Proposal to delay Brexit by 3 months

[Sarah]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47648565

(With the hope that it doesn't happen at all....!)

Theresa May will make a direct plea to EU leaders later asking to postpone Brexit for three months, hours after telling the British public a delay was "a matter of great personal regret".

At an EU summit in Brussels, she will try to persuade the other 27 countries to delay the UK's exit beyond 29 March.

On Wednesday, the PM made a speech blaming the delay on MPs and telling the nation she was "on their side".

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn is also due in Brussels for separate Brexit talks.

EU leaders are expected to arrive at the two-day summit from 13:00 GMT.

The BBC's Europe correspondent Kevin Connolly said the EU side "appears to hold all the aces" at the summit, with some countries including France "sceptical of the value of making an offer" of an extension.

How the day will unfold (timings are approximate):

• 13:00 GMT - Theresa May arrives in Brussels
• 14:30 GMT - Mrs May will make a short speech to the 27 EU leaders, making the case for a delay to Brexit
• The PM will then leave the room while the EU leaders decide whether to grant the UK's request and discuss other Brexit options
• 18:00 GMT - Press conference by European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Mrs May is also expected to make a statement
• 18:30 GMT - Working dinner

Speaking in the German Parliament, Angela Merkel said the EU could meet Mrs May's request to delay Brexit if in the next week there was a "positive vote" on the withdrawal agreement in the UK Parliament.

The German Chancellor said European elections at the end of May would have to be considered during discussions on the suggested extension deadline of 30 June, adding: "But of course we can certainly talk about a short term extension."

The UK is set to leave the EU next Friday unless the law is changed. The current default position for leaving is without a withdrawal agreement.

Mrs May agreed a deal with the EU, but MPs have rejected it twice.

She has asked the EU for a short extension of the two-year Brexit process until 30 June, but any extension needs to be agreed to by all EU members.

European Council President Donald Tusk said he believed the EU would agree to a short extension, but this would only be if Mrs May's deal is signed off by MPs next week. Another EU summit next week could be called in an emergency if needed, he said.

Mr Tusk said the "question remains open" as to how long a delay the other EU leaders would support.

 

[Angela Channing]

Theresa May is the most dire British Prime Minister in my lifetime, if not ever. I can't see her surviving in the role beyond another week or two.

 

[Alexis]

Theresa May is the most dire British Prime Minister in my lifetime, if not ever. I can't see her surviving in the role beyond another week or two.

I mean, you've had worse, this one is just incompetent.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I don't envy Theresa May - or whoever would have been handed the poisoned chalice of dealing with Brexit. I actually quite liked her when she became PM and I maintain that she's a lesser of several evils given the names that were in the running at the time such as Andrea Leadsom, Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb.

The alliance with the DUP simply to hold onto a majority was where she completely lost me. She speaks of honouring democracy while doing this for a few extra votes.

Part of me wants May to just go away now (albeit far too late in the day). But the greater part of me fears the alternative even more.

 

[Angela Channing]

I mean, you've had worse, this one is just incompetent.

I always thought Cameron was the worst PM because of his lack of attention to detail and his casual ambivalence to the disastrous consequences to his appalling polices. His intervention in Libya leaving that country in civil war and creating a refugee crisis, his austerity polices which took vital benefits from sick, disabled and dying people to fund tax cuts for the rich and calling the EU referendum without planning for a either outcome and leaving everyone else to deal with the mess he created were just three of many examples of this. Theresa May, mainly because of handling of Brexit and her treatment of Windrush British citizens have even surpassed Cameron's awfulness.

 

[Angela Channing]

I don't envy Theresa May - or whoever would have been handed the poisoned chalice of dealing with Brexit.

The chalice was poisoned but Theresa May turbo-charged it by adding copious quantities of hemlock in the form of her unachievable red lines and failing to manage expectation from the outset.

I hope she feels utter despair and helplessness right now and maybe she might begin to understand how the Caribbean born Britons felt when she denied them medical treatment when they got sick or deported then from the country when they got old. I will never forgive her for what she did to the Windrush generation. She is a nasty, evil person and can't go soon enough in my opinion.

 

[Sarah]

Just out of interest (I don't remember) but do you think she's worse than Maggie T?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The chalice was poisoned but Theresa May turbo-charged it by adding copious quantities of hemlock in the form of her unachievable red lines and failing to manage expectation from the outset.

Most certainly.

 

[Angela Channing]

Just out of interest (I don't remember) but do you think she's worse than Maggie T?

I disliked most of Thatcher's policies with a passion but I can't deny that she was competent and showed strong leadership. I can't think of a single redeeming quality that Theresa May possesses.

 

[Alexis]

Just out of interest (I don't remember) but do you think she's worse than Maggie T?

I mean it's like debating whether Satan is worse than Beelzebub?

 

[Michael Torrance]

I disliked most of Thatcher's policies with a passion but I can't deny that she was competent and showed strong leadership. I can't think of a single redeeming quality that Theresa May possesses.

Thatcher was a visionary. People may not have liked her vision and drive to achieve it, but they can't deny she had it. She also put the UK in an enviable position in the EU with her negotiating skills, much as I think she also started the anti-EU flames, so I think Cameron's hubris that he would do better than her was laughable. May sold herself as the lesser of many evils, and then set out to prove herself wrong.

 

[Angela Channing]

Thatcher was a visionary. People may not have liked her vision and drive to achieve it, but they can't deny she had it.

And that's why I think May is worse than Thatcher even though Britain is still suffering from the legacy of many of Thatcher's policies of division, unfairness and greed.

 

[Alexis]

And that's why I think May is worse than Thatcher even though Britain is still suffering from the legacy of many of Thatcher's policies of division, unfairness and greed.

One a blundering discombobulated evil hag the other a calculated and focused evil witch. Subtle variations there.

 

[Sarah]

I disliked most of Thatcher's policies with a passion but I can't deny that she was competent and showed strong leadership. I can't think of a single redeeming quality that Theresa May possesses.

What about her dancing?

 

[Alexis]

What about her dancing?

Proof that she's a reptile in a woman suit? I think so.

 

[Angela Channing]

What about her dancing?

Cold and stiff, just like her heart.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

What about her dancing?

And here she is dancing away the last hours as a member of the EU:

 

[Sarah]

This really angers me.

'Almost everything is now in the hands of British Parliament and government,' says Donald Tusk

Including people's futures, whether they voted remain or not. I am a Northern Irish citizen who is being left with no choice.