Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday September 04 2019, @04:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the Ruh-Roh!-What-happens-now? dept.

Boris Johnson loses Parliamentary majority, faces Brexit showdown

Britain's Parliament returns from its summer recess and is facing a titanic showdown over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plans to leave the European Union. Here's what we know:

● Johnson has lost his majority in Parliament, with the defection of Conservative Phillip Lee to the Liberal Democrats.

● The opposition, including members of Johnson's party, is seeking to pass legislation to delay Brexit.

● Johnson has said that if his foes succeed he will call early elections.

Live coverage.

List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by length of tenure

#54: George Canning, 119 days (1827)
#55: Boris Johnson, 40 days (Incumbent) (2019)

See also: Brexit: Tory MP defects ahead of crucial no-deal vote
How Brexit Blew Up Britain's Constitution


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @10:46AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @10:46AM (#889474)

    During the run up to the referendum the benefits were mostly about "taking back control" of our borders, making our own trade deals, sovereignty, etc. The leave campaign also made a big deal of getting out from the EU fishing quotas and how the money currently sent to the EU would be used to fund the NHS (the infamous £350 million a week claim). The leave campaign also talked about how we would be in a much better position to make trade deals with other countries on our own and how this would benefit the economy. We were assured the EU would cave to our demands as they needed us more than we needed them so there were really no downsides to leaving.

    Of course as it turns out the fishermen will be fucked if we leave with no deal, the £350 million will be more than offset by the costs of leaving, the trade deals have evaporated or are seriously unpopular (see the chlorinated chicken and selling the NHS to the US controversies), and it turns out we aren't able to keep all the benefits of EU membership with none of the costs.

    So now no one talks about the benefits of leaving. The talking points have shifted away from how we're going to be better off to how it's not going to be that bad (the government have spent a lot of time assuring people that there won't be medicine shortages and while food prices may rise we won't have to bring in rationing), and that leaving is "the will of the people" and that "the referendum must be respected".

    In short the benefits were either vague or incorrect, and now it's about how the referendum must be respected regardless of cost.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Interesting=2, Informative=3, Total=5
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @11:49AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @11:49AM (#889489)

    This is hilarious because my friend was in the UK during the vote and wasnt told a single thing you just mentioned. The narrative of the fake news you listen to changed and you think other people are stupid because of that.

    It was unelected bureaucrats passing down endless annoying regulations with "unintended" consequences they were too clueless to foresee. The end.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @03:51PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @03:51PM (#889570)

      I couldn't really parse what you wrote, but I was in the UK at the time, too, and I saw the Brexit Bus most prominently on the television.

      Also, anyone with the slightest clue about all the functions that have been centralised in the EU to achieve harmonization and cost savings, everything from flight traffic control to the Europol to medical and food safety and a hundred others, would have instantly realized quitting all those deals and building up the whole thing from scratch for yourself in the name of "sovereignity" would not in a million years save any money. The other option of leaving but still adhearing to those standards set by the EU would be the complete opposite of sovereignity. But then again, it's been clear from the very beginning that the brexiteers are not particularly bright. Too bad the Remain campaign also did the worst possible job of highlighting these facts.

      • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @05:46PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @05:46PM (#889607)

        Yes, you seem much more intelligent than the strawmen your news sources apparently made up for you. Brexit bus? No one I heard about cared about a "brexit bus". How about you exit your echo chamber and go talk to real people.

        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:43PM (1 child)

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:43PM (#889636) Journal

          The name is not the thing. AFAIK it wasn't called "the BREXIT bus" until it hit court, but it was a real event, and it may an actual false claim that was known to be false at the time it was made by the people making it. (Well, as least the top levels.) The court just decided that lying to the electorate wasn't a crime.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:08PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:08PM (#889648)

            And no one cared about that non issue

    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 04 2019, @09:16PM

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday September 04 2019, @09:16PM (#889694)

      This is hilarious because my friend was in the UK during the vote and wasnt told a single thing you just mentioned.

      Then your friend is either an idiot or wasn't paying attention.

      Assuming he or she exists.

  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by janrinok on Wednesday September 04 2019, @05:29PM (2 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 04 2019, @05:29PM (#889598) Journal

    fishermen will be fucked if we leave with no deal

    Not true at all. British waters become outside the zone of EU fishermen. The UK will have very rich fishing grounds under their own control again and it considerably helps British fishermen.

    the £350 million will be more than offset by the costs of leaving

    Partly true. The £350 million is quite a bit less (about half) but it would still be a saving for the UK. Whether that will be enough to offset the falling £ remains to be seen, but much of that is caused by business uncertainty not by one result or the other.

    it turns out we aren't able to keep all the benefits of EU membership with none of the costs

    The UK will not be able to keep all of the benefits, but that doesn't mean they will have none. Both Germany and France actually want to have trade deals with the UK, but would prefer them to be under EU rules.

    The bottom line is that the people were asked to vote, they did so, and the politicians then changed the rules of what leaving actually meant. This is a serious threat to democracy. Parliament is meant to be there to carry out the will of the country, usually by people voting for one manifesto or another. But this has shown that the politicians don't actually care what the public voted for, they all want to feather their own nests. All sides in the UK parliament are looking after their own political interests and not the interests of the people who voted - the majority of which voted leave. If people now claim that 'they didn't know what it would entail' then they should have thought about it a bit more deeply. But those remainers, who are only slightly less in number than Brexiteers, can see a path to get their own way now despite having already lost the vote. For them, it is a case of we will keep on voting until you vote for the right choice. The majority believe that they already have done so.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @10:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @10:50PM (#889726)

      > The UK will have very rich fishing grounds under their own control

      LOL - if you think the nearshore and 20km-range fisheries around the UK are "very rich" you don't know shit about fish. In very rich fishing grounds, the sea is silver. That's not hyperbole, talk to a real commercial fisherman (not a river hipwader). If you've seen dive videos of schools of fish, that is rich fishing grounds. If there were schools like that within UK waters they'd very quickly be hoovered up by contemporary factory fishboats.

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday September 04 2019, @11:26PM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 04 2019, @11:26PM (#889736) Journal

        they'd very quickly be hoovered up by contemporary factory fishboats.

        Or fleets of European fishing boats who have been given the right to fish there by the EU. That is precisely what has happened. How much has the UK fishing fleet declined by since they lost the sole access to the traditional UK fishing grounds?