The UK Parliament has just passed the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) legislation by a vote of 329-299. The Withdrawal Agreement Legislation is passed. But hold on to your hats. Now the program motion also has to be passed for this to work, which relates to the timetable.
The UK Parliament has rejected the program motion by a vote of 308-322. So the shenanigans continue. PM Johnson has "Paused" the legislation as a result. It is not altogether clear to me what the implications of this move are within the UK Parliamentary system.
I have just now been watching the UK Parliament making statements and asking questions about this. They are not clear on what happens next either. When the EU sees that WAB has actually passed the UK Parliament, hopefully without the bunch of them having a collective coronary, it would be great if they would propose a 30 day extension. That would suggest that we might actually be nearing the end of this thing. Then the UK Parliament could send this bill through committee in an orderly manner. At this moment, I am beginning to suspect that Johnson wants the EU to offer a very short extension before he returns with a proposal for a longer program motion, that could be accomplished within that period (perhaps 30 days). Of course the problem with that is that the EU does not want Brexit and neither do many members of the UK Parliament. So while I hope these people will allow this to happen, so far they have not been very cooperative.
If he got his tubby ass beat on television he would not become a legend. He would be the fat guy that couldn't gather popular sentiment and the ass beating would be symbolic of that.
This is my understanding: Yesterday's WTA "passing" is hollow and without meaning without approval of the legislation. That's why the government wanted to pass ALL the laws in 3 days. Because of the Letwin amendment , the parliament doesn't actual ratify the WTA until and unless all relevant laws pass. There will be amendment after amendment proposed now that in effect changes what "passed" yesterday. Now things are heading not to Johnson's brexit deal passing any time soon, but to General Elections. And if there is a new government? Then they can say "oh we want to start all the negotiating all over again from the beginning with the EU". So the EU, is completely justified to want a longer extension so they can even know who they negotiating with. This is today's headline: "Boris Johnson's bill in limbo as Labour could back general election"
Noone should blame anyone here for not understanding what is going on when the protagonists themselves most of the time ,don't either. If anything, you have been trying, reading up information and articles and educating yourself more and more on a completely different political system and constitution. So I commend you on that. You may have some incentives and ideas that I completely disagree with, but learning and educating yourself is always good. It also makes us better citizens of our own countries to have a broader viewpoint of international politics. I am sure any american that has been following Brexit for example, has learned to appreciate their own costitution more and more since at the very least.. it is actually written down . Something that we have all been taking for granted.
What? I am not the one continuing to add to this thread and claiming to know everything about Brexit. but Mojo should probably brush up.
As you know very well, I have never claimed to "Know everything about Brexit". In fact, I have been in the process of 'Brushing up" on this subject for over three years now. While I will be the first to admit there is a lot about all of this I do not know and that I still have a lot to learn, if there is anyone here on this forum who is clearly more knowledgeable about this subject than I am at this point, it is not clear to me at all who that might be. And I am quite confident that I know a good bit more about all of this than you do.
So the word on the street is that the EU is considering a "flexible" extension up to no more than January 31, 2020, which is what the UK Parliament had originally requested. EU signals it is likely to give UK a Brexit delay up to 31 January The EU is set to accept the Boris Johnson’s reluctant request for a Brexit delay up to 31 January with the option of leaving earlier after Donald Tusk said he would recommend to heads of state and government that they sign it off without need for a summit. This is shorter than what we might have expected, especially since the EU offered a longer extension than the UK Parliament requested last time around. Of course this is just what the press is reporting. They have also reported that French President is poised to veto any extension, and that he is only supporting an extension of a few weeks in length. Of course last time he also threatened to veto any extension, but when it came time to decide, he rubber stamped the six month extension that the EU Counsel ultimately proposed. If the EU does respond with a three month extension, I suspect that this will be a disappointment to Labour and the other anti-Brexit parties in the UK.
