The bipartisan talks between Labour and the Government over Brexit have so far produced little more than accusations of bad faith, a refusal to cross red lines when dynamic negotiation requires otherwise, the prospect of more compromise than consensus (and this being seen as a virtue) and overall a genuine concern for what they may be cooking up between them even through a series of grudging compromises rather than a building of consensus.
There aren’t any signs of genuine progress we can celebrate. What they seem rather to be working towards is something that will offer us the worst of all worlds: staying within a customs union whilst leaving the EU which will fetter our ability to trade on our own terms with the rest of the world whilst placing ourselves outside the benefits of staying within the European Union. What a disaster. And underneath it all is the failure to really get to grips with the Irish question.
When are we to fully acknowledge all these things? Until we have, we will be left with a load of grubby compromises as fragmenting as they seek to be uniting and that will again serve no one in terms of practical solutions or aspirations.
We must do, and try, something different. A view on this will now be offered.
The Emporer's New Clothes 