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UK Prime Minister Theresa May Will Resign, Pass the Brexit
Theresa May has announced that she will resign as UK's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party:
Mrs. May announced on Friday that she would be stepping down as leader of her Conservative Party and then as Britain's prime minister, after repeatedly failing to win Parliament's approval for a deal to withdraw the country from the European Union.
A successor to Theresa May will be chosen before Parliament's summer break, the Conservative Party chairman said. She will continue as prime minister until the leadership contest is finished.
[...] Standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Mrs. May said it was in the "best interests of the country for a new prime minister" to lead Britain through the Brexit process. She announced plans to step down as the leader of the Conservative Party on June 7, with the process to replace her beginning the following week.
Previously: Theresa May: UK's Next Prime Minister?
UK PM Theresa May announces resignation amid fury over Brexit handling
foxnews.com/world/uk-pm-theresa-may-announces-resignation-amid-fury-over-brexit-handling
May spoke outside 10 Downing Street after a meeting with Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers. She said she will step down on June 7. Her resignation will trigger a party leadership contest, and whoever wins that contest will take over as prime minister.
[...] Her announcement could complicate the upcoming June 3 state visit by President Trump to London to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, where he will also meet with Queen Elizabeth II.
May will still be in office during that visit, meaning it will nix the chance for a new prime minister to forge ties with the American president at a time where such relations are vital. A U.S.-U.K. trade deal is a top priority for the U.K. as it looks to depart from the European Union and begin making its own trade agreements -- and Trump has said "the potential is unlimited" for such a deal.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @04:04PM (39 children)
She made the same exit deal. Four times. And it gave the EU basically everything.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Snow on Friday May 24 2019, @04:24PM (14 children)
Yea, well the choice to leave the EU was a stupid one. When all you have is turds to work with, you end up with a turd sandwich.
I think the choice is between a shitty deal, and no deal.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @05:22PM (13 children)
Actually, the choice to join the EU was a stupid one. I have never favored the EU. I really don't like the idea of a world government, nor do I like the idea of suborning nations under a super government. The world already had three too many overly large, and two too many overly powerful nations, before the EU was born.
If China could be broken into three or more peaces, Russia into another three or more, and the US into at least two, the world would be a much better place. And, just let the EU slide into history, as a bad mistake.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:33PM
That's OK, Runaway, the EU has never favored you either, and really does not care what you think.
Again, the idea of a world government doesn't like you, either. And since you live in a state guilty of rebellion in the past, does not care about your opinion, as well.
Ah, a separate peace [wikipedia.org]? Not a bad book, but rather dated, and over-hyped when it came out. But even if there are several "peaces", they do not care about what you think.
Get back on your lawn, Runaway!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:54PM (4 children)
So have said the french [bbc.co.uk].
Pretty good reasons too [theguardian.com]
----
How about we start with letting US slide into history?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @06:06PM
In case you hadn't noticed, we're already sliding. The Military Industrial Complex isn't ready to recognize that fact, but the slide has started.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jimbrooking on Friday May 24 2019, @06:31PM (2 children)
The US is sliding into history all by itself as an example of a failed system of government.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 24 2019, @07:33PM
Well, it certainly isn't a very good reflection on majority rule. But one small fact does emerge from the drama, the two party system is definitely no worse than the multiparty circus we are watching.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Informative) by crafoo on Saturday May 25 2019, @11:39AM
Correct. Universal suffrage was a mistake. Glad to see people waking up to this. Mob rule, where the mob does not shoulder the consequences for their vote, is disastrous.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Friday May 24 2019, @07:30PM (6 children)
If China could be broken into three or more peaces, Russia into another three or more, and the US into at least two, the world would be a much better place.
Yeah, balkanizing always worked in the past. We need to bring it back, and make sure nobody becomes powerful enough to enforce a peaceful coexistence.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @08:33PM (2 children)
i would like it if the US fed power was greatly diminshed and the states were free to make their state laws as they see fit. people could move to states that abide by their norms instead of trying to force people to live under something nobody likes.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 24 2019, @09:15PM (1 child)
That argument has been settled. You can keep your norms, as long as they don't interfere with others'. The feds' job is to ensure that. But they should wait until they are called in.
Other than that, can you specify?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:11AM
Particular, as long as those norms don't interfere with the TLAs.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 25 2019, @12:24AM (2 children)
Who will be this nobody that will power trip responsibly? Perhaps after I finish ranting on the internet, I will take on this burden and kill all the bad people in the world.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 25 2019, @12:34AM (1 child)
Who said anything about "responsibly"?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:09AM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 24 2019, @04:28PM (23 children)
Well, that's what happens when you are a supplicant negotiating with a much larger power who holds all the cards. The EU had no reason at all to give ground, and every reason to play tough. But despite it all, they maintained a professionalism and civility that the Tories couldn't even dream of.
The idea that Britain could walk into Brussels and demand whatever it wanted, and the EU would just cave, was one of the biggest lies of the referendum. Post-imperial ego-tripping.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @04:31PM (22 children)
If the EU held all the cards they wouldn't be panicking over the notion of the UK exerting its self determination.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 24 2019, @04:52PM (21 children)
Not seeing any panicking across the channel. They aren't happy about us leaving, but they aren't panicking.
Panicking would imply that they reacted with some kind of fear-driven, irrational response. Care to tell me what that response was? Seems to me they have done everything in a very cool and deliberate manner.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:15PM (20 children)
The UK existed for hundreds of years without the EU. Do you think the EU would last a decade without the UK, its second largest economy and one of two that actually pays more than they get back?
Yeah dude, Angela Merkel isn't running around crying in the streets, but we're two years into this shitshow and nobody has just said "fine, get out then". Obviously that's because the EU "holds all the cards".
Ask Turkey how many cards the EU holds. Decades of being rejected from "Europe" has left a pretty bitter taste in their mouths, and they don't really seem that interested in being part of the west anymore. I wonder why that is.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @05:26PM (10 children)
Ask Turkey? Interesting idea . . . Decades of rejection? Yeah. And, a guy can't help wondering which is the cause, which the effect. Personally, I'm not one to trust the Turks. As time passes, I see less and less reason to trust Erdogan. The man has betrayed most of Ataturk's legacy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:33PM (9 children)
Erdogan was a child when Turkey was being refused entry to the EU. He's the first Turkish President to recognize that he was never going to get in anyway. That isn't an endorsement, just a statement of fact.
The cause is the fact that Greece didn't want them in because of genocide in World War I. Somehow genocide didn't keep the Germans out, but whatever.
At least they got Greece, and all they contribute to the EU.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @05:44PM (8 children)
Uh-huh - but the part you skipped past is, Turkey is an habitual offender when it comes to genocide. Germany has only committed truly mass genocide once. If we wanted to traipse off into a shadowy world of suppositions and allegations, we might conclude that Germany got it's "final solution" from the Turks. I'm not going there, but you might think about it for a little bit. "Yes, Fuhrer, we have solved that very same problem several times. Look what we did with those nasty Armenians!"
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:50PM (7 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Namaqua_genocide [wikipedia.org]
Oh hey look it turns out your whole stupid argument wasn't even factually correct.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @06:00PM
I am shocked, SHOCKED!
Runaway spewing bad facts? Having no clue about actual reality and only what the Talking Heads tell him to think?
A duel good sir, that is the only answer to this dastardly accusation of yours.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @06:15PM (4 children)
Yeah, I missed one. How many did you miss? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Turkey [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @06:18PM (3 children)
Now add up the death counts and see who wins. I anxiously await your response.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @06:26PM
Do I get to pro-rate those counts, based on world population? Populations were exploding in the 1800's. Germany has the body count, hands down, but only because the Turks/Ottoman didn't have such large populations to genocide.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:16AM (1 child)
Why again is that supposed to be relevant? I'll note here that unlike Germany, Turkey engages in a considerable amount of present day denial about its genocides, probably due to the involvement of the founders and early leaders of modern Turkey in those genocides.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @09:13AM
I prefer my genocides to be measured in "khallows". Like, the Armenian genocide was 2.4 khallows. Native American Genocide in Califorinia: 9.6 khallows. Nazi genocide, 4.1 khallows. A single khallow post on SoylentNews? .0021 khallows. Metrics, can't do science without 'em!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @11:32PM
Who today remembers the genocide of the Nambians?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 24 2019, @05:51PM (8 children)
The UK existed hundreds of years without the EU... in the world as it was up until fifty years ago. The world is different now. We have superpowers, globalisation, the internet, massive global industries and supply chains and economic systems that require unprecedented levels of cooperation and integration. To suppose we can just close our borders and reset the clock to the age of sail is fantasy. Not to mention that your hundreds of years were characterised by Britain almost constantly being at war with one or another European country. That's not something I'd care to return to.
As for The EU - Losing the UK will hurt but caving in would hurt more. They can't afford to do it. If they give way, then every right-wing populist in every EU country will feel empowered to make the same demands. The whole thing would fall apart and we'd have a continent run by a bunch of little farages with no big bad EU to blame everything on any more. I wonder who they would turn their hate to then?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)
If you've looked around recently, you might have noticed that we've already passed peak globalization.
Trump and Brexit are symptoms, the cause is that the last fifty years of the neoliberal bullshit you're espousing has not benefited a large contingent of citizens. I think you're naive if you think the EU can fight against that changing tide via coercion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @02:38PM
What? Poor people today have fridges and TV's.
That's a standard of living higher than the richest Kings of old times.
Right wing gets to have it both ways.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Friday May 24 2019, @06:26PM (1 child)
The UK existed hundreds of years without the EU... in the world as it was up until fifty years ago.
Yes - because we had a world monopoly on technology. Unfortunately the patents expired, or we gave them to the Americans for nothing, and then ran our economy in a way that made investment unprofitable.
Now we depend on the EU for 3/4 of our food (half in summer, all in winter). Don't expect to live on a diet of haggis and Irish potatoes either.
You might remember granny telling you not to bite the hand that feeds you. Granny remembers food rationing.
The Theresa May "deal" is about having food. The problem with her deal is it makes no provision to pay for it. We also get other things from Europe - like customers for our businesses and staff for the NHS.
The alternative of "no deal" involves no food, and for a lot of people, no work and no health care. (Unless you are Farage, Rees-Mogg, and Johnson, all of whom have houses in France, and who are fighting for a quick Brexit because they are terrified of forthcoming EU legislation that will reveal the extent of their stashes they have in tax havens). I agree that may of the Brexit voters currently have no jobs and not much food. They are fully entitled to be angry - but supporting the people who are the cause of their predicament is unlikely to make their situation better. The "European Legislation" they hate is mostly either a figment of Boris Johnson's journalism, or Tory party policy blamed on Europe because they know it is damaging.
You may be aware we had EU Elections yesterday to elect MEPs - yes we currently have some sovereignty over the EU. The alternative is none - but the ERG having even more sovereignty over you/us. Given that they think the "nasty party" is too moderate with its austerity, it is hard to see any good coming of the Brexit party. The fact that the "majority" voted to go to hell in a hand cart does not make it a sensible idea.
Europe might miss a few thousand drunken holiday makers, but its not like Brexit will affect their food or jobs much.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @02:43PM
On the plus side, housing becomes more affordable in about 5 years. For those who were smart enough to inherit their wealth, at least.
"... 0.6 per cent of the British people own 69 per cent of the land on which we live - and they are mostly the same families who owned it in the 19th century." https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/britains-land-is-still-owned-by-an-aristocratic-elite-but-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way-5385094.html [independent.co.uk]
Get ready to see that number increase.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Friday May 24 2019, @10:40PM (1 child)
Aren't those the problem, not the solution?
Diversity in everything except political thought and leadership; what could possibly go wrong?
Essentially the argument is we're all better off if the globalists are constantly at (cold to lukewarm) war with the people of Britain. OK, well, sounds like fun for the attackers, but whats in it for the Brits if they choose eternal servitude?
Most of the arguments for staying in the EU sound like pre-civil war American South arguments for how disruptive ending slavery would be, we gotta keep them pickin cotton for us for their own good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @10:54PM
Cheap Southern cotton that fed the British textile mills and their corporate profits.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @11:52PM
We love Nigel, don't we? People don't know this, Nigel has been part of the Europe government for 20 years now. He's known as Nigel Farage MEP. Member of Europe Parlament. Brussels is built on a swamp, it's very swampy there. And Nigel's done more than anybody to drain that swamp. He was one of the first people to say, give the Nobel Peace Prize to Donald J. Trump. One of the very first and we're hearing that one more and more. Go Nigel!!!!
(Score: 1, Touché) by khallow on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:24AM
Not at the country level. Just throw up some free trade agreements and you're golden. The endgame of the above requirement was achieved decades ago with the creation of the Eurozone and establishment of the Euro. What's been going on since is extraneous.
For who?
So what?
Unless, of course, Europe decides not to do that. The little farages aren't the only ones with agency, right?