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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.
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
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:22AM (10 children)
The freedom for the country to decide its own path, similar to an individual emancipating himself from their parents?
It is what the British electorate has democratically decided they want.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday September 04 2019, @08:12AM (5 children)
Kinda like when a child "runs away from home" for half an hour or so (to the back yard, generally) because he wants ice cream instead of peas, only to discover that the back yard offers neither ice cream nor peas? Only in this case, they discover that the locks are changed and the porch light is off after the half hour?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @09:05AM
More like when an adult gets married, then decides to get a divorce, then realizes that their spouse walks the dog and buys the groceries. Oh no! Now we're going to have to do that all ourselves? We'll be ruined. Ruined, I tell you. Wait... she gets the dog? All good then.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:24PM (3 children)
Britain ruled the world before. Your "child" talk has no connection to reality.
If any country has shown themselves to be capable of navigating themselves on the seas of nations, it would be the UK.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @08:17PM
Any amounts of wishful thinking can not bring back neither the long-gone people, nor the long-gone economic situation.
(Score: 1) by Akemi Homura on Thursday September 05 2019, @01:53AM
And do you forget what has changed since Britain ruled the world? It has been nearly a century. There was no global communications infrastructure, no routine international travel in the span of hours or days, and most countries were Iron-Age or early Industrial-Age at best. Britain was also horrendously cruel to many of its colonies. Why do you wish to recreate these times of suffering and ignorance?
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday September 05 2019, @05:45AM
I might buy that if they had something like preparation or a plan. Apparently, the current 'plan' being pushed is "no need for a plan, pack nothing, just start walking".
It's going to be hard to navigate anything when the maps, compass, and sextant have been left behind. And you better believe there will be a morale problem when the crew finds out that there are no rations and worse, no rum.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @09:21AM (3 children)
Slight technical correction, UK electorate (NI isn't geographically part of Great Britain), but yes, and all this shite about the 'Deal' is something the politicians added after the fact, we voted on the question of leave, not leave with a deal, but leave...the politicos never wanted Brexit and thought the sheep would swallow their pro-EU propaganda and vote accordingly...but the sheep didnt vote as expected, so they've done their best to 'spanner' the process ever since.
The 'democratic will of the people' has been subverted by the 'sovereign rights of parliament'.
'We, the people' (to borrow a phrase) voted to leave, and that should have been..end of fucking story...alas, the machinations of perfidious quisling politicians...
It's a farce, mind you, there are political silver linings...showing the world the that UK parliamentary democracy is a sham, destruction of the Labour party (a lot of their voters want out of the EU, though you wouldn't think that listening to the MPs, and these voters will have taken note of their actions) destruction of the Tories (always something to be applauded on general principals), dissolution of the act of union (finally...thank fuck)
Of course, there are political downsides, the fuckwits in the Liberal party now think they're important again..and then there's Farage & co..the Little 'Engurlunders' Party..
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @03:40PM (1 child)
Yes, and Vote Leave made all kinds of promises about how leaving wouldn't hurt trade in the slightest, how the new deal with the EU would be the easiest deal ever, how the UK would hold all the cards, etc. That's what people voted for, because that's what the leave option was presented to them as.
Now that reality has turned out to be quite different from all the lies, do you agree We The People should have a chance to say if we still think leaving is a good idea? I think so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:00PM
They never left... reality turned out to be that voting doesn't mean shit in the UK.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04 2019, @09:03PM
It was a non-binding resolution that most people didn't give two shits about, because it was a non-binding resolution. Then it barely squeaked over the finish line. Now you people cry "the will of the people"??
Maybe if it WAS a binding resolution AND it passed by MUCH more than just a few percent, then you can talk about the will of the people and democratic rule, etc. It was basically just a big Facebook like/dislike quiz.