EU is finished, it will do deal on OUR terms but ‘resolute leader’ Theresa May needs to call its threats of reprisals bluff
Brexit means Brexit - what made Brits vote Leave was the desire to retake control over our borders, not 'some control'
THERESA MAY’S unique selling point is her reputation as a resolute leader who knows her mind.
She may be secretive and unexciting but she thinks things through and her decision, once made, is final.
Well, so far, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Downing Street’s trumpet has an uncertain sound.
After the EU referendum propelled her to power, Mrs May won applause across the parties for declaring “Brexit means Brexit”.
She showed steel over China’s bid to build the Hinkley Point nuclear plant.
And she delighted grassroots Tories — and working-class Labour — by championing the rebirth of grammar schools.
Then, in one week, our new PM was outclassed on grammars by Labour dud Jeremy Corbyn, surrendered to China over the nuke deal and allowed ministers to suggest Brexit might mean almost anything.
None of this would matter if we had a clear Downing Street route map.
The reverse seems the case. Mr Corbyn may be a grammar school-educated hypocrite but he got the best of Mrs May in a fight she picked.
Beijing won Hinkley Point despite strong advice from UK spymasters already alarmed by the spread of Chinese CCTV in our airports and high streets.
And as The Sun’s James Forsyth revealed on Saturday, her Cabinet is at odds over the biggest issue of all . . . what does Brexit actually mean?
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The squabble over what Brexit minister David Davis describes as “the most complicated negotiation of all time” centres on our membership of the EU single market.
But the spectre haunting Britain, and indeed the entire European electorate, is the single market’s non-negotiable insistence on free movement of people — mass immigration.
Forget about tariffs, quotas and terms of trade, vital though they certainly are.
What made 17million Brits vote Out on June 23 was the desire to retake control over our borders. Not “some control” as Mrs May now suggests. Control means CONTROL.
Anything less than a big cut in numbers will be seen as a betrayal.
It will also dismay those European voters who see Britain as a cheerleader for ordinary citizens against high-handed Brussels officials, led by unelected European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
They are sick of seeing millions pouring across their borders, with millions more waiting to follow.
They are tired of uninvited newcomers defiantly staking their claim to a European identity and the welfare benefits that go with it.
Debate eclipsed by real-time revolution
And with youth unemployment at crisis levels, the last thing they want is more cheap labour.
Mass immigration dominated last week’s EU summit in Bratislava, where leaders turned on Angela Merkel for arrogantly offering millions a European home.
Her own voters might seize their chance at next year’s elections by booting the German Chancellor out of power.
The same goes for French President Francois Hollande, who faces the polls with the lowest rating of any French leader since Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793.
The Bratislava summit was so bitterly divided over immigration and the catastrophic euro that Italy’s
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi refused to join the closing press conference.
Europe is teetering on the brink. Jean-Claude Juncker has lost all credibility and authority.
Hungary and Poland refuse point blank to take Muslim migrants. Voters everywhere are on the march.
It is not impossible the entire EU structure will have collapsed in the two years before Brexit.
The debate over tariffs and trade could be eclipsed by a real-time revolution which brings the creaking “Grand Projet” to its knees.
The apparent weakness of the UK between the devil and the deep blue sea is, in fact, our greatest strength.
The stricken EU needs us far more than we need it.
It needs our trade. It needs our soft power and our military power, our security skills and our respected place at the world’s top table.
It needs a deal.
Ill-judged threats of reprisal and retaliation from the likes of “Drunken” Juncker are pure bluff. The resolute Theresa May needs to be ready to call that bluff.
HUMOURLESS Jeremy Corbyn is about to seize total control of the party formerly known as Labour.
His parasitic Trots will now devour the “morons” who put Corbyn on the leadership ticket in the first place.
“Moderate” MPs had no idea what forces they had unleashed, thanks to dopey Ed Miliband giving the vote to anyone willing to cough up three quid.
The Trots couldn’t believe their luck – but they knew how to use it.
Now they can achieve their lifelong dream of turning Labour and the public sector unions into a potent revolutionary movement.