Brexit or Breaksit?

[Matrix Dragon]

And looks like Boris Johnson has decided it's once again time for him to open his fucking mouth and make the situation even messier. The idiot responsible for a great deal of the Brexit mess, thanks to his xenophobia, racism and a decades long quest for vengeance on previous Prime Minister David Cameron for their rivalry in college, has emerged from hiding, finally gotten a haircut, and is now making noise about how the UK should stand strong and take a no-deal Brexit, because that'll totally show the EU, and not at all screw over almost every international trade agreement the UK has! UK Tabloids, naturally, are lining up to kiss his ass.

(As a side note, the rivalry with Cameron. Johnson lost that competition to a man that stuck his dick in a pig. English 'nobility' man, I dunno.)

[Dartz]

"Let my people go"

He does know what happened to those people, doesn't he? The whole, 4 decades in the wasteland thing before.... oh and it gets worse.... it gets a lot worse. It's a curse like 'Luck of the Irish' really..

I'm at This Point myself.

Yous've brought this on yourselves. You've only yourselves to blame. Nobody else.

Your sheer, blathering, mindless, parochialist, power-first, party-second, state-thired, people-never, power-hungry, money-grubbing, pig-fucking, blind spanking idiocy has ruined the lives and futures of millions of innocent people, threatened the re-ignition of a conflict that took a decade of careful negotiation to quell, has pissed off the fucking EU and you're in danger of dragging us over the cliff with you.

And I'll be laughing all the way.

At least we get to see yous go splat before we land.

I'll let Nelson Express it for me

[Matrix Dragon]

It's debatable if Boris knows how that ended. He's stupid enough not to, but if he does know, he's arrogant enough to think it won't happen to him. Which is the point really. He's the sort of asshole that is instinctively good at letting the consequences of his evil hit everyone except himself.

[Dartz]

So.

Parliament as a whole just voted to wrest control of the agenda tomorrow from the government.

Parliament is planning to hold votes tomorrow to demonstrate to the government how they would like to proceed. But these aren't binding

Governent has basically said 'Go Spin' as they're non-binding. She's ploughing on regardless.

Meanwhile 5.66 Million people - or 1 in every 13 people in Britain - have signed the petition to call the whole thing off.

Parliament will only begin debating a change to the law to extend Lemming Day from Friday, on Wednesday. Christ knows if they can pass it. If they can't, they collapse out by their own doing.

This isn't democracy. I'm afraid to ask what this shitshow is in case someone finally answers 'The Aristocrats'.

It's fucking gotterdammerung for the British Empire.

[robkelk]

If there's a hard exit... sorry, I'll start over.

When the hard exit comes, I would not be at all surprised to see calls for two referenda: one in Scotland to separate and go their own way (possibly as an EU member state), and one in Northern Ireland to separate from the UK and re-join Ireland. How the votes would go on those, I refuse to speculate.

[Dartz]

NI requires the Republic's assent - if I recall the GFA correctly. It can't just unilaterally decide to join. Given that it's an economic basketcase - it's GDP is the lowest of any region on the island - actually annexing it will be an utter mess. There'll have to be a referendum here on the metter too. There'll be negotiations about differing cultural traditions and how to properly acknowledge the cultural traditions of unionism - Ireland joining the Commonwealth has been proposed more than once as a concession but it's also met with shudders of horror in pretty much every corner of the island.

An independant Scotland would be amusing.

Scotland voted to remain in the EU
Scotland also voted to remain in the UK, because they were told they would leave the EU if they left the UK - and the UK was planning to stay in the EU thing.
Scotland actually ran a good, honest, decent and interesting referendum, where consideration was made to those who'd have to live in an independant Scotland. They actually asked the kids, and the kids gave considered answers.

[Black Aeronaut]

One thing's for sure, the next few years in the UK are gonna be Ancient Chinese 'Interesting'.

[Labster]

It's time to rebuild Hadrian's Wall, and England will pay for it.

Oh man Dartz, I'm laughing so loud at your black comedy. It will be a whole lot less funny when people over there start starving after Hard Brexit but at least it's a different island this time, right?

The Petition, if anyone's interested. The map's cool. There are cities where 20% of the population has signed, and areas of the midlands where it's under 5%. Ulster doesn't seem to be participating much, even in districts "represented" by Sinn Féin MPs. It would be so fucking awesome if they actually decided to show up to Parliament, vote down Brexit, sing a bar of "Alice's Restaurant" and walk right out again.

[Dartz]

Frankie Boyle said something similar. To paraphrase... "It'd be nice for the Irish to watch a British famine"

But that would be being vindictive. Wouldn't it?

[hazard]

As of right now the petition count is 5.7 million signatures on the petition and actively increasing by a dozen or two every few seconds.

I've a feeling the people of Britain are not exactly in agreement with government policy right now.

[Black Aeronaut]

Bets on Boris telling them all to go eat cake? :V

[Epsilon]

I really am surprised that every vote on Brexit in the UK parliament is not a vote of no confidence. Given the impact on the nation will be considerably larger than any yearly budget and every budget has to be a confidence vote how can they get away with constantly voting down the government while still claiming the government is in charge?

[Jinx999]

I really am surprised that every vote on Brexit in the UK parliament is not a vote of no confidence. Given the impact on the nation will be considerably larger than any yearly budget and every budget has to be a confidence vote how can they get away with constantly voting down the government while still claiming the government is in charge?

1) They tried a vote of no confidence earlier. It didn't go through.

2) Nobody wants to be stuck with this tar baby.

[Labster]

Yeah, exactly Jinx. Theresa May is not really as bad at this as she looks, it's just that for Brexit the only winning move was not to play. No one wants to be responsible for the fallout.

The whole affair is sheer madness anyway. In California, a vote like this would have taken 60%, not 50%, because it would essentially be a more sweeping constitutional revision. How David Cameron let it get to this stage is beyond me.

[Dartz]

Nobody expected it to win. Not even the people who voted for it thinking it was a vote against the Government. The UK has no history of people's referendums. They've no institutional memory of how to do it. There's no concept that Voting on a thing has Consequences.

Ireland's had referenda on the constitution turn on a mickey's drop of votes (The 15th amendment was one with a margin of 0.5%) - but everyone was satisfied with the result. We've had referenda that were re-run - we took two stabs at two EU treaties, rejecting them until important points were clarified and the government stopped explaining it as 'go on and trust us', the 1th above was the second attempt after a previous one in the 60's, and we took three full goes to overturn the constitutional ban on abortion, overturning another referendum in the 80's that added it to the constituion in the first place.

There is another referendum planned for May, to amend the 15th amendment.

Going to the people more than once is not a sign of weakness in democracy. It's how it's supposed to work. Is this what you want? Are you sure?

But more than that - we've never had a result that left a significant amount of the population screaming and begging for it to stop. 1 in 12 residents of the UK have signed a petition to call this off. That's an utterly insane number. It's the largest petition in history. That's more than the population of Ireland.

[hazard]

Well, the people have been heard: According to the petition, the government will not revoke Article 50 and will honour the 2016 referendum.

Also, Parliament will debate the matter on April 1st. This is the time to write a form letter/e-mail and send it to everyone who signed it and ask them to send an actual paper letter to their MP with a clear demand for revocation, or delay until a new referendum can voted upon.

Why paper?

Because a wall of e-mail entries doesn't have the same impact as having the Royal Mail deliver literal sacks of mail in the offices of members of Parliament, all with the same topic.

[robkelk]

I really am surprised that every vote on Brexit in the UK parliament is not a vote of no confidence. Given the impact on the nation will be considerably larger than any yearly budget and every budget has to be a confidence vote how can they get away with constantly voting down the government while still claiming the government is in charge?

1) They tried a vote of no confidence earlier. It didn't go through.

They had a vote that was only a vote of no confidence. Canada just went through nearly a full day (and night) of line-by-lines votes of the proposed budget, every one of which was also a vote of confidence.

That's what's needed here - one of the options to be a confidence vote. Vote it down and you're out on the campaign trail, looking to get your job back and explaining to your constituents why you voted the way you did.

2) Nobody wants to be stuck with this tar baby.

Which is why nobody wants to give Ms. May a no-confidence vote. Who has to take over?

[Dartz]

Well, the people have been heard: According to the petition, the government will not revoke Article 50 and will honour the 2016 referendum.

Also, Parliament will debate the matter on April 1st. This is the time to write a form letter/e-mail and send it to everyone who signed it and ask them to send an actual paper letter to their MP with a clear demand for revocation, or delay until a new referendum can voted upon.

Why paper?

Because a wall of e-mail entries doesn't have the same impact as having the Royal Mail deliver literal sacks of mail in the offices of members of Parliament, all with the same topic.

"Your pleas have been heard and ignored. "

April 1st. There's something else that happens on that day. Something about fools. Anyway - it'l be superfluous by then. I think, legally, they're still going to crash out on Friday as it stands, despite having been offered the extensioins. They've yet to formally claim them

I really am surprised that every vote on Brexit in the UK parliament is not a vote of no confidence. Given the impact on the nation will be considerably larger than any yearly budget and every budget has to be a confidence vote how can they get away with constantly voting down the government while still claiming the government is in charge?

1) They tried a vote of no confidence earlier. It didn't go through.

They had a vote that was only a vote of no confidence. Canada just went through nearly a full day (and night) of line-by-lines votes of the proposed budget, every one of which was also a vote of confidence.

That's what's needed here - one of the options to be a confidence vote. Vote it down and you're out on the campaign trail, looking to get your job back and explaining to your constituents why you voted the way you did.

2) Nobody wants to be stuck with this tar baby.

Which is why nobody wants to give Ms. May a no-confidence vote. Who has to take over?

They tried it a few weeks back. The Tory party is quite happy to remain in Power - even if it has no idea what to do with it. Theresa May is much the same, it seems. Anyway, I think the only way they can have a no-confidence vote these days is by a specific House has no confidence in Goverment motion - everything else is just sort of agreed as conventional wisdom without being set in stone as things that must happen.

Although the Moggster has started to at least suggest he will back The Deal if the DUP will.

So it may yet be Third Time Lucky.

If the Speaker permits to vote to happen.

Tick-Tock.

[Labster]

Theresa May to resign if Government's Brexit plan is approved

Okay, now we're officially in reverse vote of confidence bizarro world.

Boris Johnson has said he will now back the prime minister's deal, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said.

Now that didn't take long.

[Dartz]

Imagine if the crew of the Titanic could all agree that they didn't want to hit the Iceberg, but couldn't agree on whether to turn left, right, stop the engines, accelerate the engines, or just sail straight into it because it won't be that bad and it's already there despite not wanting to hit it in the first place.

But the only reason they're having the argument in at all is to get the Captain to agree to retire sometime after they've safely passed the iceberg, so one of them can get the fancy chair for themselves.

The rest of course, is now history....

The boat sinks.. The poor drown. The rich float away. And James Cameron makes a billion dollars.

[Dartz]

And by way of update...

The Winner is.......

None of the Above

As amusing as it is, the result is almost expected. It does seem to indicate that Re-running the referendum, and a custums union - are the least unpopular options. These almost achieved a majority. If only there were some method of polling that enabled rankings of preferences to achieve a single result that everyone would at least tolerate.....

Reese-Mogg - or Walter the Softie - has switched sides again. He's sticking with the DUP and whatever they choose the do.

The DUP will oppose a third meaningful vote. They will oppose any vote which harms the Union. Even if the result is catastrophic for the union.

And Scottish MEP Alyn Smith requests Europe leave a light on for Scotland to come back.... Above the shitshow, the Scots are classy and professional the whole way through. And they're pretty fucking pissed at how Westminster's been treating them.

Somehow, Parliament has managed to pass a statutory instrument to enable them to make use of the Extension the EU has offered. By a fairly heft majority. Lemming Friday moves to April 12th.

And on Monday, they get around to actually debating the petition the Government rejected.

[Labster]

And Scottish MEP Alyn Smith requests Europe leave a light on for Scotland to come back.... Above the shitshow, the Scots are classy and professional the whole way through. And they're pretty fucking pissed at how Westminster's been treating them.

That was a really good speech, about something that matters.  Leave a light on for Scotland.

I don't know if the votes exist in Scotland yet.  I'd like to see a poll taken this year.

[Dartz]

Considering they were told they'd have to apply for EU membership if they left the UK before the last referendum - and were basically promise the UK would stay in the EU you can see why they're fucking pissed.

Anyway. There'll be another vote on the agreement tomorrow. On half it anyway. The political declaration on how the UK intends to move forward after getting out has been set aside. So they'll be on the other side of the threshold at least even if they've no decision on what to do afterwards.

We're back to 15 days to Lemming-Hour at least. Which means all my work stuff that got delayed on the continent and has to cross the landbridge will make it.

[Dartz]

Third time's failure. It's not failing by as much. Maybe vote 4 might do it.

Thje EU has calmly told the world that it's been planning for this since December 2017 - like a sane person would. Ireland is still kind of fucked. But the EU has basically made three lines in the sand in the vent of a hard crash-out to even start talking Trade.

Britain payings its departure bills.

EU Citzens in Britain having their rights guaranteed (With reciprocation, naturally)

And an open Border in the North in line with the agreed backstop.


Ireland is amused at not being thrown under the bus. I mean, it's being driven right at us but its at least nice to know that there're people who there who would feel bad about having to clean us off the front of a routelander.


https://streamable.com/ktpe9


I'm thinking of a former artist in a bunker.

It's the end of March. Britain is already longing for June 1st because at least then they can be sure it'll be the end of May.

[Bob Schroeck]

<rimshot>