cliff Britain 

At the cliff-edge, the Tory lemmings

Well, what in heaven’s name did anyone expect? Theresa May’s refinements to her Brexit deal, crafted in order to force it through the Commons on her fourth attempt, have caused consternation and horror in the Tory party. With the political cliff edge towards which she has been steadily driving the party clearly in sight, she is now proposing a lethal shove to push the Conservative lemmings over the drop altogether. For her new Brexit deal is even worse than the old one – which was itself beyond terrible. This new…

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Boris Britain 

No-deal is the only legitimate way forward. MPs themselves voted for it.

There is no impasse in parliament over Brexit. There is no stalemate. There is no need whatsoever to delay the date the UK is to leave the EU. There is no need to look for alternative ways forward. MPs themselves mapped out the next step when they passed an act of parliament last year committing the UK to leave the EU on March 29 2019. They did so in full realisation of the fact that, if no deal could be negotiated with the EU on the terms of the UK’s…

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no-deal Britain 

Now tell your MP: if you block no-deal you lose my vote

Mrs May’s faux-Brexit deal has been rightly smashed to pieces in tonight’s massive Commons vote. There is now only one legitimate way forward. Parliament has passed a law committing the UK to leave the EU on March 29. Since it has not agreed to a deal with the EU on the terms of leaving, the UK must leave with no deal. That is the legally binding default position. The fact that the majority of MPs don’t want to leave with no deal is irrelevant. The majority of MPs also want…

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UK Britain 

Brexiteers! Start promoting no-deal. Fast

Has there ever been a more hopeless, pathetic bunch of political clowns than Britain’s parliamentary Brexiteers? The people of Britain have voted to leave the EU. Theresa May’s government is poised to spit in their faces by preventing that from happening through a sleight-of-hand deal which would be Brexit in name only, leaving the UK as a “vassal” state still in thrall to Brussels. Rather than uniting behind a strategy and leader to fight this betrayal, the Brexiteers in parliament have been fighting each other like ferrets in a sack.…

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no-deal Britain 

The predictable Brexit crisis has now arrived

Mrs May has now presented to Cabinet the Brexit deal she has negotiated with the EU. As feared, it is a proposal that would leave the UK not only remaining bound to the EU but at a far greater disadvantage than under its current terms of membership. It is therefore totally unacceptable. There were reported ructions in Cabinet. It is bound by collective responsibility, but that doesn’t mean individual Cabinet ministers have accepted the deal. Since its faults are overwhelmingly obvious to Remainers as well as Brexiteers, it is extremely…

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UK Britain Europe 

Jo Johnson’s Brexit muddle

Currently in Los Angeles, which is coping with an enormous forest fire and the aftermath of a crazed gunman shooting dead 13 people at a suburban bar, I woke up today to the news that the transport minister and Remain supporter Jo Johnson had resigned from the government over the Brexit negotiation. In this account of why he resigned, he says one thing on which Remainers and Brexiteers will doubtless agree. This is the appalling way Theresa May has conducted the negotiation, bringing Parliament to the brink of a choice…

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UK Britain Europe 

All that matters now to save the UK: Theresa May has to go

According to the Sunday Times, Theresa May has 72 hours to save her premiership before a crucial back-bench 1922 Committee meeting on Wednesday. In my view, that should read 72 hours to save the country. Let’s cut to the chase. Forget the Irish backstop, transition extensions, the role of her chief Brexit official Oliver Robbins and all the other interminable details and lurches involved in this process. If the UK is actually to leave the EU, May has to go. If she stays as Prime Minister, it won’t. It is…

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The View Israel 

Betrayed Brexit voters will give up on democracy

Betrayed Brexit voters will give up on democracy Who can doubt the contribution to Friday’s Chequers debacle made by the storied ranks of Whitehall’s Sir Humphreys, skilled beyond measure in manipulating politicians into standing on their heads and swearing they are still the right way up? Right from the moment Britain voted to leave the EU, it was clear that the entire political establishment would unite to thwart this. On Friday, it won and the British people lost. With the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, however, both the…

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no-deal Britain 

Faithless, craven and cowardly – the British government’s Brexit betrayal

We don’t yet know whether Brexiteers in the Conservative party will seek to bring down the Prime Minister Theresa May over the UK negotiating position that she forced through Cabinet on Friday. We don’t yet know whether the EU will accept her “compromise” package or will reject it with the contempt they have shown until now at any suggestion of a “pick and mix” approach to the EU’s customs union and rules. But what we can say with near-certainty is that what Mrs May has done is put in serious…

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