It’s becoming a f**king farce… and beyond a joke.
Our so-called parliament decided not to make a decision on how the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. MPs were asked to vote on eight alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May’s twice-rejected withdrawal deal… but failed to get agreement on all of them. May announced that she will resign… but only if her original deal is voted through for a third time.
This will be the last chance for parliament to avoid a hard and damaging brexit. After desperately negotiating with the European Union to change the terms of her original deal, (which was first delayed, then voted down), Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May returned to parliament hoping that this time she will succeed in getting it voted through.
Yet the day hasn’t started well for Mrs May. Some of her own MPs and the Democratic Unionist coalition partners have said they won’t vote for the deal. Many Labour MPs, despite their loathing of Jeremy Corbyn, won’t vote for the deal to spite him. All of this, if predicted by commentators, would lead to another humiliating defeat for the government.
Whatever happens in tonight’s vote, the UK will still depart the EU on March 29th. The government will not be granted a delay… and the country will definitely be screwed.
The Labour anti-semitism row continues to rumble on.
Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ally Chris Williamson MP was suspended from the party after he was caught claimimg that the party should stop apologising for the anti-semitism crisis which is continuing to engulf them.
What he said was wrong, and it only feeds the media frenzy at a time that the Conservative government should be held to account over brexit. How many more resignations from the party must it take before Corbyn finally takes action on the problem?
More on Labour splits. Here is a foreign perspective on Labour’s internal schism. From the Rational National.
Many commentators have been laughing at the current situation…except it has long ceased to be funny.
In real news, Car manufacturer Honda is closing its UK plant in 2022, with the loss of 3,500 jobs. This will be drowned out because a lot of media time is wasted on this shitshower of a party.
UPDATE: An eighth Labour MP has now quit.
Labour MPs (left to right) Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker and Chuka Umunna after they announced their resignations during a press conference at County Hall in Westminster, and the formation of a new political party, which will be known as the Independent Group.
So, seven Labour MPs, after much soul searching, have decided to leave to form a new political party. Why didn’t they do that sooner?
Labour has been throughout its history to be one contradiction after another. They aren’t what many party members claim to be a broad church. One would think that they would look at what happened and reflect on why they got to this stage, but they have spent all day pouring vitriol on each other… and both their political opponents and the media are having a right laugh at their expense.
The MPs claim that the party’s failure to tackle issues such as anti-semitism and brexit were responsible for their departure. The reality is that many of them have been openly critical of current left-wing party leader Jeremy Corbyn since he was unexpectedly elected, twice in 2015 and 2016.
There have been unfair comparisons with the MPs who resigned today with what happened in 1981, when a significant number of Labour MPs quit to form the late Social Democratic Party. But the difference is that those who set up the SDP had a specific set of principles and values… the current crop of MPs don’t have any whatsoever– they seem only to be in it for themselves. It has been rumoured that more anti-Corbyn MPs are expected to jump ship over the next few days.
As in 1981, the current situation only benefits the Conservative government, who despite their current problems over brexit, and pushing through and continuing a highly controversial austerity programme, don’t now have to worry about Labour getting elected.
This schism doesn’t deserve to be a major news story, but that’s where we are. This will be expected to dominate the agenda for the time being. Meanwhile, the main issues of real importance get ignored.