'Flextension' is the latest Brexit buzzword and people have thoughts

Brexit is now an argument based on sound bites and buzzwords. Everything from 'backstop' to 'common market' and 'leavers' and 'remainers' has become part of the regular vocabulary.

Just when you thought you'd heard them all get ready to become very familiar with a new one and we can thank European council president Donald Tusk for this one.

The 57-year-old Pole is reportedly pushing the EU27 to offer Theresa May a one-year extension to article 50 which would allow the UK to leave the EU as soon as deal is agreed in parliament.

A senior official is said to have reported that Tusk told senior EU figures on Thursday that the 'flextension' would be the best case for everyone involved.

The only reasonable way out would be a long but flexible extension. I would call it a ‘flextension’.

How would it work in practice? We could give the UK a year-long extension, automatically terminated once the withdrawal agreement has been accepted and ratified by the House of Commons.

Now, it's hardly a word that rolls off the tongue and even before 'flextension' has become a reality, people have turned against the new term for basically being a bit rubbish and not even a new idea.

Beyond contempt for the word and a feeling of 'oh god not another word that we all need to remember' there have been many, many jokes.

Please! No more portmanteaus!

HT

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