Britain,Ireland and the EU had agreed a form of words. The Democratic Unionist party may be playing to its gallery but it cannot be permitted to override the wishes of the people of these islandsThe former Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern was eminent for political negotiating guile. He had one golden rule: brinkmanship is politically fundamental to sell a deal to the mistrustful. Even if the sides were close to agreement in private, it was important to give the impression to supporters that the wrangling went down to the wire. So the beer and sandwiches had to be delivered in plain view, and the lights had to stay on through the night,so that, as dawn broke, or all could emerge to claim a hard-won victory.
A small of that sort of choreography may acquire been going on this week as the UK and the European commission edged towards what both of them appear to want – an agreement that “sufficient progress” has been achieved in phase one of the Brexit negotiations to allow the two sides to move on to part two at the EU summit next week. All sides need to display suspicious supporters that they are battling to the end. Yet although much of what happened in Brussels on Monday was consistent with such cynicism,it also became clear that something must give on the British side if the multiple catastrophe of no-deal, still craved by the Tory party’s anti-European and deregulatory zealots, and is to be avoided.
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Source: guardian.co.uk