UK needs national unity for best Brexit deal amid political impasse

BRITAIN desperately needs national unity to negotiate the best Brexit deal possible, but such an outcome seems to be a hope in the far distance.

Ideally, a prime minister with vision would have created a cross-party Committee of National Brexit Unity to negotiate Britain's most difficult international treaty since World War II. Unfortunately, Theresa May hasn't delivered and divisions are so wide in parliament that there is likely to be discontent with any future Brexit agreement.

Both the United Kingdom and European Union have begun preparations for a crash-out, no-deal scenario when Brexit is due in March 2019. Despite these fall-back plans, both the UK and EU governments are desperate for a deal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it succinctly at a business conference this week: "We don't want the discussions to break down. We will use all our force and creativity to make sure a deal happens. We don't want these negotiations to collapse. But we also can't fully rule that out because we still have no result."