TOM CLARK
Discussion attendees: (l-r) Hilary Benn, Teresa Gouveia, Carl Bildt, Charles Grant, Emma Bonino, Emma Reynolds, Ed Miliband, Natalie Nougayrède, Anna Soubry, Andrzej Olechowski
T he incoherence—or absence—of Theresa May’s plan for leaving the European Union is becoming starker. At the start of December, the phrase “have cake and eat it” was snapped on a note in Downing Street. Meanwhile Brexit Secretary David Davis conceded that the UK may end up stumping up membership subs to a club it has quit, which is paying without eating in cake terms. Days before, May had welcomed the prime minister of Poland, Beata Szydło, to No 10 and announced that 150 British troops would reinforce its defences. That sounded like a recipe for more engagement in Europe, not less. A week earlier, her chancellor had set out grim spending plans, based on a premise that he could no longer duck— the reality that leaving Europe will retard the economy’s growth.