Getting a deal on the future relationship in a mere 11 months will be challenging, but it is not impossible.
The first phase may have been the most fraught, but Johnson’s deal leaves lots to do – and many decisions to make – in the next stage.
The big prize will be that the UK’s economic and trade freedom will be restored, something May’s backstop would have prevented, potentially indefinitely.
He compares the process to climbing a mountain and says it will take ‘vigilance, determination and patience’ to strike a deal.
The last has failed to meet the objectives set out in both the original negotiating guidelines and in the Northen Ireland Protocol itself.
The Commission is negotiating the terms of the UK’s withdrawal; yet the subject matter on which we are all stuck is not entirely within the jurisdiction of the EU.
One red line after another has been washed away. Promise after promise has been broken. We have capitulated to Michel Barnier at every turn.
The easiest course for 1922 Executive Committtee members to take is to put a decision off. Here’s why that should be avoided.
Now, the best option for the Prime Minister is to try to work with Labour. Unless, of course, her backbench critics rethink.
The EU won’t grant us a long extension for fear of what European elections here would produce. If we hold our nerve, the UK will Brexit on WTO terms in April.
It would increase our power to control freedom of movement, plus our laws and finances – and deliver on the referendum result.
It really is something when a significant part of the EU leadership joins the list of agnostics. No wonder there is nervousness in Dublin.
Again, truth or bluff? Either way, the EU’s Chief Negotiator sings from the same hymn sheet as France’s President.
The EU’s Chief Negotiator says that extension on its own won’t work: May needs a plan.
Instead we need “a short extension, seven or eight weeks…to prepare for a No Deal outcome.”
The big prize will be that the UK’s economic and trade freedom will be restored, something May’s backstop would have prevented, potentially indefinitely.