Extending Article 50?

Lots of support for this among Remainers,with an amendment scheduled for debate next week arguing for an extension of 3, 6, 9 or 12 months.: 'To pass, the amendment must first be selected by the Speaker, John Bercow, and then receive majority support in the House of Commons and House of Lords.' says the Guran


One problem though is that the EC has to agree. Why wouldn't they? A Barnier interview today in the Graun

If Britain asks for an extension, it has to be approved by EU leaders. They will only agree if three questions are answered: first and second, why and how long? And third, will not that be a problem for holding the EU elections in May? I have no clear legal answer to the third question yet. It is important that the EU’s democratic processes are not disturbed by this, however.

The May elections are for MEPs and the EC is already worried about 'populist' MEPs dominating their Parliament. They don't want any more British Brexiteer MEPs to join them.

Barnier also addressed the Irish border issue:

There will be checks in case of a no-deal-Brexit. We will do everything possible to enforce them unobtrusively. However, that will not be possible with everything. How should we control animals crossing the border? There will have to be checks. Again, the problem arose from Brexit and we expect the UK to take responsibility [some chance,pal -- we will, as the EC reminds us 'a third country' by then]

Meanwhile, Project Fear/ Rallying for Remainers dribbles on in hte Guranida as ever:

A no-deal Brexit would be “incredibly damaging” for our security, the head of UK counter-terrorism policing has warned....Basu, an assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan police, said: “This isn’t a political point, this is a factual requirement [well go on then Guardian reporters -- challenge] between security services and policing and my counterparts in Europe and our need to share information.

The trouble is that since Project Fear(s) and the obviously partisan if not hectoring statements by a number of public bodies to scare us or solidify them, no-one knows if this is a real issue or not. Now, all information looks strategic.

There are some mostly unattributed and unchallenged 'facts', which only adds to the suspicion:

Under current measures, it takes six days to check if a foreign national has criminal convictions elsewhere. Under any replacement system in the event of a no-deal Brexit, that could take 66 days....For every suspect held under the European arrest warrant who is wanted by British police, officers in the UK arrest eight on behalf of their European colleagues....Richard Martin, the police chief lead on international policing, has said a no-deal Brexit would make it harder to arrest the two Russian novichok suspects if [!] the two men left Russia and entered an EU country.