One of the common questions history students as about the Raj is; “How could a nation the size (in terms of population and economy) of Great Britain take control of and subjugate a country the size of India. This because at the start of the 18th Century, India was many times the size in terms of population and economic power than Britain. The answer of course was that the East India Company were able to administer the nation for effective than the local monarchs. The Raj for the most part governed India through the local monarchs. The analogy with the EU is prescient!
In his blog-post today (http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87145), Doctor North – to an extent – throws his hands up and declares “Who knows?” [what is to happen].
What is of course obvious to the World and His wife is that Madame Mayhem is pursuing the policy of kicking the can down the road. Which of course begs another question: “To what end?”
By this time, one would imagine that the civil service will have managed to explain the dire consequences of a No Deal Brexit which WILL take place if nothing is done to stop it happening at 11PM on Friday 29th March 2019 – 46 days from today!
IF Madame finally succeeds in getting the withdrawal agreement passed then she will have to ask for an Article 50 extension to ensure enough time to complete the ratification and the necessary legislation to give it effect.
This is not a question of politics, it is a question of hours in a day and days in a week!
However, if there is no deal, faced with the catastrophe of a No Deal Brexit, Parliament may finally be able to demand that Madame seek an A50 extension from the EU27. At this point Ireland may request that the extension is offered subject to the UK holding a second referendum. The Irish may well think they have nothing to loose by insisting on this for by allowing extra time when there is still no prospect of an agreement they are only postponing the inevitable whereas a second vote will hold out the prospect of an abandonment of Brexit.
All we can do now is to wait and see…….