No deal by accident?

Jeremy Hunt, the new Foreign Secretary, has said that there is a danger of Britain leaving the EU without a deal "by accident."

I think he is right and that would be unfortunate.

Very few people either in Britain or in Europe actually want a "No Deal" Brexit although there is a very outspoken minority who do.

However, some of the things which have been suggested during negotiations - customers barriers within the UK, for instance, e.g. beween Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, which would be complete anathema to most MPs of any party and which no British PM could accept - would be so unacceptable as to be worse than leaving with no deal.

If the EU cannot appreciate this then we are indeed heading for a "No Deal" Brexit.

It is also possible that the hardline Remain faction in Parliament might accidentally trigger a "No Deal" exit by rejecting the deal Mrs May comes back with - assuming she does actually manage to get a deal, as I hope and expect she will.

I don't want a "No Deal" Brexit and I hope we can avoid it. But getting into a panic about the possibility might ironically be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Time for some people to calm down and tone down the rhetoric a bit, methinks.


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