I’m just leaving this here as I’m not going to try and keep a running commentary on this as it would take up to much of my day to distil any sort of sense out of what’s happening at the moment. I’ll try and do that this evening when we know what people might actually be voting on.

Suffice it to say that it’s utterly bizarre and a sign of just how broken politics is tin the UK that we’re not allowed a second referendum on a decision that was made with a majority of 52/48 (and let’s not even get into the criminality and the fiddles inherent in that vote) yet Teresa May is pushing for Parliament to be given a THIRD chance to vote on her deal, despite it having been rejected TWICE, once by a majority of 231 and the second time by 149!

18:33

The votes are over and the farce continues, only now it’s guaranteed to last even longer as Teresa May is having to go back to the EU and ask for an extension of Article 50 beyond the 29th March, the date we were meant to be leaving. After watching some of the charade in Parliament and the votes on various amendments I only have one conclusion. Half the people in Parliament are certifiable. They have no sense of shame at what they’re putting this country through or the absolute shambles they’re making of it. Businesses must have their heads in their hands as they haven’t got a clue where they stand. Our EU neighbours must be looking on with a mix of bemusement and horror at the fact Parliament still can’t work out what it wants to do about Brexit.

So, what do we know? Two things. We know that Teresa May will be making another attempt to get her deal through Parliament next week in a ‘third time lucky’ bid. We also know that she’ll be going cap in hand to the EU summit to ask for an extension of Article 50.

What don’t we know? We don’t know if she’ll get her deal through Parliament on the third attempt so we don’t know what position she’ll be in when she goes to the EU summit. We also don’t know how long and extension of article 50 the EU will agree to give us, or even they’ll agree – as it needs unanimity from all 27 members. If her deal fails again, an extension until June is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Still, we’ve ‘taken back control’ eh? God help us, as each day passes that slogan becomes more and more hollow.

The tragic thing about today’s votes was that MPs rejected a cross-party plan to allow MPs to take control of the Brexit process by the tiny margin of two. My particular ire is directed at the old Labour dinosaurs like Dennis Skinner and the mad Kate Hoey, who voted with the government. Once this mess is finally put to bed I fervently hope there’s a reckoning at the ballot box…

Meanwhile, the agony and uncertainty continue. I wonder how many more businesses are triggering their relocation plans now?

Following yesterday’s political theatre in Parliament, today brings part 2 of the farce. MPs are to be given a ‘free’ vote on the no-deal scenario. There’s just one tiny problem, it’s all utterly pointless. The BBC has reported that the wording of the motion will be this.

“Declines to approve” is meaningless, as by simple operation of law, we crash out of the European Union on March 29th. MPs have already approved this by triggering article 50. Unless that’s revoked it’s automatic. Barrister David Allan Green (another long time legal observer of this shambles) explains.

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So, what now? How do we stop the Brexit clock ticking? No-one seems to have the answer to that other than by somehow hoping to move the hands on the clock back a few hours. Meanwhile, we have May still playing games by offering meaningless votes and ‘Magic Grandad’ Jeremy Corbyn pissing off more Labour MPs and supporters by blank refusing to carry out his own party policy and banging on pointlessly about a general election he’s unlikely to win. And all the time, the clock’s ticking…

The physical storm that’s battering the UK today is nothing to the economic one that our politicians, in their stupidity and weakness, have triggered, and unless something serious happens in the next two weeks, that storm will arrive at 11:00 on the 29th March 2019.

UPDATE.

Events move on and unfold. This tweet from investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr outlines the machinations going on behind the scenes from some of the spivs who funded the Leave campaign and who stand to benefit.

This was always the danger. The UK can ask for an extension of article 50, but it needs all the EU 27 to agree. Meanwhile, the EU is also making its position clear.

Now, can any Brexit supporter explain how any of this sounds like us taking back ‘control’? I’d love to know…

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE.

It’s now Wednesday evening and Parliament’s been voting. The farce turned into a circus as motioned were agreed, then withdrawn and amendments rose and fell. The upshot was explained by Robert Peston.

Or, as David Allan Green put it,

And there’s the issue. We now have Schrödinger’s ‘no deal’, where it’s been taken off the table whilst remaining on it.

Parliament has decided to reject ‘No Deal’ in a non binding vote. They’ve expressed their ‘will’ but no-one’s defused the Brexit bomb and the clock’s still ticking, with the thing due to explode on March 29th…

Today, Teresa May will (in front of the whole world, which is both agog and quietly laughing to itself), stick lipstick on her pig of a EU withdrawal agreement and try and sell it to Parliament, despite them having resoundingly rejected it only a few weeks earlier.

The lipstick is her claim that she’s secured ‘legally binding’ changes to it regarding the backstop. Anyone with half a brain can see this is nonsense, but such is the level of delusion in our politicians – and sections of the media, some will swallow it. Those in the  legal profession, such as the blogger David Allan Green haven’t. As he’s pointed out.

Will MPs fall for it? Who knows? It’s a farce that the whole of the UK and the rest of the EU is caught up in because our politicians have neither the guts nor brains to put a stop to it and say ‘this is madness’.

UPDATE.

The Attorney General has published his legal advice to the Government, which piles on Teresa May’s agony.

There is no ‘legally binding’ new agreement, that bollocks has been exposed. So, what now for May’s deal?

UPDATE, 19:26.

So, there we go. May’s ‘deal’ is dead. It was rejected in a vote by 391 to 242, that’s a majority of 149. There was a dull inevitability about this, the only question was how many votes would go against her. Now the farce continues tomorrow, with Parliament voting on a motion that could see ‘no deal’ finally taken off the table. It was always an empty threat that frightened no-one in the EU as they were always far more prepared for the consequences than we were as their politicians weren’t living in cloud-cuckoo land over what the consequences of such a step would be. Many of ours never were – and still aren’t.

What next? Despite the complete absence of a backbone in many MPs nowadays I really can’t see them voting for us to leave without a deal. They may be weak, they may be deluded, but the instinct for self-preservation and the knowledge that history would excoriate them must be felt in their bones.

It now looks like the can will continue to be kicked down the road, with the UK having to ask the EU for an extension of article 50. All the Brexiters claims of us ‘holding all the cards’ and having ‘taken back control’ are exposed for what they were. Lies. It’s up to the EU to decide if they will give us that extension. In theory, they could refuse. They could say, ‘Nah, we’re so sick of your childish political games and arrogance that it’s time you faced the consequences of your actions, so screw you’. They won’t of course, but as the ball’s in their court they can set the time limit on the extension. But, what if they did refuse to extend the time limit, and the UK’s MPs have voted that we can’t leave with no deal. What then?

“Take back control” eh?

Of course, there’s one huge problem with this scenario. That clock’s still ticking, as Jolyon Maugham QC has pointed out via Twitter.

For those of you who don’t know Jolyon, he’s a QC who’s been at the centre of some very interesting court cases around Brexit. We are not out of the Brexit woods yet. There is one delicious irony in all this. It could be the Brexit extremists in the ERG who (by rejecting May’s deal) might have just killed off any chance of Brexit.

As night follows day, the British media and Brexit supporters produced the all too predictable furore over Donald Tusk’s verbal (and Twitter) reality check yesterday. His comment, wondering what the special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit, provoked squeals of outrage from many of those who are guilty of exactly that. Farage, Andrea Jenkyns, Grant Shapps and Andrea Leadsom being amongst them.

Leadsom went on the BBC to say Tusk has “no manners”, which is weapons grade hypocrisy when you consider the anti EU rhetoric that’s come out of the pro-Brexit camp these past few years. The EU has been compared to both Nazi Germany and the Soviet union by these clowns, whilst newspapers like the Mail have labelled remain supporters as ‘traitors’.

Tusk has hit a nerve because he’s telling the truth – as the whole sorry shambles demonstrates. They NEVER HAD A PLAN, just bombast, bluster and downright lies – and now the chickens are coming home to roost and the blame game’s in full swing.

Today, the next part of the shambles will play out in Brussels, as Teresa May goes (cap in hand) to ask the EU to dig her out of the mess she’s helped create – because she HAS NO PLAN. She threw her negotiated agreement with the EU under a bus and now wants the EU to rescue her. Her claim to have a ‘mandate’ from Parliament will cut no ice in Brussels as the EU leaders have a mandate and instructions of their own – and they have the upper hand. This is what ‘take back control’ looks like away from the Brexiteers bluster. We gave control away just as soon as we triggered article 50 and set the clock running without having a clue what we wanted (just what we didn’t). All we had were May’s ‘red lines’ which had doomed us to failure from the beginning.

So, what will happen in Brussels today? Nothing of any substance, because May hasn’t got a plan. Oh, the language may be more diplomatic, but the EU isn’t going to offer anything that gets the UK off the Brexit hook. Why should they? This epic disaster is of our own making, not theirs, and they have other fish to fry – looking after the interests of their member states – which includes Ireland. We squandered our stock of goodwill a long time ago, we’re running on empty now.

No doubt the media will be full of speculation and poring over an interpreting (or, in some cases, spinning) whatever is said. It’ll keep them busy for a while producing acres of copy and pointless pieces to camera. Meanwhile, the clock continues ticking in the background as the day of reckoning gets closer and closer. Next week there’s another vote in the House of Commons. No doubt this will be yet another sorry farce as a bunch of people completely incapable of facing reality and the consequences of their decisions drag out our national humiliation to its awful conclusion. The only question now is how long this farce will drag on. Will they continue to fiddle whilst Rome burns, or faced with the awful reality that’s staring them (and us) in the face, will they finally discover their backbones? I wish I could say I was optimistic. Instead, I’m off to stock up on tins of chickpeas…

UPDATE. 13:18.

I’ve stopped for a coffee and logged onto the news to find out exactly what we knew was going to happen. May got nowhere in Brussels. Despite the warm words in a joint communique which carried the classic old line about ‘robust but constructive’ discussions, Junker has made it crystal clear (yet again, how many times does the poor sod have to say it?) that the withdrawal agreement is NOT for renegotiation. Words may be tinkered with, but that’s it. Talk about a waste of time. Here’s a copy of the statement.

Note the line that ‘President Junker drew attention to the fact that any solution would have to be agreed by the EU Parliament & EU27’. Does that sound like us having taken back ‘control’ to you?

The only noises that can be heard now are the sounds of a clock ticking and a can being kicked down the road.

The most depressing aspect about being back in the UK after a month in New Zealand is being trapped in a country about to do an economic and political RMS Titanic impression. Like the Titanic, many of us poor sods have no chance of a place in a lifeboat, so we’re expected to go down with the ship. Meanwhile, those in charge are busy denying responsibility for our course, or blaming the iceberg for existing, or are fighting over who gets to steer us into it…

Meanwhile, many people go about their daily lives oblivious to what’s happening as they’re not interested in politics, have little understanding of economics and care more about what’s happening to the characters in their favourite soap opera. All the while, the clock is ticking…

How many people understand that, unless our Government and the EU come to a deal by 29th March we automatically (by rule of law) crash out of the EU without a deal. Nor can we stop the article 50 clock unilaterally. The EU has to agree. This is what “taking back control” actually looks like. This is the cold hard reality behind all the bullshit and bluster from the Brexit camp and why the situation we’re in is such a sick joke. Not that those who foisted Brexit upon us are taking any responsibility for any of this. Oh, no. Some of the Brexit supporting MPs have dropped even the pretence of honesty and resorted to outright lying, even doubling down on the lie when exposed. Step forward Daniel Kawczynski, the Tory MP for Shrewsbury – as the Independent explains.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/daniel-kawczynskis-brexit-reparations-mp-germany-marshall-plan-lies-a8762361.html

People like him, Dominic Raab and Chris Grayling are busy making their excuses for the impending disaster by trying to pin the blame on the EU for its ‘intransigence’ in not rolling over and giving in to their impossible demands. The fact the EU made it’s position clear right from the very start by saying it wasn’t going to change the rules of the club for someone who’s leaving, and that our Government (and what passes for an ‘opposition’ nowadays, which is another sick joke) have wasted nearly three years in arguing with itself matters not. Oh, no. When the shit finally hits the fan none of them will accept responsibility.

Whilst this charade is playing out in Westminster, dark forces are active on social media, just like they were during the referendum. Someone (know one can establish whom) is spending 100’s of 1000s of £ on pro no-deal Facebook ads, whilst on Twitter a large number of bot accounts have sprung up pretending to be young people who voted Remain but now want to see no-deal because they’re sick of the way the EU is treating us. You can see where this is going, can’t you?

The picture looks very different in the EU, where the very people we’re meant to be spending the next several years negotiating ‘better’ access to the EU than we had are so thoroughly pissed off with the UKs time-wasting and posturing that Donald Tusk has just said this. Clearly, the EU is washing its hands of us, and who can blame them? We’ve proved ourselves a joke, time-wasters, nothing more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/uk_leaves_the_eu

Someone pass me a lifebelt, please…

UPDATE.

After typing this I saw more of the news coming out of Europe and the meetings the EU’s had with the Irish government. To my mind it’s clear that the EU position has hardened and their attention is on standing by and protecting Ireland. But who can blame them? The UK has proved it can’t be trusted to negotiate in good faith, after all, Theresa May even threw her own deal under a bus! Christ, have our politicians and those devious, lying Brexit promoters Tusk referred to got us into a mess – and no amount of their bravado, bombast & bullshit is going to get us out of it. As many of our politicians have still to find a backbone and stop this madness I can only see two options left. Either they will kick the can even further down the road by asking the EU for an extension of the article 50 timetable, or we crash out of the EU with no deal on March 29th.

I’ve a favour to ask…
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After a month in beautiful and progressive New Zealand it’s time to fly half-way around the planet to return to a country that’s busy trying to destroy itself: Britain.

We’ve been spared the daily madness of Brexit over here, although I have tried to keep abreast of what’s been happening. That’s been a challenge in itself as what’s been happening makes little sense. Today I checked the news to find that Parliament had voted to renegotiate the Irish border backstop in an utterly futile gesture as Parliament is without the power it up. The EU has made it crystal clear that the negotiations are over – as has the Irish government. The EU could be forgiven for asking “which bit of NO is it that you don’t understand”?

We look complete clowns who’re living in a dreamworld of their own creation. We’ve totally trashed our reputation and our standing on the world stage. All other countries can do is look on agog and feel sympathy for those of us who’re caught up in this madness.

Meanwhile, whilst our politicians fiddle, our economy burns. More and more companies are reaching for plan B and the lifeboats to get away from our sinking country before the clock stops ticking in 59 day time. Just 59 days – that’s all we have left now after our politicians (and quite a few voters) have wasted the past two and a half years pretending Unicorns exist, we’ve ‘taken back control’ and that ‘they’ really do need us more than we need them. Brexit is looking more and more like a death cult.

I dread to think what we’re returning to as the impression I’m getting out here and through social media is that many people haven’t got a clue what’s going on and don’t really care anymore (if they ever did). The cry of “just get on with it” (when they haven’t got a Scooby Doo what ‘it’ is) seems to echo around certain circles. My fear is when (far, far too late) the penny finally drops and the consequences of ‘it’ can no longer be denied, things are going to get messy – and possibly bloody.

The Brexit chickens are coming home to roost. Sadly, so are we – and I’m really not looking forward to it…

15:02 (USA time).

After a 12hr 30m flight we’re passing through the faff of US customs. Despite our baggage being checked in to Heathrow the Yanks insist you have to collect it and then check it in again, which is a bit stressful when your connection boards in an hour & the carousel breaks!