Crash out or go long

EU rejects Theresa May's bid for short delay to Brexit

It appears they may be open to an extension to the end of December 2019, or into March of 2020.

It doesn't look like she will actually have a deal with Corbyn for anyone to look at tomorrow, when they see her officially to decide matters in Brussels.

Parliament has just passed a bill into law prohibiting a no-deal Brexit.

The backbench bill led by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, which came into law on Monday evening, says she must endeavour to avoid a no-deal departure by seeking an extension to article 50 as needed. 

During a House of Commons vote on Tuesday afternoon, MPs passed a motion telling May to do this by a majority of 310.

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[T]he Cooper bill was amended in the Lords so the prime minister maintains the prerogative power to unilaterally agree an extension, not least as the EU summit would have broken up by the time MPs said yes or no.

It appears she is by that law compelled to ask for and accept a delay, if one is offered, that will forestall a no-deal Brexit, and authorized to accept it without coming back to Parliament for an OK.

If that is correct and she really must legally accept what the EU offers if it will stave off the crashout then it is really up to the EU entirely to decide what, if anything, they will offer.

Meanwhile, furious no-deal diehards are trying to terrify the EU into refusing May a long extension.

The idea is to force the UK into a crashout.

They have been using this scare tactic for some days, if not longer.

Some might think this as outrageous as Nixon undermining the Paris Peace Talks arranged by LBJ - and then of course lying about it to Johnson, who was not deceived.

In the Commons, Tim Loughton, a former minister, said: “If the EU elections go ahead, it is highly likely that UK will elect an army of Nigel Farage mini-mes who will frankly wreak havoc with the European parliament and wreck your calculations about the balance of power within the EU.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the European Research Group (ERG) of pro-Brexit MPs, also warned the EU that it could not count on cooperation from any future prime minister. 

“Parliament cannot bind its successors, the prime minister’s promises have not invariably proved reliable and there has been little sincerity from the EU,” he said.

Anger also bubbled over at a meeting of the Bruges Group thinktank, with audience members shouting “fuck government” and repeatedly yelling “traitor!” at the mention of May.

Mark Francois, the vice-chairman of the ERG, said people in the UK could not be “held captive against their will”.

Francois warned the EU that trying to keep the UK in the bloc for longer would create “perfidious Albion on speed” and a “Trojan horse within the EU, which will utterly derail all your attempts to pursue a more federal project.”

He added: “A new Conservative government led by someone like Boris or Dominic Raab might well vote down your projects, veto your attempts at greater military integration and generally make it impossible for you to bring about the more federal project in which you so desperately believe.”