liverpoolmiss said:
But for lols, just imagine an alternative universe. Suppose by this stage the government had only agreed the most basic questions, such as the Ireland border, rights of EU citizens and the divorce costs! And was still negotiating complicated questions like the new EU trade deal! Just imagine if they were only then, with a year and four months to go, starting to design the complex new infrastructure!
Would be hard to imagine a government that incompetent. And if they were so incompetent they'd only settled the initial questions of NI, EU citizens and costs by now, they'd probably be too incompetent to agree the EU trade deal - let alone prepare for Brexit Day.
I'm afraid your partisan bias is showing again. Shame.
The very suggeston that there could be any government be so incompetent as to only manage to complete Phase I negotiations in the first year is frankly insulting.
You have to remember the Government chose the starting date for the two year Brexit countdown which meant they had all they time they needed to get all their ducks in a row and therefore hit the ground running, meaning the bulk of the negotiations could be sorted in the very first meeting. Later meetings, if required, would only be needed to tidy up some of the minor details.
The referendum was in the June, Davis suggested the pre-negotiaation planning should be sorted by September but May to her credit insisted on that extra 6 months to ensure she absolutely nailed it. I think she was overly cautious as you have to remember the Leave campaign have had the last 40 years to figure out what a post-EU Briain would look like, so all the intellectual heavy-lifting had already been done for her, to the point where most of the major Brexiteers were happy enough to simply walk away from it immediately after the referendum supremely confident that absolutely anybody would be able to dot-the-tees and cross-the-eyes on delivering a Red, White and Blue Brexit. Just look at the wealth of talent they had to call on; Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Liam Fox, Neil Hamilton, Nigel Farage, Paul Nuttall, Mike Reed, Nick Griffin, Vladimir Putin, Ian Paisley Jr, Katie Hopkins, Nadie Dorries, Donald Trump, Melane Philips, some of the finest and most respected political minds of any generation. Even so, May chose to give her team an extra 6 months which they certainly didn't need, you don't get a reputation for being strong and stable for nothing. The negotiations were obviously going to be an absolute cakewalk, I mean what sort of dipstick would voluntarily trigger the Brexit countdown before figuring out exactly what they wanted?
But let us indulge your ridiculous scenario a little more. Lets assume May took leave of her senses and decided to trigger Bexit before she knew exactly what she wanted (presumably the very broad brushstrokes regarding customs unions, citizens rights and EFTA etc. were sorted out in the first 72 hours after the referendum). She would then have to do something baffling like I dunno ... immediately call an un-necessary election (which she has already she ruled out calling seven times previously ) ... I mean that would waste several months of precious negotiating time ... although I suppose you could argue the resulting landslide she'd get would perhaps be worth it, but I digress. Even with that big hole blown in her timeline she still has plenty of time to nail Phase I and move onto Phase II, everyone knows what the ultimate goal looks like, it's just a question of sequencing, short of having a bunch of complete dunces as negotiators that should be straightforward enough, and what sort of PM would allow these crucial negotiations to be handled by complete ignoramuses, she'd have to be some sort of malfunctioning animatronic waxwork advised by pot-plants to do that.
But like Alice lets try to believe 6 impossible things before Brexit. In this scenario the PM triggers Brexit prematurely, calls an un-necessary election and then sticks some mouth-breathing cretins in charge of negotiations. In this scenario the problems this causes would be obvious very early on, even the most committed Brexiteer has to be aware things aren't going to plan by at least September, certainly well before conference season obviously. For all our disagreements, we have to recognise the right-wing press and the Brexiteers are true patriots; they certainly tell us enough times and just look at the number of poppies they wear! Its unconscionable that they would do anything to harm the country they so loudly proclaim they love. Murdoch, Lord Rothermere, the Barclay Brothers, these are all people who are synonymous with putting the interests of Britain first and their support for democracy, honest jourrnalism and the rule of law is well-documented. In such an unlikely scenario these people would clearly call for the sacking of these "Enemies of the People" who were making such a hash of the negotiations and May would have no choice but to comply, I mean she has more to lose than most if Brexit turns into a fiasco. Similarly the whole referendum was about restoring British parliamentary democracy clearly every step would be scrutinised, debated and voted on in parliament to ensure it is done right, you can have a go at the Conservatives but as a decade of austerity proves they always put the interests of the country first before petty party politics and discedited ideological dogma, the Tory backbenchers would ensure a smooth negotiation.
No your whole idea rests on a mutually exclusive proposition.
A government so incompetent it could only accomplish Phase I in the first year would be too incompetent to function as a government, you wouldn't be able to trust them to stick letters onto a backdrop, I mean where would they go for a summer holiday, the Golan Heights? It would never happen, I'd believe the Americans would elect an illiterate, inarticulate self-confessed sexual predator with ties to Russia POTUS before your bizarre flight of fantasy.
I'm sorry it just had to be said.
