May’s Delays Are Making Brexit Worse
The EU isn’t budging, so she (or her successor) must. Britain needs a second referendum.
They aren’t listening.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
It’s unclear what U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May hoped to get from leaders of the European Union at their recent summit. As things turned out, she got less than nothing — a public brush-off that further weakened her standing at home, if that were possible. Her Brexit strategy has collapsed, and nothing is to be gained by persisting with it any longer.
Playing for time is all May appears to have left, though time is not on her side. The withdrawal agreement she negotiated with the EU was set for a crushing defeat in Parliament last week. Instead of facing that verdict and moving on to develop a workable alternative, she postponed the vote, suggesting that it might not happen until late January — just weeks before the U.K. is due to leave the EU on March 29th.