My Deal or No Deal

My Deal or No Deal

Why does Mrs May want absolute control over the Brexit negotiations? Her control-freakery is not the only reason. Though she has intended to be PM since her undergraduate days and she is clear about what values are important for her, she isn't sure what policies will support these. She has toyed with ideas but has stuck with none of them.

So right now she is sticking to what she perceives the (English) nation as wanting: sovereignty and control of immigration. She struggled with both of these when she was Home Secretary, so it certainly suits her to treat these as the primary goals of Brexit.

She failed to control immigration over her six years as Home Secretary, while sovereignty for her means getting out from under the European Court of Justice who not only got in the way of her deporting undesirables but - far more annoyingly - ruled that her Snooper's Charter (supported whole-heartedly by Labour, astonishingly enough) broke EU law as it allowed indiscriminate retention of citizens' communications, with no safeguards against abuse.

Not that the ECJ were against the intent of the Bill - they just wanted it to include some protection for you and me. Mrs May managed to rush through a replacement which did make some concessions to protecting our privacy.

Clearly, giving the ECJ its marching orders will make it much easier for Mrs May to keep tabs on us and kick out anyone that she doesn't want.

This desire for control isn't an authoritarian streak so much as a paternalistic one. Mrs May knows what's best for us. To keep us on the straight and narrow she needs to be able to see into our private lives and be as strict as necessary with those who break the rules.

Mrs May needs full control of the Brexit negotiations and the final agreement so that she can ensure she gets what she wants. Even if that means no agreement at all.