The argument against having a second referendum (now we have finally realised how utterly blind we were for the first) has always been 'You can't keep going back and asking the same question over and over again until the voters get it right'.
That argument works both ways. Theresa May is going to go back to Parliament to put her 'deal' to the Commons in an unaltered form for the 3rd (or is it 4th - I've lost track) time, having been instructed to by the EU.
An indication of how arrogant and incompetent she is was when she publicly blamed MPs for causing the mess we are in by not signing up to the 'deal' which she keeps putting to a free vote and which keeps getting rejected by all parties - including members of her own cabinet. She must have sacked her PR advisor to make such a stupid tactical mistake.
She's just come back from Brussels with the EU's ultimatum. We can have a short extension so long as Parliament accepts the Chequers arrangements. What would be the point of further prolonging the misery with an exit extension if Parliament agrees to the lousy deal?
A Frenchman (and a German, and a Belgian) said this morning that she was 'a tough lady' who has forced the EU into agreeing to such a generous deal - a deal which was over 2 wretchedly boring years in the making.
I can just see her now, about to leave the conference room in Brussels, her hand on the doorknob as she turns to the handful of sleep-deprived Europeans slumped at the table: "Oh, and I think that one of you ought to say to the press that I am a tough lady to deal with. That might help".
Ok, move over all you bigoted racists in UKIP. Nigel's back, and the first thing he is going to do is organise a cross-party rally in London to force the government to FUCKING WELL LEAVE EUROPE! NOW! HE MEANS IT!
Meanwhile, back on the Parliamentary website, there is a petition to revoke Article 50 which has been signed by over 2,600,000,000 people - and rising. Farage says that the signatories are mainly Russian so it doesn't count.
All over Europe, governments are looking forward to (or dreading) dealing with the massive backlog of legislation which has been postponed to endlessly discuss the UK's little attempt to flounce out of the club without settling the bill.
Corbyn refused to join Brexit talks this week because he didn't want to be in the same room as Umunna. That just about sums it all up. We voted to leave and however much you bang on about it, leave is what we should have done by now and no ifs and no buts.
ReplyDeleteIt is has become like a piece of Conceptual art for which the idea behind the work is more important than the finished object and the attention span of the viewer is almost non existent and can be judged without actually seeing the work unlike a painting and can be summed up as "I love the idea" and then forgotten about.
DeleteI'm going to have to think about that. I don't need to think about you banging on about how we voted to leave so leave we must, though.
Delete'No ifs, no buts'? Are you serious?! We have been trying to unravel the ifs and buts since the beginning.
DeleteThe point is there should have been no ifs and no buts.
DeleteThere were never any 'what ifs'.
DeletePeople might have voted leave but many had no idea about the implications. A bit like thinking climate change is a hoax!
ReplyDeleteI think there is a correlation between climate change deniers and Brexiteers - and Trumpists...
DeleteWhat a clear, clever and carefully considered ultimatum from the EU. I wish our politicians were as able.
ReplyDeleteWhat else are they supposed to do? They are as scared as any other sensible people would be. This is not a game which will be over by bedtime. It will outlast my lifetime.
DeleteIt's absolutely not a game; e.g. I mentioned today that with no deal, car dealerships could fail with thousands of job losses (car prices increase by import duty plus decline in currency). Met with denial. Met with complacency.
DeleteCar dealerships are of no concern to the government. They are trying to comply with EU air quality laws which rely on cars which will be built in the Far East. The dealerships will always survive.
DeleteReferendums are only advisory not law. Theresa May voted Remain so why would she want Brexit? Churchill always wanted a united states of Europe too.
ReplyDeleteThe EU was originally a common market then the EEC guarded against the almighty $. The rot set in when Brussels legislated for 28 countries at the same time. The way things are going we will have to continue to abide by those rules without having any say in their making when/if we finally leave. We could have had a voice and a choice.
DeleteWe will be out of European Cup football too. Will we still watch it? Will we have the rights to watch it? Could we afford the TV rights?
ReplyDeleteIfs and buts...
DeleteYou really get into this scaremongering hook line and sinker dont you. Have the BBC been feeding you this? And since when have you cared about football anyway?
DeleteHa ha. Got you.
DeleteI am sure that history is written by the winners (of the conflict) so it will always be that the EU has 'won'. Many of us voted to leave so that the EU would NOT be dominant over our country. Thanks to May and her Civil Servants and Advisors we have got exactly what the EU wanted rather than what a slender majority of the British people wanted. The worst of all possible results.
ReplyDeleteWhat were you expecting Potty? The EU to give everything that our hearts desire? 3 years on and you still don't get it.
DeleteNow we are blaming the EU are we? It is our fault we haven't walked away by now.
DeleteOh sorry I forgot. It's your job to blame the EU - or it has been for the last 2 years. You carry on.
DeleteI don't know what you are talking about. I have blamed many named individuals in the House of Commons for the position we are in and I have named many cunts in the EU for my reason for wanting to get out of the EU but I have never blamed the EU for the negotiating position we are in a the moment. Like Potty I believe that is entirely of our own making. I repeat, it is our fault we haven't walked away by now.
DeleteYou are absolutely right. It is the fault of those who voted leave ...for ridiculous reasons. Getting their country back!
DeleteUnknown - do me a favour. At least give yourself a name and persona, even if it is a false one like mine. This place is creepy enough as it is without shadowy people responding to other's comments in my place. I can fight my own corner thank you.
DeleteHaving said the above to whoever it is, I have to say that we did indeed make our own bed in which we now have to lie. Well, you lot made it for us actually. Your pencil hovered over the two boxes at the polling station before your mischievous side took over and it landed on 'Leave'. I know this is true, and I know you leavers will continue to blame every other fucker for your own ill thought-out, piss-poor judgement, if 'judgement' it could ever be called.
I am not feeling very sympathetic toward you at the moment, and I think this state of mind is set to continue for quite a while, even if you do contact me five times a day with rants about our fellow bloggers who you call friends.
And what sort of a backlog have we here hardly dare ask?
ReplyDeleteMountains of it. People have actually died waiting.
DeleteThat Revoke Article 50 petition has reached around 4 million as I write this. The fat lady is still singing.
ReplyDeleteDo you know - reading through all of the above Tom has made me think that we are all no better than that lot in the House of Commons. We just can't argue sensibly and reasonably - it has just become a free for all.
ReplyDeleteI agree Weave. I cannot think of a time when the House of Commons has represented us so accurately. There is no leadership.
DeleteIt's 7-20 and I have vacillated around here since maybe six. All post m, since you may ask. I want to say something; I don't know what. May is shooting herself in the foot. Trump isn't harming himself, hating McCain, who saved Obama care, and gave Trump the greased slide to his 2020 base. Now, Publish.
ReplyDeleteShe shot herself in the foot but we shot ourselves in the head. It is possible to survive though. My erstwhile dentist did.
DeleteI suspect that May is working WITH Brussels, not AGAINST them. She will present their deal one more time, and it will be voted down. Then, when she quits, and we remain in the EU, she'll be able to say to the Brexiteers "You had your chance, and rejected it", and she'll have won her bid to stay part of the EU. She'll probably end-up a Saint.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be right, but the damage already done will not be undone in our lifetimes.
Delete