I don’t really feel too bad about having difficulty understanding what the hell is going on in the United Kingdom because I don’t think the British really have a clue either. I mean, I think I’ve learned what I need to know at this point, but since it possibly involves something unprecedented in British history and another thing that hasn’t happened since the 18th-Century, I can be forgiven for being slow on the uptake. Right?
A parliamentary system where the prime minister doesn’t have a majority but is nonetheless left in power to twist in the wind of his own bullshit rhetoric and incompetence is not a sustainable solution, but it could be where those chaps are headed.
On the other hand, Boris Johnson might convince the queen to veto a parliamentary bill banning a no-deal Brexit which is something the Queen simply hasn’t done in modern times.
Even though Johnson doesn’t have a majority, he might get one if elections are called in October, so his opposition isn’t in a very strong position. Basically no one wants Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to be running things, so unless he’s willing to stand down as the primary opposition leader, it’s doubtful that any coalition government can be formed to replace Johnson without elections. But Corbyn isn’t going anywhere.
It looks like a total clusterfuck to this American. I find it hard to believe that the British people still want to Brexit after all the pain this has caused, but the consensus seems to be that new elections would bring a pro-Brexit parliament despite everything.
If that’s the case, the public there is getting the kind of governance they deserve. As an American, I know what that feels like.
If I understand the situation, the basic problem is that the British know what they don’t want, but don’t know what they do want.
Essentially, another referendum on Brexit would double as a referendum on breaking up the UK in favor of Scottish sovereignty.
If anti-Brexiters in England can put that point across to the public, I think that ices Brexit at least for awhile. If pro-Brexit voters are much like our southern voters, I would assume that they rather enjoy the idea that England dominates Scotland politically. I don’t think they’re all that willing to throw that away just to get a no-deal Brexit, or even to get Brexit at all. It’s not a small price.
It seems like I keep reading that opposition to the “backstop”, the fix for the Ireland situation, is the deal breaker. No-deal Brexit can’t possibly be any better for the Ireland situation than the agreed deal with it’s backstop, so how is no-deal attractive to the Brexitters? Or is the Ireland situation not really the crux of the matter?
It seems abundantly clear that the EU is going to retain enforcement of its borders; it is fundamental to the trade relationship between its members. So something has to happen with the Ireland situation: either an EU border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, or Ireland leaves the EU, or Northern Ireland leaves the UK, or a jerry-rigged “backstop” solution. Why do the Brexitters oppose the backstop? Do they think they are going to change the rules of the EU by leaving it?
Open border between Ireland and N.I., Customs border between N.I and G.B.
It would only return a Leave majority if Lib Dems and Labour split the Remain vote, which could happen. If I had to guess a referendum would ban a No Deal Brexit, but it might also return Remain, just because they have to be sick of this shit
Looks like BoJo is in a spot of bother. Lost on no-deal. Lost his functioning majority, and lost apparently a bid to have a general election called for Oct. 15. BoJo gets to go to Brussels and presumably have a great plan for renegotiating what May and her peers in the EU had already negotiated. I’m sure it will be something else. It’ll go over like a lead balloon. Not sure how all this shakes out for the UK and whether there is some legitimate reason to hope that the UK may finally pull itself from the brink, but for the moment I am just a wee bit more hopeful than I had been.
As Putin chortles in the background. He has broken much of the west at very little expense.
All this global democratic dysfunction over a little immigration–including bringing the oldest democracy on offer into clown-show status–simply portends what global politics will be like when the natural climate formally collapses, the entire oceanic food chain expires over the course of a year and 2/3 of the Greenland ice sheet simply slides off one fine day.