Sputnik: Will Theresa May be able to convince the EU to renegotiate the backstop?
Diane James: No I don't think she can; it's going to require such a fundamental u-turn by the key players in the EU, and the council, and effectively all member states' leaders. They're going to have to completely reverse their position and their solidarity, so if Theresa May thinks she's going to be able to do that; my goodness she's going to be doing better than the poor little Dutch boy that stuck his thumb in the dyke before it broke.
Diane James: Fundamentally what we have in terms of the Theresa May deal on the table as it stands, is not Brexit. She went to the country with a quite frankly disastrous general election, but she went with a general election commitment and pledge; if you remember the words, it was Brexit means Brexit.
You can't put the deal that she's currently contrived with the EU, and in any way dress it up as being Brexit, because the UK isn't in a position with that deal on the table, to take back control of key issues such as our laws, our legislation making, her general election commitment, our fishing water rights; and we're going to pay a thirty nine billion pound bill to achieve absolutely nothing.
I'm going to keep on reminding Theresa May of her words, which were such as; my red lines are as follows, Brexit means Brexit, no deal is better than a bad deal.
She's either got serious amnesia if she's forgetting her own words; or she's just reneging on all of those commitments that she's put to voters, that voters believed in, gave her the support at the ballot box, and she's just running roughshod over all of that.
Diane James: I would be astonished if the police would need rubber bullets to control any strikes or collections of people. If we go back only a few months, there were two very serious marches in London and the police were able to keep the two opposing groups apart; there was the leave supporting march, and there was the remain supporting march.
There was no issue about rubber bullets or any crazy talk like that. People in the UK are fundamentally moderate, but when they feel that they've been let down by their parliament, their Prime Minister and such, yes they are going to go on to the streets.
I don't see a repeat of the Yellow Vest movement that's currently in France, and I certainly don't see any repeat of the really quite draconian response that the French police have had to those Yellow Vest protesters.
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.