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To borrow the tories' stock phrase, Let's Be Clear: no-deal was built in from the start. If they'd wanted our departure from the EU managed, they could have planned. Seriously. They could have formulated options, done risk analyses, identified areas of common interest.
They could have done this before they even offered a referendum, so that when it came time, they could simply say, "These are the options, all worked out and clearly explained. Pick one."
They chose not to plan.
They chose not to plan.
Then again, no part of the EURef demanded that a Leave result be implemented immediately. There was no time limit for triggering Article 50. Knowing the public very marginally preferred brexit, they could have spent time doing all that planning and assessing. They chose not to.
Instead, may chose to activate Article 50 precipitously. Unplanned. Without even a clear idea what the UK wanted. All she could take to the EU was her list of things we would not accept - a list that was *legendarily* self-contradictory.
So. They decide - because it was a decision - to set up an impossible-to-achieve, otherwise hopelessly nebulous goal, for which they've conducted no planning. Why? Because it didn't matter to them. You don't NEED planning for no-deal: you just need to kill time.
And that's what this has all been about, all along: killing time. May triggered Article 50 and then called an unnecessary general election, diverting the country's - and Parliament's - attention from the urgency of the timer she'd just set running.
There were any number of stages at which a less ideologically fanatical regime *could* have taken a more diplomatic attitude. And the hostile and confrontational stance taken towards a union of which we've been a part for forty years...? That was a choice.
We're on the brink of a no-deal crash-out because THAT WAS THE PLAN. It's what the engineers of brexit wanted and it's what the tories committed themselves to in the earliest stages of this thing.
The blame for this has always been, and remains with, them and their supporters.
The blame for this has always been, and remains with, them and their supporters.
