Under Wessex Skies
Of course, 29th March was the day the country was supposed to be leaving the EU. That has been postponed, to allow Parliament time to try and resolve the omnishambles. Today they vote, for a third time, on Mrs May's deal. There is no more prospect of it passing now than on the first two occasions. Why bother with it, and what happens next?
Lord alone knows.
29th March 2019
Theresa May says if her Brexit deal is passed, she will then resign. Many Tory MPs may now decide to back the deal. Could you explain to me how a bad deal becomes a good deal simply because she agrees to step down?
Clearly this has more to do with Tory infighting than what is best for the country. I am heartily sick of the whole fucking bunch of them.
Never will I vote Tory again
27th March 2019
Now what? Parliament has wrested control of the Brexit process from the Prime Minister. The MPs plan to debate the options, but will that get us any further? No one faction in the debate has a majority, so there will have to be compromise, which means we will in all likelihood remain hitched to the EU in one form or other.
One has to ask though, why this conversation didn't take place 2 years ago, why Mrs May didn't speak with the various stakeholders, and establish what could be agreed, before she even triggered Article 50.
Shambolic.
26th March 2019
And so it goes on. Theresa May has obtained an extension, the deadline for the withdrawal from the EU moved from 29th March to 22nd May. That is on the proviso MPs accept the deal on offer, the one that has already been rejected twice by Parliament.
If as seems likely the deal is rejected again, then the next deadline comes on the 12th April. By that date TM would have to come up with an alternative plan, and ask for a further extension. If the EU refuse that request then we leave without a deal.
Clear? What a complete and utter shambles.
22nd March 2019
Our MPs, whether Tories or Labour, are the most inept and incompetent to have graced Parliament in my life time. They are more concerned with party political posturing than trying to achieve an outcome that benefits the country.
Joseph de Maistre, an 18th century philosopher, said
In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.
What the hell did we do to deserve this lot?
16th March 2019
Can it get any worse? MPs vote to take the “No Deal” option off the table, and then vote for an extension to Article 50.
The Government now has no leverage and will have to accept whatever the EU offers. As for the extension, if the EU agrees, it will come at a price.
15th March 2019
Brexit. It goes on and on, with no end in sight. The governments withdrawal agreement was rejected by Parliament yesterday, and by quite a substantial majority. Today there will be another vote, this one to remove the option of “No Deal”, which will no doubt be passed.
And then? Whilst the WA has been rejected there is no agreed consensus on what would be acceptable. It doesn't matter what concessions she might obtain from the EU, any WA will be rejected. Hard Brexit, soft Brexit, somewhere in between, there are not enough MPs in any of the competing camps to carry the vote. Apart from one option of course; to abandon Brexit.
With the No Deal option removed, and no possibility of agreement, it is likely Mrs May will ask the EU for an extension to Article 50, pushing back the date on which the UK leaves. Maybe it will be extended by weeks, perhaps even months, but I take the view that the longer the extension, the softer Brexit will become. Perhaps it will even be abandoned altogether.
Perhaps that was the plan all along, the Deep State ensuring the will of the people is thwarted. That would of course assume the powers that be know what they are doing, which seems a little unlikely to me.
13th March 2019
Parliament has instructed Theresa May to go back to the EU and reopen negotiations on the Irish Backstop. The EU mandarins have already said the negotiations cannot be reopened.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If history tells us anything it's that the EU always say “it can't be done”, and then at the last minute decide it can. They might dress a deal up in all sorts of legalese, but essentially they will break their own rules if necessary.
And are they really going to let a deal slip through their fingers for the sake of the backstop? I have a suspicion they won't.
30th January 2019
It was obvious Theresa May's Brexit Deal would be rejected by Parliament. It was the scale of the defeat that was remarkable. In normal times, having suffered such a loss the PM would resign. These though are not normal times.
Corbyn has tabled a motion of no confidence. Ironically the very MPs who helped vote the Brexit deal down will now express their confidence in Mrs May. Of course if they don't the Government could fall, there would then have to be a General Election, Corbyn could get his hands on the keys to number 10, and those MPs would be out of a job. I doubt those MPs have any confidence in the PM, their vote of support will represent nothing more than one of self interest.
I expect Mrs May will survive the vote of confidence, but then what? Parliament is in utter turmoil. There is no common consensus, no hint of a plan that the majority of MPs could agree on. And even if there was, would it be accepted by the EU? The EU have already made it quite clear they are not prepared to reopen the negotiations.
No deal is one option, but MPs are unlikely to agree to that for fear of the havoc that could unleash. An alternative is to cancel Brexit altogether, but MPs won't take that path as they would not want to be accused of ignoring the will of the people.
If the MPs can't decide then the only remaining option is to let the people decide. A Second Vote, giving the electorate the choice of
As someone who voted in 2016 to leave, I don't agree such a move would be undemocratic. Circumstances have changed since then and giving the people the chance to express their opinion, knowing what we know now would be entirely democratic.
The alternative is months if not years of continued uncertainty.
16th January 2019
I have spent the last week reading opinions on the Brexit deal. The Prime Minister is unlikely to get the deal approved in Parliament, too many MP's are opposed to it. However, the Daily Mail reports today that the majority of the country think Parliament should accept it, believing that it is the best deal we are going to get.
I suspect the public are sick to the back teeth of the whole sorry mess, and just want it resolved, one way or the other. And it really is a mess. The government triggered Article 50 without having prepared, and seemingly with no clear idea about how they would achieve their goal. Indeed, I am not sure they knew what the goal was.
The EU are tough negotiators, and appear to have got what they wanted. As for the UK, Mrs May wants us to agree a plan whereby we must, for a period of time, continue to follow the EU rules but without any representation at the EU. We will remain in this situation until such time as a new trading agreement is decided. We cannot leave this arrangement without the agreement of all the EU member states. They would have the UK over a barrel, the EU would squeeze every last concession out of the UK before finally allowing us to leave.
The result? A democratic deficit and an inability to strike deals around the world for as long as the EU deem it. A bad deal really is worse than no deal.
28th November 2018