What the papers say: Britain’s chaotic approach to Brexit is helping the EU

Britain will now almost certainly have to wait until Christmas for the start of trade talks with the EU. This wasn’t the original plan, with the initial timetable suggesting these discussions could start in October. So what’s going wrong? Some are blaming the EU – and it’s true that the leaders of France and Germany are ‘behaving mulishly’ and ‘irrationally’, says the Daily Telegraph. But maybe the blame also lies closer to home. Deputy PM Damian Green has said he would still back ‘Remain’ if the referendum took place today, Theresa May ‘refused to say whether she would now vote for Brexit’ and the Chancellor is saying he won’t commit funds to prepare for a Brexit ‘no deal’. Faced with these mixed messages ‘the apparently irrational strategy of Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron begins to make sense’, says the Telegraph. After all, ‘when your opponent appears in disarray, you do not let up the attack.