UK General Discussion: 2017 and onwards, Mayhem

[brucejoel99]

In related news, due to Shawcroft's resignation, she's being replaced by Eddie Izzard, so congrats to Eddie for finally managing to gain membership of Labour's NEC. Long overdue imo, he seems like a rather good person to be on the NEC. A principled & sensible fellow. Let's hope he puts some sense into the others.

[brucejoel99]

ECJ has ruled we can revoke A50 unilaterally.

RIP No Deal Brexit. A great early Christmas present, made even better when Parliament inevitably compels May to revoke.

[brucejoel99]

Breaking: May has pulled tomorrow’s Brexit vote.

Jesus, on a scale of 1-10 on the b.s. meter, this is hitting a solid 9.8 lol

ECJ has ruled we can revoke A50 unilaterally.

RIP No Deal Brexit. A great early Christmas present, made even better when Parliament inevitably compels May to revoke.

Don't go counting chickens yet. All this does is make even more certain the result of Tuesday's vote and that May will be unable to get the EU to make changes for a second attempt to get the deal thru Parliament. Even if Parliament decides to offer up a referendum, there's no guarantee the vote will be Remain.

True. Even though they're pulling tomorrow's vote on the deal, they're just delaying the inevitable. Brussels won't grant any further significant concessions; the Norway-style relationship w/ the EU is a non-starter. The actual choice before Parliament at this point is between a 2nd referendum or a No Deal Brexit. Hopefully they can get on w/ making that decision.

[brucejoel99]

BBC reporting that 174 Tory MPs (55.2% of the Tories' 315 MPs) have now said publicly they'll vote for May, with 34 publicly against. She only needs to secure the votes of 158 MPs (a simple majority of the 315) to survive but could still step down if the majority is slim (a-la John Major resolving to resign in 1995 if he couldn't carry at least 2/3rds support).

Without impugning the honesty of Tory MPs, though, the ballot is secret, so it's very possible some may vote differently to their public pronouncements (as both Pericles & Impartial Spectator have earlier pointed out).

[brucejoel99]

Would a secular Northern Ireland be more or less likely to leave the UK and join Ireland?

Also, since the DUP didn't support the GFA (and thus, a soft  border) back in the 90s, why didn't they go for a hard border? A hard border would make things much easier for May and Brexit.

It's the Republic of Ireland, and hence the EU, who don't want a hard border, not the DUP.  (Well, no-one sane in Northern Ireland wants one either.)  The DUP's antics make me think they would actually quite like one, but that they realise that they can't actually say that.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[brucejoel99]

How stupid is the DUP? Don't they realize that there is an obvious positive correlation between the hardness of Brexit and the likelihood of a united Ireland?

The DUP aren't nearly as smart as people think they are.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[brucejoel99]

Paddy Ashdown has died. He led the LibDems from 1988 until 1999, successfully transforming the wreckage of the Alliance into a viable party (not something that actually seemed at all certain at the time) and eventually leading it to what was at the time the strongest showing for the Centre in terms of seats since the 1920s at the 1997 General Election.

The best prime minister the U.K. never had.

Not even a contender for such a title, actually, and such a claim is, well, pretty inexplicable from the perspective of any ideological orientation.

Oh, shut up. How about you put politics aside for just a minute, regardless of your opinions (however valid you feel they are), & allow people to pay respects to a man who dedicated his life in the interests of his country & doing the right thing. He effected the world for the better; end of story. Just allow people to respect his accomplishments, not necessarily that of his politics but at least of his character.

And yes, he's definitely a politician that would be on the list of Best PMs the UK never had. He certainly would've made a better Prime Minister than any clown in the House of Commons, past & present since his tenure, that's for sure.

[brucejoel99]

Liam Fox: Brexit is 50-50 if May's deal rejected

This is nothing but a half-hearted effort to drum up support for the deal. "50/50" so Remainers get scared of no deal & Brexiteers get scared of remaining; either the Brexiteers support the deal or there's not gonna be any Brexit. This is almost amateurish.

[brucejoel99]

Here's an image of what's supposed to be a stamp featuring a Royal Navy ship, with British troops landing in Normandy. Can you tell me what is wrong with the proposed stamp?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6538047/Royal-Mail-apologises-D-Day-stamp-shambles.html

At least it wasn't printed yet lol

[brucejoel99]

Ugh. This is going to mean an extension of A50 and possibly a second referendum or a GE. May is betraying Brexit. It needs to be a no-deal now.

May didn't betray Brexit. The people who promised the impossible did.

[brucejoel99]

Ugh. This is going to mean an extension of A50 and possibly a second referendum or a GE. May is betraying Brexit. It needs to be a no-deal now.

Again...

May didn't betray Brexit. The people who promised the impossible did.

Also, this...

Ugh. This is going to mean an extension of A50 and possibly a second referendum or a GE. May is betraying Brexit. It needs to be a no-deal now.

May's deal would have meant Brexit on March 29. If Brexit ends up softened or cancelled, the ERG's intransigence could end up as one of the biggest own goals in history.

& this...

It's time to just cancel Brexit.

[brucejoel99]

May needs to resign

Boris, Rees-Mogg or someone else can deal with this.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/12/the-next-tory-leader-runners-and-riders/

LMAO what? Literally no one respects Boris Johnson; he's a joke & an idiot, & Rees-Mogg is from 1885. No one's successfully filling that leadership vacuum anytime soon.

[brucejoel99]

Theresa May says that Parliament needs to pass a Brexit deal until next Wednesday, otherwise she's gonna seek a Article 50 extension till June 30 which means that the United Kingdom would have to participate in the European Parliament election on May 26.

Actually, if more time is needed for negotiations & the EU27 chooses to extend Article 50 up to July 1st, the UK won't have to hold European Parliament elections because the first sitting of the next European Parliament isn't until July 2nd. And although the current European Parliament will no longer be sitting past April, it could still be recalled for ratification anytime until new MEPs take up their seats in July. Thus, officials have the leeway to delay Article 50 until June 30th.

Only in the scenario in which the Article 50 period is extended beyond July 1st would the UK have to hold European Parliament elections on May 23rd; otherwise, the European Commission could very well initiate treaty infringement proceedings against the UK.

[brucejoel99]

https://www.libdems.org.uk/the-next-chapter-vince

Cable resigning.

Jo Swinson's time to shine?