satriales wrote:If we owe £40 billion then why was May only offering £20 billion until now?
I just find it ridiculous that she can suddenly add £20 billion just to move talks along. It seems that, like with DUP bribe, she thinks that throwing our money at the problem will make it goes away.
I'm not even sure we owe £40bn it could be £60bn etc.
She's not "adding", she's "admitting".
She's not "throwing our money" - all the EU wants is whatever the UK
already committed to as part of an agreeable split.
They believe that represents a figure of X. The UK is trying to say it's Y. Or it's Y+20. Neither side is (at least publically) showing it's work.
It's why her Florence speech of "We'll honor our commitments" was met with ridicule.
May: "We'll honor our commitments"
EU: "Yes, but what do you think they are?"
May: "Our commitments"
EU: "Yes but what are they?"
May: "Honored"
EU: "How are you calculating this?"
May: "Very carefully"
EU: "But how much do you think this is?"
May: "As much as we need to pay"
EU: "But what is it a figure?"
May "
Up to £100 billion billion. Hey let's talk about trade!"
And so forth. And then May/Davis played to headbanging Brexitters "We've made our position clear! Why won't the EU move on!"
And it works