer until a permanent solution is found. It would be very bad if they close that border.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)back in the early '80's I dated a gal from Ireland.
Her parents would talk in Gaelic when ever I was around in very hushed tones.
her brother was attending the university at Belfast.
they had real skin in the game.
I learned an awful lot from them.
IronLionZion
(45,252 posts)pecosbob
(7,502 posts)BlueMTexpat
(15,348 posts)I really love this. Because that is indeed what is happening.
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