If there’s one thing that could unite the country behind May’s brexit plan…
(Reminds me of 2012, when the general, cynical mood of the nation was that the London Olympics was probably going to suck. Until Mitt Romney came over, said pretty much the same thing, and it felt like the entire country gave a collective “you what, mate?”, and resolved to make it a success.)
Can’t help laughing at what May must have thought when she read that Sun interview. She basically sold out on her credibility in the rest of Europe and her historicla reputation to butter up Trump in the hope that it would buttress up her standing with the Brexiteers and give her a success story she could wave around to counteract the bad economic news stories that shell suffer in the future.
And then he - of course - goes and opens his mouth… and right on top of her greatest crisis. He couldn’t do a better job if he wanted to destroy every last bit of credibility and authority she has… and it says a bit about how dumb he is, that I’m not even sure that this was his intent.
Which is especially ironic; for once he wasn’t deliberately lying.
After this made the rounds, Trump has called The Sun reporting “fake news”.
Why yes, of course, there’s a tape.
He’s not alone there.
Yes, but it is a bit ‘Pot, meet Kettle.’
It wasn’t his most helpful remark.
So last night, the government narrowly won a vote after adopting several eurosceptic wrecking amendments. (Many MPs, including the leader of the Liberal Democrats(!) were absent - the vote was not expected to be as close as it was). One government minister resigned by voting against the government, in order to defend the government’s original position.
The result is that HMG appear now to have made illegal their own negotiating position. I really don’t know how this can get more farcical, short of a general election.
Oh, and Vote Leave - whose board included many people such as Gove and Johnson - was found to have breached spending rules, fined the maximum amount, and has been referred to the police.
It’s only Tuesday.
May a month ago: “There’s far too much legislation to be changed by Brexit day for parliament to have any meaningful say in it”
May today: “Fuck it, let’s all go on holiday early.”
This is all starting to feel a bit desperate.
Four Labour rebels vote against opposition policy, keeping the government in place. Tory rebels had been threatened with a GE if they rebelled (12 still did). No idea what happens now, when UK negotiating position has been made illegal by its own government.
Hard Brexit is what is most likely to happen, crazy as it might be…
Lots of rumours floating about that the EU are starting to think just that.
Remarkable if true.
Pairs don’t in general apply to 3 line whips. It appears that these “maternity leave” pairings were intended to, but it’s all typically informal and vague.
It’s a little rich of the LDs to assume that mistakes made by other parties whips on this vote were down to treachery.
The Lords will strip these amendments out at least once anyway.
Well, MP in question has apologised and blamed whips for getting it wrong.
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t help the government’s serious lack of trust right now.
It’s not like cheating is all that frowned upon in this Brexit situation, so…
The Times says it was deliberate.
The EU has released more documents - related to how member states should prepare for both an arranged withdrawal, and a no-deal scenario.