DUP anger at May’s attempt to blame them for Brexit chaos is driving talk of a 1-year extension
The DUP has begun to brief media that it would prefer a one-year extension to the UK’s exit date from the EU to the short delays currently on the table.
According to Northern Irish sources, this is driven by a desire on the part of a ‘seething’ DUP to issue ‘payback’ for May’s decision to blame the DUP in the Commons yesterday for the delays her incompetence has caused:
The DUP are seething. May has f*cked them over quite badly – blaming them for the impasse from the dispatch box and allowing [Irish PM Leo] Varadkar to use threat of a hard border when it was never a risk.
This could be a negotiating stance for the next week to see if they can extract more concessions, but it doesn’t feel like that. They also seem livid that Rees-Mogg appears to be shaping up to abandon them, though whether he actually goes through with it is another question.
The government, however, is claiming that it hopes to win the support of all DUP MPs except for that of what the Tories describe as ‘hardliner’ Sammy Wilson.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Whatever the DUP’s exact motivations, it’s announcement will have thrown May into even more disarray – just when it seemed that was impossible – and could kill May’s withdrawal agreement. But perversely it may also drive some Tory Brexiteers who have been aligned to the DUP’s viewpoint to peel away and back the deal rather than suffer a prolonged delay.
Labour’s approach to the so-called indicative votes will need to be intelligent – and informed by the imperative of giving May no lifelines and nothing for the Tories and/or DUP to unite to either resist or exploit.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here for a monthly donation via GoCardless. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Jeez. You know that things are bad when the DUPlicitous party comes up with a sensible idea.
These are serious times for the country and our European neighbours as well, but one cannot resist observing frequently that “one couldn’t make it up!”
Remain Stage One completed. 29th March deadline deleted & extension agreed.
And the chicks are coming home to roost………
Talk on TV this morning of people stockpiling food and medicines.
I prefer the term ‘panic buying’ and I’d jail the fuckers.
They cause the shortages they fear.
Shortages lead to more shortages, black markets, spivs, truck hijackings, increased general criminality, reduced economic activity and a police state.
I don’t know what the secret plan to deal with this scenario is – the Brexit lobby hasn’t revealed it yet – but there obviously is a plan because they all knew exactly what they were voting for.