So, Plan B? What Red Line(s) is the PM Prepared to Sacrifice?
So What Red Lines Is Theresa May Willing to Give Up.
The Single Market - Labour, Goods, and Services moving freely around the Bloc,
To be free of this red line means a restriction on immigration, and freedom from the European Court of Justice which governs it.
The Customs Union - Where our goods cross EU borders without time-consuming customs checks or tariffs.
Theresa May wants out because we have to charge the same tariffs on outside countries as the rest of the EU, so can never have a competitive edge or advantage or sign free-trade deals with other countries.
Immigration - Not a great deal from Theresa May on how she intends to bring the numbers down although she sees this as a red line in the negotiations because she believes this is one of the most important factors that people voted Brexit for.
She wants highly skilled workers on their expertise and merit, not where they come from. Unfortunately, the majority of her Remain cabinet want the continuation of low-skilled migration on a significant scale as crucial.
The EU Budget
This too is a red line, although the PM has not ruled out paying some money tp the EU for certain programmes and the eye-watering 39bn that has been agreed.
Return of full rights of our Fishing Waters. - Already that Napoleon pygmy, Emmanuel Macron, has said the UK will be trapped in a customs union after Brexit unless Downing Street offers European Fishermen full access to British waters during the once but now failed trade negotiations.
There is also the matter of Gibraltar, with the same type of threat coming from Spain. Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain. However, I personally don’t think our little tax haven residents fully realise that although they fully rely on Spanish cooperation, If we end up with a hard brexit, that means a hard border between Gib and Spain. A worse scenario than even Northern Ireland. It certainly wouldn’t bother the Spanish if a type of Berlin Wall was erected across the tiny peninsular, but how would that turn out for the Remain voting Gibs who also voted overwhelmingly to be British. Mmm. A case of tryimg to have your cake and eat it perhaps? Worth mentioning too that the EU kindly gave Spain a formal veto over Brexit if Madrid was not happy with the Gibraltar dimensions of a Brexit deal. This has now come back into effect with the failed withdrawal agreement which Spain signed as agreeable.
So as I say, which red line do you think she would willingly give up?