No Commitment
This Tuesday, Parliament voted decisively against Theresa May’s proposed Brexit plan. Parliament voted 432-202, firmly rejecting the only plan the Prime Minister and her government had been able to draft up for Brexit. In the words of May herself, the vote demonstrated that “it is clear that the House does not support this deal, but tonight’s vote tells us nothing about what it does support”, therefore leaving the UK no closer to solving the issue of what exactly to do about BRexit…
No Compromise
Following this vote, the future of Britain is precarious, to say the least. With only two short months until March 29th, the scheduled date set by law for the UK to leave the European Union, May and her government must somehow now pull a new plan out of the bag. However, the question is now not only how to achieve Brexit, but whether or not the UK should even go through with it. Since the start of Brexit negotiations there have been calls from backbenchers for another referendum to give younger voters an opportunity to vote, and also for everyone to reconsider their decision. Although at the start May was adamant that this would not happen, the opportunity to vote again is beginning to seem slightly more possible. But don’t get your hopes up, May is still very much against the notion, arguing that it would be disregarding the decision of the British public – even if that decision was made by a public who had been coerced into believing that Brexit would mean freedom from the legislative tyranny of the European Union, and also a much more stable economy…..
No Confidence
It is not entirely surprising that Jeremy Corbyn immediately called for a Vote of no Confidence against the Prime Minister following Tuesday’s vote, scheduled for the following day. Unlike the last No Confidence Vote before Christmas, this was triggered by the wider House, not May’s own Conservative party. Although May survived the vote on Wednesday, unease is spreading through Parliament like wildfire, and the rest of the British public is beginning to realise the mess that the UK is really in. Parliament is effectively in lockdown, with both sides in opposition and no one able to achieve anything other than some passive aggressive name-calling to the other side of the House. The future of the UK and Brexit is very unclear, and May herself seems no more confident than the rest of us that our country will emerge from Brexit in any position other than ‘the back of the queue’, or even undergo it at all.