“There are no heroes here,” said Alasdair Pettigrew, the chief executive of Boxarr Ltd., a Bristol-based startup that designs software for complex engineering and manufacturing projects. He thinks Brexit is misguided. “Everyone involved seems to be out for their own power and their own self-aggrandizement.”
Just a few months before the deadline for the U.K. and the EU to finalize their separation agreement, Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing for the prospect of departing without one, so divided is her Conservative Party. Four of her ministers resigned last month amid a rebellion over her approach to Brexit. And after appointing a new Brexit Secretary, May took personal control of negotiations with the EU.
Pettigrew is perturbed over May’s difficulties in making Brexit happen. “Omnishambles, isn’t it? It does make me wonder if there’s some strategy behind it to be make it so disastrous-looking that we end up with an acceptable fudge.”
Brexit supporter John Elliott, whose Ebac Ltd. manufactures water coolers, dehumidifiers and washing machines in the northeast of England, also thinks the process is being handled badly, especially when it comes to May’s goal of preserving the current trade relationship with the EU.
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