U.K. Parliament Rejects Theresa May’s Deal
British lawmakers on Friday rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for withdrawing from the European Union for the third time, leaving her policy in ruins and the casting the nation’s politics into further confusion, with the scheduled departure date looming two weeks away.
The defeat appears to leave the increasingly weakened prime minister with two unpalatable options in the short run: Britain can leave the bloc on April 12 without an agreement in place, a chaotic and potentially economically damaging withdrawal; or Mrs. May can ask European leaders – who have ruled out a short delay if her plan failed – for what could be a long postponement.
The only thing a parliamentary majority has been able to agree on is that it does not want to crash out of the European Union without a deal.
But a long delay would enrage pro-Brexit lawmakers who see a further postponement as a first step toward watering down Brexit, or even killing it entirely.
May has repeatedly said she will not call off Article 50 (Brexit) altogether and will not ask for a long delay.
But those are the only alternatives left to prevent a no-deal Brexit on April 12.
For some time everyone has been blaming May for seeking as soft a Brexit as she could negotiate and not being able to sell it to her ludicrously divided and stubborn MPs.
For my part, I blame the MPs, who have consistently voted against every conceivable alternative to a hard Brexit, and also voted against that.
This Parliament is totally unable to agree on the fucking day of the week.
And that is not her fault.
A significant faction of her own party have wanted a no-deal Brexit, all along.
And even though majorities have repeatedly voted against a no-deal Brexit, all those who favored it had to do to get their way was vote against all other alternatives.
They win by default.
And they will scream their heads off if May pulls the plug on 50 or goes for a long delay.
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