Angela Merkel said that "Britain has no idea what it wants from Brexit"

[ranzino]

Has she only just noticed? Has she never spoken to or seen David Davis on TV?

May should be the one calling the shots, so asking her about the Brexit affair is the perfect opportunity to hear something not filtered by second tier sources like Davis.

[Pann]

May should be the one calling the shots, so asking her about the Brexit affair is the perfect opportunity to hear something not filtered by second tier sources like Davis.

When her cabinet or backbenchers are not telling her what to do, May is calling the shots.

[Sunseeker]

Can't say I blame her. We as a people don't know what we want. How do you represent that?

First comment got it right. If the citizens of the UK don't know what they want, how can the government?

[Masark]

It's obvious to any thinking person what the UK government wants from Brexit. They want all the benefits of EU membership and none of the responsibilities.

[Gref]

Go away you germans -_- ......your weaker than the uk, we dont need your orders!!!!

Clearly stronger when it comes to grammar.

[zealo]

Go away you germans -_- ......your weaker than the uk, we dont need your orders!!!!

Germany is not trying to "order" the UK around, it simply wants to know what the UK wants from Brexit. This wouldn't be such a problem if the UK had a more clearly defined idea about why they want Brexit and what they want out of leaving.

As for being weaker, Germany has the strongest economy in Europe.

[Flarelaine]

Cant really blame May. Brexit was supposed to be a PR stunt to look attractive to the UKIP voters. No one in the goverment had any sort of plan what to do, if the britains vote leave.

They have had a year and a half to come up with something, though.

[Crispin]

Like a car crash in slowmotion.

[Deleted]

Ar you really putting all the blame on the British PM?
She's the only one that was at least willing to try to steer the UK though this mess. No one else wants to, especially not those responsible for the Brexit in the first place.

I hope you guys can get a decent way out, but it seems the UK economy will be hurt bad in every scenario.

[Noradin]

Nah, she was busy watching her city burn, being raped and preparing for her rapist's wife to have her killed.

Again, let's not blame May for taking on a situation she did not cause and was personally against. Noone else wanted to lead this mess so she came forward. The alternative would be what, BoJo?.

He immideately got the hell out of dodge after the referendum so he obviousy didn't want the responsibility for Brexit negotiations.
Him and Camaron couldn't let go of their schoolyard rivaly, tried to play chicken, and Brexit is the result none of them were prepared to face.
@marsark: No, what the British politicans want is a way to get out of this that has their electorate blaming the EU for everything.

[Mehrunes]

She's just telling it as it is. One would think alt-righters supporting Brexit would have loved that.

[Noradin]

This is really uncharacteristic of Merkel. She can laugh with the UK in private . . .
This is actually great for Brexit supporters, it helps their narrative of evil EU led by Germans.

It is.
Someone have a lin of a video of this blunder by Merkel?
I want to check the original to make sure this is not some form of misrepresentation of what really happened helped along by the language barrier.
Wouldn't be the first time the English report about speeches in German was deliberately slightly off to create more of a story out of something.

Edit: I still cannot seem to find any proof of this actually happening the way it is reported here.
All there is is heresay by British new sources, and the whole thing seems terribly out of character for Merkel.
I'm sure she probably expressed her frustration about May's lack of anything substantial, but I do not think there was actually any "ridicule".


All there seems to be to this "story" anywhere it is even being mentioned is reports of heresay without source.
It is all "she is said tohave said" with no mention of any name of anyone who claims to have heard it personally.

Do any of you have a reliable source that this actually happened?

[Slant]

This is really uncharacteristic of Merkel. She can laugh with the UK in private . . .
This is actually great for Brexit supporters, it helps their narrative of evil EU led by Germans.

Yes, I'm curious to know how much of this story is accurate truth and how much is exaggeration.

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Do any of you have a reliable source that this actually happened?

I'm inclined to start doubting this story... I see nothing about it anywhere but British tabloids.

[Verdugo]

She's just telling it as it is. One would think alt-righters supporting Brexit would have loved that.

You should have noticed by now that its more like this.

[ranzino]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ng-brexit-plan

the story of Merkel vs May may not be true word by word, but the scenario happened this way or another between May and EU officials.

[ranzino]

Oh we are not disputing that this is happening every day, but the idea that Merkel called the journalists to have a collective laugh at May is straining belief

naah, Merkel is professional and would not talk to journalists about. this part is nonsense.

[Mormolyce]

Is screaming "make me an offer" at bemused people one of the strategies from Art of the Deal?

Maybot is malfunctioning, luckily she is surrounded by tools so they can help fix her.

Engage the "running through fields of wheat" protocol. Should initiate a complete system reset.

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Angela Merkel is probably one of the worst politicians in the last 200 years.

In fairness, "worst politician" is like saying someone is terrible at being terrible.

[Deleted]

Why would Merkel talk about Brexit negotiations? Not her job... It's about EU and UK. I guess just some fake bait article?

[Mormolyce]

Why would Merkel talk about Brexit negotiations? Not her job... It's about EU and UK. I guess just some fake bait article?

According to the article it came up in Davos. I mean it's the Daily Mail, but nothing about it sounds implausible to me.

[Huehuecoyotl]

It isn't that May doesn't know what she wants. It that she daren't spell out what she wants, because the minute she does that she alienates half her party and has no mandate in the commons to support it. If it looks softish, the rabid Brexiteers will jump all over it and trigger a challenge for the leadership. If it looks hard, the pro-EU members in her own party would join Labour in opposing it, and she would lose any and every vote.

This can't go on, of course. But May is delaying the point where the situation explodes as much as she possibly can. Does she think she can delay it to the point where nobody can stop it because there isn't time? Wouldn't that result in a "no-deal" Brexit that appears to be the worst possible outcome?

I honestly don't know what she thinks the end-game looks like. But I can't imagine any scenario where it isn't a gigantic mess.