United Kingdom

NDPP wrote:

PM Theresa May is set to make an important announcement shortly in front of # 10. Some speculate an election call. We shall see.

Doubt she'd call an election since she said she wouldn't run in one.  Could step down though.

epaulo13 wrote:

Carole Cadwalladr‏Verified account @carolecadwalla

Last week @arron_banks & @andywigmore went to Veneto, the heartland of Italy's Lega Nord. Today, the plan is revealed. The fascists have agreed to help Britain exit without a deal. Salvini will block an extension of article 50. We're fucked.

..this could be at play as well.

Quote:

The fascists have agreed to help Britain exit without a deal. Salvini will block an extension of article 50.

There's still a deal waiting on the table with a nearby pen.  And I think the EU has made it abundantly clear that there won't be any new negotiations, so how would vetoing an extension change Britain's choices?

If we assume that the EU is, in fact, uninterested in starting negotiations for a new agreement, and if we also assume that UK lawmakers will never approve the deal that's on the table, then isn't that what's really forcing a "no deal" Brexit?

How is 3 more months supposed to change that?

..there is another option whereby to avoid no deal brexit the politicians will come to a soft brexit arrangement by the 29th. 

EU Ultimatum to May: You Can Only Delay Brexit If Deal is Passed

https://youtu.be/X2kfDz-t1Jg

"...The European Union should at last admit that it is responsible for Brexit also. Because Britain joined a football club and these buggers started to play hockey. Britain was always in favour of competitiveness and shared responsibility and it was the European Union that changed the game towards more concentration, socialization and so on. The European Union should recognize that that Brexit really hurts them because Brexit means, as if 19 small and medium-sized countries leave at the same time. And Britain is still the largest single customer of the EU ahead of China and the United States.' - Hans-Olaf Henkel, MEP

"The British people voted to leave the European Union. It's D minus 9, and by Friday of next week we could well have left the European Union. In which case we would have kept our word to 17.4 million people who instructed us as MPs to do exactly that.

We're not going to vote for this Agreement under any circumstances because we read it and it means we don't leave the European Union. When you read it, what it tells you is that we REMAIN half in and half out of the EU, which is why we cannot possibly vote for it because that betrays the votes of 17.4 million people..."

Corbyn not ruling out revoking article 50 to avoid no-deal Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn has refused to rule out seeking to revoke article 50 to prevent Britain from sliding into a no-deal Brexit, as senior EU officials privately talked up the possibility before a crunch summit in Brussels.

Speaking outside the European commission headquarters in Brussels, the Labour leader insisted his focus “at the moment” remained on trying to push the prime minister into a soft Brexit.

“These are hypotheticals,” Corbyn said in response to reporters’ questions over cancelling Brexit. “So far as we’re concerned we think there’s an urgency in constructing a majority for an agreeable solution and that’s what we’re concentrating on at the moment.”

Corbyn was holding talks with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, and Martin Selmayr, the European commission’s secretary general, before Theresa May’s arrival at a leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday.....

Britain proposes to weaken environmental protection after Brexit

The British government has proposed to weaken environmental oversight as part of its plan to leave the European Union, creating a situation that critics say will leave serious gaps, especially if the United Kingdom plunges into a no-deal scenario.

quote:

The national Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has described its bill as "world-leading." But professional planners, the House of Lords and environmental groups disagree. In fact, they say that, if adopted, the bill would weaken environmental protections.

For example, the new bill would create an England-only environmental watchdog who would have less powers and independence than the EU's oversight system, they say.

The EU's executive arm, the EU Commission, currently has the power to levy hefty fines on the U.K. and take it to the European Court of Justice when it breaks environmental law. It exercised that power in 2018 when it referred the U.K. to court for failing to reduce dangerous air pollution levels.

Britain’s official departure date from the European Union has long been planned for March 29, but that could change next week, given that no withdrawal agreement has been approved by Parliament. British Prime Minister Theresa May has failed twice to get the Brexit deal she has negotiated with Brussels past her parliamentary colleagues, suffering the biggest defeat by a sitting government in history on the first try in January.

The government has done extensive preparations for Brexit, including the proposal of new environmental legislation to replace the current system of environmental principles and governance set out by the EU.

But that bill is yet to go through Parliament, and if the U.K. plunges into a "no-deal" scenario, it isn't clear what would be in place to protect the environment.

When asked by National Observer on how it intends to address the potential environmental gaps caused by a potentially chaotic no-deal Brexit scenario, the British government declined to comment.

A government spokesman would only say that it planned to introduce "interim measures” in the event of a no-deal Brexit. But he declined to share details of what those measures might be....

epaulo13 wrote:

Petition to revoke article 50 exceeds 1m signatures amid site crashes

More than a million people have signed a plea for article 50 to be revoked. The list of names grew so rapidly on Thursday that the parliamentary petition website crashed several times.

The petition began gaining signatures on Wednesday evening after Theresa May criticised MPs for not approving her Brexit deal. When the site first crashed on Thursday the petition had received almost 600,000 signatures and was growing at a rate of 1,500 a minute.

At about 9am a message appeared stating that the site was “down for maintenance” and asking users to “please try again later”.

A House of Commons spokesperson told the Guardian: “The petitions site is experiencing technical difficulties and we are working to get it running again urgently. It has been caused by a large and sustained load on the system.”......

Petitions count.  Votes don’t, apparently.

I guess the best spin you can put on Corbyn’s actions is that it is politically smart.  Because I know in his heart of hearts he doesn’t like the EU.

If they hold the election on Monday and swear-in Prime Minister Corbyn on Tuesday then that leaves Wednesday for the vote, and by Thursday he could be on his way to Brussels to force the EU to re-open negotiations.  Plenty of time.

TBH, I think Labour has to share the blame for Brexit arrangements becoming a fustercluck.  I think they've been trying to game Brexit into a snap election since pretty much the last snap election. 

Taking Brexit seriously would have meant so much more time for actually doing it right.  That's why the whole deadline extension is such a non-starter -- both sides are just going to use whatever time they're given to bicker, and to fight over 10 Downing, not to actually sit down and iron out some sort of (probably impossible) consensus.

I thought it was put to the people.

The only way out is by adhering to the vote of the people and leaving on March 29.

Looks like before summer May will no longer be PM.

No I idea.  But there has been a determined effort to negate the results of the vote since the day after it took place.

May, Corbyn in Brussels for Brexit

https://youtu.be/nMv7e2xizjQ

"As long as May is PM, there's only two deals on the table. Hers and no deal."

EU Grants Britain a Short Extension on Brexit Plans

European Union officials have offered the United Kingdom a short extension for its plans to leave the EU. European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday he’ll roll back the deadline for Brexit from March 29 to April 12—but only if British lawmakers approve a Brexit plan they’ve already rejected twice.

Donald Tusk: “The U.K. government will still have a choice of a deal, no deal, a long extension or revoking Article 50. The 12th of April is a key date in terms of the U.K. deciding whether to hold European Parliament elections. If it has not decided to do so by then, the option of a long extension will automatically become impossible.”

JKR wrote:

josh wrote:

No I idea.  But there has been a determined effort to negate the results of the vote since the day after it took place.

Some would argue that during the referendum there was a determined effort by the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson to lie to the UK people in order to put the Leave side a tiny bit over the finish line. Maybe Nigel and Boris will still win the day?

As opposed to the lies on the other side?

Meet the Lexiteers

http://tinyurl.com/yxvhse9e

Alice Bragg travelled to Doncaster in Yorkshire to meet a group of left-wing Leave voters.

NDPP wrote:

Meet the Lexiteers

http://tinyurl.com/yxvhse9e

Alice Bragg travelled to Doncaster in Yorkshire to meet a group of left-wing Leave voters.

..i get these folk. i believe i understand what they are saying. but there is absolutely zero evidence presented that going out under a tory brexit or a tory no deal brexit will fix any of it. maybe you can explain the process that will take place that will make things better. not just by arguing that the eu is bad but a process that takes place within the uk beginning with the tory brexit..please.

..that's an opinion josh. not a fact.

@epaulo13:

I support and respect the decision of the majority of the British people as already expressed in their decision by referendum to leave the EU. I must admit I am surprised to find you opposing their democratic choice, and instead advocating for a neoliberal supranational prison like the EU. There is no hope there.  Suggest you review my TRNN posting of Costas Lapavitsas in hopes  he may help you see the wrongheadedness of your present alignment.  On the bright side, the ultimate decision is neither yours nor mine to make.

There was indeed organization and the  'positive outcome' was a majority result in a historic referendum that promised to take Britain out of the ghastly neoliberal monstrosity that is the EU, and which has now been betrayed by a collaborating political class consisting of all the usual suspects, big capital, big media, the two main political parties, and the useful idiots they've deluded into going along with this anti-democratic subversion. That these include those who self-identify as 'progressives' is just another sad sign of the times.

josh wrote:

epaulo13 wrote:

..so far

Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU.

The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU. A People's Vote may not happen - so vote now.

3,360,250 signatures

https://mobile.twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1108866881992253441

If Article 50 is revoked, and the majority who voted to leave have their vote nullified, the bitterness it will engender in those voters will lead many of them to look for anti-democratic alternatives.  Parties and individuals that will make UKIP look like the Liberal party of yore.  

Why not have a referendum to see if the majority still support Brexit now that the ramifications of Brexit are much clearer. Maybe only 1 in 3 now support Brexit after seeing what it’s actually about?

josh wrote:

We’ve been over and over this.  This has been an issue for UK voters for nearly 50 years.  They knew what leave meant when they voted to leave,

Maybe they should be able to decide if they’ve been duped or not?