Transition period will be extended

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

I think this is the only solution to the deadlock at the moment. It is not desirable Anyone agree or disagree?

Transition only comes into play if a backstop agreement is agreed for NI (amongst other things - but that's the most significant issue).

At the moment even that doesn't look likely.

So it will either be a No Deal Brexit, with no transition or a panicked withdrawal of A50.

Agree prettyy.

It's shit or bust now.

The transition period is irrelevant - we either won't have one at all or it will be pointless because very little will actually be changing.

At the rate of progress there won't be a transition period.
The EU will not put negotiations back more than a few weeks at the most and combined with the fact that much of Europe is close to being prepared for a 'crash out' and are being insulted at every opportunity by either Mrs May or other senior cabinet members they see no reason to be especially 'nice'.
We are getting quite close to 'game over'.

What prettybird said. TBH I don't know which is more likely. May seems stubborn enough to push the coutry off a cliff. I remember the troubles from before, it was horrid, it seemed like there was a new bombing or bomb threat every few weeks. Utter foolishness to risk it all starting up again.

Dancing Queen my arse. Dancing fool, more like. IMHO.

Do you mean A50 will be extended to lengthen negotiation period? I had hoped that might happen but Guy Verhofstadt tweeted this yesterday (on the back of a speech in which he also mentioned it)

On Brexit, we will never accept discrimination based on skills and nationality. We will never accept an extension on article 50. Enough mess has been created by Brexit. Let's stop it! We will never undermine the principles of our Union to rescue the Tory party.

The EU can't/won't accept an extension of A50 (which, as I understand it, would have to be agreed unanimously by all 27 countries ) except maybe at most 4-6 weeks, as any longer and the UK would have to be allowed to participate in next May's EU Parliamentary elections.

And even if the UK were to leave the day after the elections, EU law means that the EU Parliament would have to suffer the disruptive UKIP and Conservative MEPs for the entire 5 year parliamentary term - even though the UK was no longer a member

You have to admire Mr Verhofstadt for not turning to Mrs May and saying 'Just F' off', as you would an annoying fly.

If the UK was at all serious about deals or negotiations, they would have been doing it well before now. Thus there is no point at even hinting at an extension of any deadlines as the UK are just 'taking the pi$$'.

There will be no extension. There will either be a deal (Canada+ or Chequers under a different name that both sides can dress up as a win) plus the "implementation period", or there will be no deal and a cliff edge. I think there will be a deal, I'm sure there are machinations rumbling on in the background that the public are not aware of. It'll be a terrible few weeks from here though.

The UK has had over 18 months since triggering A50 to decide what form of Brexit it wanted.

The fact it couldn't be bothered to, and is now looking increasingly likely to suffer more as a result isn't anyone elses fault.

To quote an old maxim: failure to prepare on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine.

There's a lot of "you should have thought of that beforehand" going on right now.

More to the point, the UK (note I always try to avoid writing "we" because this is not being done in my name ) should have worked out a realistic vision of what sort of Brexit it wanted before it triggered A50.

Or Fail to Prepare, prepare to Fail.

There can only be a transition if we negotiate a deal before March 29 2019.
And I call it "deal" in the loosest sense.
We are running out of time.
The sensible thing would have been not to trigger Article 50 until we were ready. That was in our gift. We didn't.
We are screwed for a long time.