I can see from the 27 perspective the incentive to squeeze the Brexiteers. They believe that no-deal is unlikely (and given the immunity of May to challenge and the huge anti-no-deal majority in the Commons, you can see why). Also they, uniquely, can offer
extension(?s) to A50 that the UK will take in a heartbeat to keep things going (and which would come with increasingly heavy hints about how they would welcome the UK back). So they have May’s deal as a minimum, which is fine for them. That’s still going to be
on the table. Why throw May a bone now when a few weeks of pressure might end up with a second referendum or even a Parliamentary withdrawal? They read the British press, they can see how withdrawing A50 has become a respectable edge position not a crazy one.
“Let’s see how things develop” is a good strategy for them, given their control over the extension button.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 14 December 2018. View the original thread.