And on that topic:
blehblah wrote:At this point, it doesn't matter. The EU is tired of dealing with uncertainty. It's better to rip the band-aid off than suffer the non-exit exit that Britain is slow-walking around. The irony is in leaving, the EU gets to dictate terms in ways which they could not if Britain had stayed within the EU. Their only concern, so far as I understand it, is that you guys don't become a (yet another) tax haven for the ultra-rich and global corporations.
I'm 50/50 on the point of the EU's likely course of action, mostly because I think the ''ripping off the bandaid'' analogy is wrong. Brexit isn't a one-time setback they can just get over with and they'll be back to normal in a year. It's more analogous to opening a wound, one that will continue to bleed, or even chopping off a digit. Stalemate hurts, sure, but in practise it means delaying the ongoing damage brexit will inflict. Nobody is in a hurry to be jumping off a rooftop, since it wasn't their voters that told them to do it.
There's a few countries in Europe who stand to lose very little, but nobody gains, so none of them are likely to cross the rest. ''Getting it over with'' involves Ireland having to instate a hard border. Half of western Europe has to dial up customs checks, which they're preparing to do but there's no gain in pushing that date up. Questions of nationality and residency will haunt national governments down the line once the goodwill-leave-it-for-later agreements run out. And while big international firms have made their preparations, a lot of smaller firms on the mainland that trade with the UK will need to see a few more guys in blue suits to get a move on.
Spoiler: show