Both resigned for the same reason: to protest Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to preserve some of the benefits of EU membership for Britain in a post-Brexit world. That plan is not a very realistic or workable plan. But that’s not why the two ministers have resigned. They have resigned in protest that the plan is not fantastical enough, that it does not rely enough on fairy dust and magic wishes. Ominously, something like half the British Conservative party agrees with the departing ministers. [...]
This past weekend, May convened a meeting at her country home, Chequers, to propose to her cabinet a draft basis for negotiations with the European Union. The plan proposed what has been known as “soft Brexit”: Britain would seek to exit the Union—and end the free movement of people from the EU into Britain—while effectively remaining within the EU Customs Union. It’s not at all certain that such an outcome could be reached. The document presumes great negotiating leverage on the British side, when at the moment Britain looks to need this deal much, much more than the EU does. [...]
Unfortunately for him, his side won the referendum—and his reputation has been in free-fall ever since. Only 50 percent of Conservative Party members regard Johnson as competent, by far the lowest ranking of any of the top five candidates to succeed May. (Among non-Conservatives, Johnson stands even lower. The New Statesman last year quoted a former British ambassador who called Johnson “the least deserving and least qualified foreign secretary of modern times, who has successfully lived down to all expectations.”) His resignation from the Cabinet is a last bid to regain the factional leadership he has botched.
No comments:
Post a Comment