What a colossal waste of time.
Err... I hope...
Of course, this doesn't stop No Deal from happening, because it happens automatically on March 29th unless something changes... but it does ensure that it will be a complete and utter shitshow which will naturally be blamed entirely on Brexit supporters by the UK press.
So that's basically the state of UK politics.
NB I have no idea what is going to happen over the next while.
You’re not alone, FWIW. I’m pretty sure literally nobody knows how this is going to play out.
So what happens now? If half the torys are already against this, there doesn't seem much of a chance of this passing. May has ruled out a second referendum (I know I shouldn't take her word for it, but I cant see her now announcing a 2nd referendum). So what now? She steps down/ is pushed. Then A) A Brexiteer takes us out without a deal. B) No one wants to take responsibility for removing us and calls a 2nd ref. C) election called. Then back to square one? This is the option I'm most worried about. Labour doesn't seem ready to stand on a manifesto of remain. The lib Dems wont be able to get a majority, so brexiting parties will win by default, except we have no idea who. And they wont have anytime to do anything.
Did I miss one?
Edit: Spellong
But since May won't get anything through parliament, it's probably a moot point.
YouGov poll on labour voters would suggest caution on Mr Corbyn's part.
I voted remain mainly because I could not see how UK could dis-engage from local markets and just-in-time processes without significant turbulence. Corbyn gave EU 6.5/10 marks, I personally would score around 5.5/10 or 6/10 mainly because of the treatment of Greece.
Basically, like on Slackware when you misconfigure something, 'stormy weather ahead'
He should have the self awareness that trying that could result in Labour collapsing like the LibDems did.
There is a lot said about Jeremy Corbyn and I've noticed that a lot of the mainstream media (even left-wing like the Guardian) are very against him and have been vocal about everything he stands for, which I find interesting. This article,
https://www.politico.eu/article/jeremy-corbyn-brexit-referen...
from 2016 says that he thought at that time we should stay in EU and this does align with what I remember of that time. He was widely quoted as saying that although EU needs to change, we should stick with it and help change it from within.
I'm torn on Brexit.
If Britain stays in the European Union, then it won't have a lot of power to manage her borders. The "liberalness" of Britain's immigration policy ends up being at minimum the liberalness of each of the other 27 EU countries. Germany could let in 1 million immigrants (good for them), all of them would get citizenship, all of them can go to the UK, the UK can't say to any of them "Hold on a minute. Are you even a fit?"
Also, this kind of unrestricted immigration is a historical anomaly. 100s of years ago, it took too long to travel from one place to another, and so people who lived far away were more different to each other. It's not clear whether throwing all the borders open will result in something stable that will last for centuries.
It's also a colossal experiment. If the experiment doesn't work out (see the above paragraph) then 28 countries pay the price. The UK will be deeply affected because it's an immigrant magnet, due to its high living standards, a lot of employment opportunities, and a widely spoken national language; something might happen to Romania and Poland, given that much of their population has apparently emigrated. If the experiment turns out bad, then multiply the impact by 28 for each of the 28 countries.
And there was a recent article on HN about an EU law that says newspaper headlines are going under copyright. Again, mistakes like this affect 500 million people (the citizens of the EU) and 28 different countries. This is a monoculture, which is bad in nature; why not in politics? The Ottoman monoculture might have been one of the things that set the Middle East / North Africa back. For instance, the Ottomans banned printing (in Arabic). How would that have been good for science? And China's another famous empire/union (monoculture), in which one emperor dissolved their fleet, which was the most advanced at the time, impacting their trade, and preventing them from settling elsewhere. How is a European, or even a globalised monoculture, any better?
On the other hand, I can see how the immediate economic impacts of Brexit might be bad.
The UK has (and always has had) complete exemption from EU common immigration policy. The EU is not able to dictate immigration controls to the UK. If you have a problem with how the UK handles non-EU immigration then it is the fault of UK government policy, not the EU.
The complete exception from common immigration policy of the UK (along with Ireland and in some matters Denmark) is laid out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2009).
EDIT: to clarify -- I am referring to non-EU immigration here, not freedom-of-movement for EU citizens.
That's patently false. The EU doesn't prohibit (justified) immigration restrictions, and that sort of immigrant wave would be grounds for imposing restrictions.
This only applies to workers, which roughly means that if they have a genuine job there. Historically, the UK has had more relaxed rules, I believe allowing pretty much indefinite leave to remain without work for EU citizens, but there is no requirement for the UK to allow that under the EU's "Freedom of movement".
Well, I was about to upvote you, because I thought it's unfair your reasonable comment is grayed out. Until I read this. Then I did the opposite.
Downvote complaints become self-fulfilling prophecies.
I take your point though. Not great style.
