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Like e.g. between Switzerland and the EU.

Switzerland is part of EFTA. One of the many things that was rejected on both sides (UK doesn’t want to be beholden to accepting random EU rules, EFTA countries don’t want a fellow member known for rejecting things on sight).

After reading a lot more, I still don’t understand.

Internal country politics is complicated and often based as much on emotions and perceptions as logic. One of the main points, as nemo pointed to above, is that of identity.
I would imagine Northern Ireland is like the Berlin Wall. From the outside, there are no shortage of apparently simple solutions… that just don’t hold water when it comes to the many subtle nuances of reality.

Speaking of identity, I am British and I am European. They are both part of who I am.

TTIP anyone?

You’ll have to do a lot better than a so-called trade agreement conducted in secrecy, with what essentially boils down to transnational corporations wanting to pillage citizens on both sides of the ocean.
TTIP is nothing to be proud of.

I am working on the basis that the Brexit vote means something.

Yeah – disillusioned, disenfranchised ordinary people that got screwed by austerity, the “war on the scroungers” that the Tories have been on about for many years now, and the ever-growing divide between the haves and the have nots.
It’s nothing particularly new, and the whole Gilets Jaunes thing in France over the winter is for broadly similar reasons (even if the specifics vary). Thanks to nearly forty years of “blaming the other man”, a lot of people see the EU as some sort of enemy. So when it came to the vote, smack bang in the middle of a Migrant Crisis (thank you Germany!), it was pretty obvious that a lot of English people would vote to leave. Back then it was a mixture of kicking out the unwanted foreigners, “taking back control”, and kicking Cameron in the nuts because he’s an ass. But now? Now it’s so polarised that it’s practically opposing sects of a religion.

May’s Brexit deal

We can skip this. That a leader would want to repeatedly ask the house to vote on the same thing over and over until it passes… that’s only marginally less of an affront to democracy than proroguing parliament.

The thing is, we don’t call her “MayBot” because she always gives pre-programmed responses, we call her that because she utterly lacks empathy and has no concern outside of her own special sphere of reality.
That’s why, following a historic loss on her proposed deal, she submitted it again with a few trivial word changes (so it wasn’t exactly the same document). Any sane person would consider that the level of defeat meant things would need to change, and to start talking to MPs to find out what parts are causing them concern… and from there, perhaps, compromise on all sides (UK and EU). The problem was, compromise isn’t a word in May’s vocabulary. But given what’s going on now, I’m not sure any of them understand the concept.

It is one myth that the EU somehow keeps up that it is interested in free trade. The EU is a protectionist organization. It protects its inner market from free trade from the outside. You can witness that on small scales like Switzerland and Norway, or on large scales like Canada, the U.S. (TTIP anyone?) or currently the “Mercosur” fiasco. Outside the EU, you have a much better chance to struck sensible free trade deals.
The amount of non-tariff trade barriers that have been erected by the EU is frankly staggering.

Someone wrote:
“The right to trade freely is a natural right. It conflicts with no other right and requires no compulsion. At all times and places the natural impulse to exchange goods and services to mutual advantage has tended to form a peaceful bond between individuals and nations, to stimulate intelligence and to promote prosperity. Governments have always denied this right, usually succeeding in persuading people to believe that the infinite series of exchanges can be directed by officialdom, using restrictions, penalties and taxes, national treaties and alliances, better than by leaving trade to the individuals concerned.”

Now it’s so polarised that it’s practically opposing sects of a religion.

Any idea why made such a point of the irish bigotry minority?
Boris and friends are natural bedfellows of the malign minority helping them.

10 minutes before Boris “addresses the nation”, it looks like Rick’s prediction of a general election to keep things quiet until Brexit day is bang on the money. The irony? It’s Jeremy Corben who’s demanding one! What a bunch of muppets. Meanwhile even Tony-do-we-still-care?-Blair is calling him a pillock/liability. Oh well, may be good for the re-grouping Liberal-are-we-still-even-a-thing?-Democrats :)

It’s Jeremy Corben who’s demanding one!

I thought it was Jeremy Corbyn.

Cor-blimey sir, you may be right ;)

Many have commented that there has been no progress in parliament during over 3 years in getting an agreed deal, by that I mean one acceptable to the EU and gaining a majority in parliament. This would have been more likely achievable if all Brexit debates had been conducted without the whips as a non-party political issue, especially as it`s a constitutional issue. There are precedents for debating bills in parliament without whips, e.g. abortion bills regarded as `moral` matters of conscience.

With this idea in mind, consider how Brexit issues have actually been discussed in parliament with many MPs voting according to party line against there own views, and how it has proved very difficult to organise cross-party groups of MPs to agree motions.
I am not saying this guarantees an agreed outcome or deal, but it would have stood a much better chance.