May's Message Should Be to Britain, Not Europe
It's her own people she needs to persuade.
Photographer: Carl Court/Getty ImagesU.K. Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Florence this week to deliver a long-awaited speech on her Brexit strategy. The venue and timing are not ideal -- it’s a speech she should have given months ago, to a British audience -- but if she gets the substance right, she can still help her country avoid the very worst effects of this unfolding Brexit disaster.
The U.K. voted to quit the European Union in June 2016. A year passed before talks even began. Since then, three months of negotiations have gotten nowhere. The exit procedure sets a deadline of March 2019, but the real deadline is actually six months sooner -- just one year from now -- because the EU's other members will have to review and approve any deal. If there's no agreement, the U.K. is ejected anyway, and chaos ensues.