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So, another EU summit, and another deadlock for Theresa May. The British prime minister was in Brussels this week trying to unlock those talks about the UK's departure from the bloc. And she didn't get very far. The prime minister was asked to put forward new proposals to try and move things along, and all she came up with was the idea of possibly extending the transition period.
This is the point after March 2019 where everything stays the same to allow businesses to prepare for new trading arrangements. This is a very fraught idea, though. Conservative MPs at home see it as just pushing back the Brexit date into the future and prolonging those hard decisions. Businesses don't particularly like the idea of it, either. It's even more uncertainty for both the economy and for growth prospects.
But given the talks are going nowhere, Mrs May didn't really have much choice at the moment. So, what's going to happen next? Well, the idea of a special summit in November to try and sign off that deal doesn't look like it's going to happen yet. If there is a breakthrough, then the EU27 leaders could gather around and sign off on a Brexit withdrawal deal.
The second thing is Mrs May is going to face even more pressure at home from the Conservative party. MPs are increasingly concerned the talks are going nowhere. And they'll put pressure on her to take a tougher line with Brussels, even though that doesn't seem to be helping her getting a deal. All the while, the prospects of a messy no-deal exit from the EU increase. The longer the talks go on without any progress, more likelihood the UK will leave in March of next year without a deal.
Everybody, including the prime minister, sees this would be a really bad thing. So they now all need to work to try and get a deal together. In the end, I think there probably will be a Brexit deal. But the question for Mrs May is not what the deal is, but how she can sell it to a sceptical cabinet, party, and country at home.
