Brexit: UK and European Union negotiations to start on Monday

In this grab taken from video, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May.

Speaking as talks continued between Number 10 and the Northern Irish party, Mr Hanson – who was returned as an MP for the seventh time in last week’s General Election – said the group led by Arlene Foster would not give an inch during the ongoing dialogue.

A survey by the Pew Research Center of almost 10,000 citizens across 10 European nations, including the United Kingdom, showed that a sharp dip in the EU’s popularity was reversed after Britain voted to leave the bloc in June a year ago.

The prospect of a minority Tory government, backed by the Northern Ireland extreme right wing and ultra anti-EU Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), doesn’t enthuse anyone.

On Monday, the country will officially start talks to leave the bloc.

And since the election results last week that left Prime Minister Theresa May without a parliamentary majority, that chaos and confusion have intensified.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing grip on power – especially after the failed coup in July – has caused widespread opposition to the continuation of those talks, because of major differences over human rights and freedom of speech issues. The clock has been ticking on the two-year process since March 29, when May triggered Article 50; and she has just wasted two months on a failed election campaign.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, warned Tuesday that “the current uncertainty can not continue” and on Wednesday issued five “pressing questions” on Twitter.

It was blunted by equally high levels of people who felt that Brexit would also be bad for the EU.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also warned Tuesday that time was passing.

Though on the surface, Thursday’s meetings with Northern Irish parties were aimed at breaking the logjam in forming a new cross-party regional government in the province, May needs broader acceptance in the province of a Conservative-DUP deal.

The upshot is that a new relationship based on the EEA model, allowing Britain to keep most of the benefits of the EU customs union and single market alongside free movement of people, would not only be economically less painful than a hard Brexit; it would also be supported by a large majority of voters.

London’s neutrality is key to the delicate balance of power in Northern Ireland, which was once plagued by violence over Britain’s control of the province. Back at Westminster, Conservative MPs must maintain discipline to ensure the opposition, whether it be Labour’s socialists or Scotland’s nationalists, is not able obstruct the process at any stage. Mr Cameron said Parliament “deserves a say” and urged the Government “to consult more widely with the other parties” on how best to achieve a deal.

Put together, May’s case for a hard Brexit is extraordinarily weak – something that negotiators in Brussels will see coming before Davis and his team have a chance to step off the Eurostar train.

The first round of formal negotiations on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union will begin on June 19, it has been confirmed.

“If they refuse to pay, there will be no agreement”, a senior official handling Brexit for one European Union member state government told Reuters.