The trouble with Brexit is leaving the European Union is a divisive Tory problem and not an issue to many others were worried about.
Then came David Cameron’s mistake in making Brexit a referendum issue and the rest is history.
But the Tories are flagging in the negotiations and seemingly do not have a united front in talks with their EU counterparts.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is still trying to appease everyone in a desperate attempt to hang on to her job.
She sits among the Leavers, a backbench group of 50 or so MPs led by toff Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg and Remainers, like her Chancellor Phillip Hammond.
Tory problem
Mogg wants a quick, clean break with Brussels. Hammond wants a break with as little disruption as possible.
The problem for May is she needs to make up her mind.
Is she protecting her job or promoting Britain’s best interests?
The former is generating a mess for the Tories, the ignoring the latter will mean a bad deal for the country.
Like US President Donald Trump said in his Davos speech, a country’s leaders should always put their country first.
Brexit is becoming a mire of compromises that would not seem to serve Britain or Europe well.
“Would it be the way I negotiate? No, I wouldn’t negotiate it the way it’s being negotiated. I would have had a different attitude,” says Trump.
Global opportunities
“I would have said that the European Union is not cracked up to what it’s supposed to be,” he continued.
“I would have taken a tougher stand in getting out.”
Brexit is not as big an issue as it would seem for a global facing Britain.
The EU is important but not a dominating issue for the rest of the world. Putting Europe in its place from the start would have been a better negotiating stance.
The world is a bigger place than Europe and the old economies of Germany and France have had their time.
May needs to reach out to the rest of the world and look at the available opportunities. Trading with the US, China and other rising economies, such as India, Indonesia and Brazil look a far more attractive option than the self-interested quagmire of the EU.
“Putting Europe in its place from the start would have been a better negotiating stance.” The arrogance, and ignorance, of Brexiters, in one.