Tag: exit

Cabinet ministers were told they must agree emergency contingency plans to keep planes flying to North America and Australia, as well as keeping British troops legally in Bosnia, in case the EU forces a no-deal exit. Before their marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, briefed ministers that major security and commercial decisions would need to be completed if Brussels rejected Theresa May’s plan to ask for a short extension to article 50. A cabinet source said the decisions were likely to result in large costs to the taxpayer and that decisions would also need to be taken on direct rule in Northern Ireland and payment of the UK’s £39bn divorce bill to the EU. Negotiations would need to be urgently completed on a future fisheries agreement so that EU fishing boats could be expelled from British waters. Sedwill, the UK’s highest-ranking civil servant, is said to have warned cabinet ministers that some of the biggest decisions were likely to be very difficult to reverse, because they involved international agreements. The warnings from Sedwill, who is also May’s national security adviser, follow an earlier letter he wrote to ministers warning that no deal would lead to food price rises and a reduction in security capacity. Sedwill also warned that the UK would face a recession “more harmful” than the 2008 financial crisis and that food prices could increase by up to 10%. On Wednesday, Lord Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, called for the analysis to be made public. “The publication of such advice now is vital to ensure that parliament is fully informed, and to avoid any suggestion that information has been partially leaked to support a particular point of view.” At least 14 members of May’s cabinet spoke out against the possibility of a long article 50 extension and would only endorse a short Brexit extension. However, on Wednesday the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that unless the withdrawal deal was passed within nine days the UK would crash out of the EU or have to sign up to a long delay.

European press and commentators switched on the TV, pulled out the popcorn and sat back to watch the latest preposterous episode in Britain’s Brexit psychodrama with a mixture of disbelief and resignation. So, cue uproar in the house, and the credits start running. ‘Order,’ roars John Bercow. Please do not adjust your set: we’ll be back right after the break.” After a day in which Theresa May offered to step down as prime minister if MPs backed her twice-rejected Brexit deal, and parliament failed dismally to agree on any one of eight possible ways forward, the paper’s incredulous front page headline was: “All against all, and all against everything.” Anyone blaming Britain’s present impasse on May had been proved wrong, the paper said: “Parliament is no smarter than the prime minister: lesson one. It has engulfed the political institutions and shaken the whole conventional order.” The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wondered despairingly whether “this moment of madness” might soon be behind us, “so that for all those involved, on both sides of the Channel, we can get back to talking about other important things”. Following “yet another chaotic day in parliament”, it did at least look like “the last chance for May’s Brexit deal” was approaching, the paper said. And business is growing seriously alarmed.” Thus, Britain’s Brexit impasse “has never looked more insurmountable than after this crazy day of 27 March – the day that was supposed to unblock the situation”, said France’s Le Monde. But nothing now appears less certain.” It was “another day rich in plot twists, but without a proper ending”, the paper said. On the other hand, it knows what it doesn’t want: neither the exit deal agreed with the EU, nor eight other possible ways out of this mess.” In the Netherlands, de Volkskrant also reckoned the prime minister had “sacrificed herself for ‘her’ Brexit, but is far from sure to get parliament to vote for it”. May “has now tried everything to sell her deal”, the paper said, “from handing out knighthoods to opponents to promising money to MPs from leave-voting constituencies”.

Fallout from Tillerson reportedly calling Trump a "moron" intensifies. Axios reports Trump wants Tillerson out and may appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Can the White House take another dramatic exit? E.J. Dionne, Neera Tanden, and Daniel Dale join Ari Melber.…