Brexit 2

Breaking: Senior Tory Brexiteers to 'call for no confidence vote' on Theresa May 'tomorrow'.

https://twitter.com/evolvepolitics/status/1062773074528010240

'No words are adequate to dscribe such cynicism'

https://twitter.com/TomLondon6/status/1062769027959930880

"Centrist Labour MPs spent months accusing Corbyn of supporting May's Brexit. It was never true. Now - at the crunch - it is reported that some of those MPs are contemplating defying Corbyn and voting to secure May's Brexit..."

The work and pensions secretary, Esther McVey, has become the second senior minister to quit the cabinet, following the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, out of the door and throwing Theresa May’s government into turmoil.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/15/dominic-raab-quits-as-brexit-secretary-over-eu-withdrawal-deal

Jacob Rees-Mogg sends letter of no confidence in May

The leading Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg called for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May on the most perilous day of her premiership, after claiming she had broken her own red lines on Brexit.

The outspoken chair of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Brexiters, who rejected the prime minister’s plan moments after it was published on Wednesday night, announced he was submitting a letter to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.

Up to a dozen other Tory backbenchers have confirmed they have submitted letters calling for May to step down over her Brexit proposal, including the former Brexit minister Steve Baker and fellow leavers Nadine Dorries and Andrew Bridgen.

Rebel Tory MPs press for vote of no confidence in Theresa May

Four more Conservative MPs have submitted letters expressing no confidence in Theresa May amid growing speculation in Westminster that a confidence vote could come later in the day.

Maria Caulfield, Adam Holloway, John Whittingdale and Chris Green said they could no longer support the prime minister, taking to 21 the number of letters MPs say they have submitted demanding a vote.

Forty-eight Tory MPs have to write to the chair of the party’s backbench 1922 Committee to trigger a confidence vote in May, which would happen within a day or two of being announced. She would then need the backing of 158 MPs to keep her job....

John McDonnell: people's vote on Brexit still on table

John McDonnell has said a people’s vote remains on the table, but Labour would first prioritise negotiating a Brexit deal that protects jobs and the economy and fighting a general election.

The shadow chancellor said the party would not back Theresa May’s deal and called for the prime minister to step aside for a minority Labour government to renegotiate a new deal. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, McDonnell confirmed that Labour would first pursue negotiating a deal that respects the results of the referendum.

“If we can’t get a deal that does respect that and at the same time protects jobs and the economy, our priority is for a general election. [If] we can’t get that, yes, a people’s vote remains on the table,” he said.

He admitted a general election may not be easily available to Labour because of the constraints of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which allows for an early general election if two-thirds of MPs vote in favour.

He believes May does not have the votes to get her deal through parliament. He said: “What is absolutely certain is that the government’s proposal won’t command a majority in the House of Commons and we have to recognise that. There’s no use not facing that reality now.”....

Labour gains three-point lead as May’s Brexit plan hits buffers

Labour has opened up a three-point lead over the Tories as Conservative Leave supporters appear to be deserting Theresa May’s party in droves, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

Compared with a month ago, the Tories have dropped five points to 36% while Labour has gained three to stand on 39%. The Liberal Democrats have fallen by one point to 7%, while Ukip has gone up two to 8%.

Opinium found that the Tory decline was primarily a result of Leave supporters deserting the party. Last month (on 11 October) 59% of Leave supporters said they would vote Conservative.

But in Sunday’s poll, conducted entirely after details of May’s Brexit deal were made public last week, the proportion of Leavers backing the Tories has dropped by 10 points to 49%. Labour’s support among Leavers has risen by four points to 26%, while Ukip has surged by six points among Leavers to 16%....

Brexit Agreement: A Deal Between German Manufacturing and UK Finance Sectors

quote:

JOHN WEEKS: But the reality was it was a pretty straightforward agreement. And that agreement is one the business community wanted. They have helped design this. I mean, the fact of the matter is this agreement is brought about by two major parties, or two major players, if I can use that cliche. German manufacturing capital, which wants to maintain access to the British market. German manufacturing runs a tremendous trade surplus with Britain across the board. That’s what’s- that’s the big player on the continent that want to sort out this agreement. And the big player in Britain that want to sort it out is British financial capital. So they didn’t really care what happened with the trade in goods. What they wanted was to be able to maintain their access to European financial markets so that what’s called the City of London, which is where all the big banks are, so that the City of London would be able to maintain its premier position in world financial markets.

So that’s really what the negotiations were about. It was pretty clear from the beginning that both the City and German manufacturing capital would come to an agreement, and everybody else would have to fall into line. So these two big players, German manufacturing capital and British financial capital, they were going to bring the government of Ireland in line. The government of Ireland is deeply indebted to German banks. The idea that they could hold out over the border issue was ridiculous. Serious issue about the Irish border is that in Northern Ireland, the extreme right-wing party which holds most of the seats there supports Theresa May’s minority government. So Theresa May, over the Irish border issue, was really not negotiating with the European Union. She was negotiating with this far-right party which was part of her coalition.

quote:

GREG WILPERT: And actually, recently May leaked- Theresa May leaked one key detail from her Brexit plan, which is that it will, quote, “stop unlimited immigration,” as she put it. So this seems to be an appeal to right-wing voters.

JOHN WEEKS: And it does appear that the European Union has conceded to the British government that it does not have to accept freedom of movement of EU nationals, so that the British government in the future under this agreement will be able to restrict European Union citizens by continent, citizens from the continent, coming in and out of Britain.

So that big issue was dealt with. As you say, that was part of the, I would say, really neofascist right. And racist right, too. That was their big issue in Brexit. And pretty much they achieved that. Again, that’s an issue that wasn’t that important, either to the German manufacturing capital- I mean, I testified at a committee of the Bundestag, German Lower House of Representatives, a year ago, and I happened by chance to sit next to the head of the German Confederation of manufacturers. And he said in his statement, just before mine, he said we should be able to sort out the question of free movement. In other words, it didn’t make any difference to him; as long as he could export all of those machine tools and automobiles to Britain, what did it matter if Europeans move around Europe?

Operation 'No Deal?'

https://on.rt.com/9iuk

"UK army braces for Brexit chaos as May faces fierce rejection of divorce plan..."

May's Brexit Deal is a 'One-Way Agreement'

https://twitter.com/Labourheartland/status/1064288260183257088

"Jeremy Corbyn described PM Theresa May's EU withdrawal deal as a 'one way agreement' in which Brussels 'calls all the shots' today..."

Ireland's New President, Other European Fools and the Abyss

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/16/irelands-new-president-other-eur...

"The new European reality is unreality. Its one of illegitimate power and unnecessary subservience. It's a fool's game. The democratic, national and continental charades try to distract the eye from the naked truth. However, the feeling of shame is inescapable. As is the feeling of entrapment. Voting nationalist or voting for a president or for exit may momentarily cover the abyss, but within seconds, reality bites: Europe is a tool in the hands of global capitalists. And no one has a clue what to do. No one knows how to get back to the real..."

Panic in Westminster

quote:

Parliament is riven with division over Brexit: there are MPs convinced that a second referendum could stop the UK’s withdrawal from the EU; Conservative MPs (and a tiny handful of Labour MPs) concerned the proposed Brexit leaves the UK too closely linked to the EU; those backing May’s fudged plan; and those on the Labour benches convinced that a general election that would likely hand the party a majority is the only way forward to exit the EU with social welfare and workers’ rights at the heart of any EU withdrawal agreement.

Attempting to find an exit plan to appease all camps was always an impossibility: that May’s proposed route out of Europe has met with so much opposition it can’t pass through the Houses of Parliament is not a surprise but an inevitability. This was always going to be the outcome. May simply had to decide when she would expose herself to a public reputational battering, not whether she was going to do so.

The result is a tense wait as Conservative MPs decide whether to submit letters declaring no confidence in the prime minister. As an antiquated joke of a party, the Conservatives rules around leadership are impenetrably obscure: forty-eight letters must be received by Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, a parliamentary group of backbench Conservative MPs without cabinet roles. Only Brady knows how many letters have been received, and keeps them secured in a safe; so far, twenty-five MPs have publicly declared their letters have been sent in, though there is no obligation to make a submission public. If the threshold of forty-eight letters is reached, a no-confidence vote in the prime minister is called; if she survives it, she carries on as prime minister and cannot face another vote for 12 months. If she loses, she is forced to resign.

There’s a possibility the threshold will be reached, but May will win the confidence vote. No other Conservative MP wants to take the mantle of leadership at such a toxic time: the frontrunners are power hungry, but also care deeply about how history will remember them – Brexit is likely to taint any leader’s record, whereas May can be left in place as a scapegoat.

So if May survives, and her draft withdrawal agreement fails to pass through Parliament, what then? The EU and Irish government have been clear they’ve had enough of Britain’s attitude to negotiations and have already given enough. There is no real time to renegotiate another deal before the March 29 exit date, and regardless, no deal is possible that can satisfy enough people to ever see it pass through parliament. Either the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal and falls back to World Trade Organisation rules; asks for an extension to the Article 50 exit period, meaning the exit date is pushed into the future to allow more negotiating time; or a general election is called, since parliament remains in absolute deadlock.

John McDonnell: Labour should form minority government if May deal fails

quote:

McDonnell told business leaders that if the government’s deal was rejected in a meaningful vote next month, May would return to Brussels to seek concessions. If it fell again, then Labour should be given the chance to form an administration.

“At that stage, we will be saying give us the opportunity. You’re a minority party, give us the opportunity to take over and see if we can form a government, a minority but with a majority position in parliament,” he said.

“If that’s denied us then we will be pressing for a general election, but as you know you need that two-thirds majority it’s very difficult to get. Anything could happen at that stage.”

At the Reuters event in London, McDonnell confirmed that Labour would support a second referendum if it was unable to form a minority government or to force a general election – but was equivocal on whether remain would be on the ballot paper.

“Then it is coming back to parliament, then seek a majority for going for some second referendum, that’s when the discussion takes place about the nature of the vote,” he said.

BBC One offers to clear Sunday night schedule for Brexit debate

quote:

Rather than showing the documentary, BBC One has offered to clear its schedule for a special 8pm debate on 9 December between the prime minister and Jeremy Corbyn on the terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Downing Street has already signed up to the plan but Labour insists negotiations are continuing and it still prefers a rival bid from ITV to hold a debate in the same time slot with a more straightforward format.

Corbyn said on ITV’s This Morning that he had yet to formally accept any debate but an early Sunday night programme made sense as it would enable people to watch other programmes later in the evening.

“One should always have respect for the viewers,” he said, adding that he was keen to watch the final of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! “It is important because parliament will have to vote on the 11 December on the agreement that prime minister has reached.”

quote:

However, Labour’s decision to publicly support a rival ITV bid to host a head-to-head primetime Sunday night debate shortly before the finale of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! resulted in a rethink, as BBC executives battled to land the rights to the high-profile programme.

The ITV proposal is for a straight head-to-head debate format with a single moderator and no audience questions.

“We want there to be a debate with the largest and most diverse possible audience,” said a source with knowledge of Labour’s position.

By contrast, the BBC has offered to include a panel of leading individuals from both sides of the Brexit debate who would be able to put questions to both May and Corbyn, ensuring a focus on the Brexit deal. Smaller political parties, proponents of a second referendum, and supporters of a hard Brexit have already threatened legal action against broadcasters to ensure their voices are heard.

Why Brexit...

Italy, the EU and the Fall of the Roman Empire

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/12/03/italy-eu-and-fall-of-r...

"The EU leadership is trying to contain a crisis that is emerging at increasing speed: this challenge comprises the rise of contumacious states (i.e. the UK, Poland, Hungary and Italy) or of defiant, historical 'cultural blocs' (i.e. Catalonia) - all of whom are explicitly disenchanted with the notion of some coerced convergence towards a uniform EU-administered 'order'..."

Labour could do a better Brexit deal. Give us the chance

Jeremy Corbyn

The botched Brexit deal that Theresa May has put to parliament this week is a monumental and damaging failure for our country. Instead of the sensible agreement the prime minister could have negotiated, it is a worst-of-all-worlds deal that works for nobody, whether they voted leave or remain.

quote:

But its defeat cannot be taken for granted. In an effort to drag Tory MPs back onside, May is claiming that defeat for her deal means no deal or no Brexit, because there is no viable alternative. That is false. Labour’s alternative plan would unlock the negotiations for our future relationship with the EU and allow us to move away from such a damaging backstop.

A new, comprehensive customs union with the EU, with a British say in future trade deals, would strengthen our manufacturing sector and give us a solid base for industrial renewal under the next Labour government, especially for our held-back communities. It would remove the threat of different parts of the UK being subject to separate regulations. And it would deal with the large majority of problems the backstop is designed to solve.

Second, a new and strong relationship with the single market that gives us frictionless trade, and the freedom to rebuild our economy and expand our public services – while setting migration policies to meet the needs of the economy, not fuelling xenophobia with phoney immigration targets or thresholds – makes far more sense than the prime minister’s dismal deal.

Lastly, we want to see guarantees that existing EU rights at work, environmental standards and consumer protections will become a benchmark to build on – not fall behind and undercut other countries at our people’s expense. These rights and protections, whether on chlorinated chicken or paid holidays, are what people actually want. But the government is determined to trade them away in a race to the bottom.

Labour has very different priorities. Our alternative plan would ensure an open border in Ireland, provide security for investment, give our manufacturing sector a springboard for renewal, ensure we have the powers to rebuild our economy and public services and guarantee world-beating support for workers, consumers and our environment. We are absolutely committed to internationalist cooperation and anti-racist solidarity across Europe, in or out of the EU, and determined to ensure opportunities for students to study in other countries are protected.

Unlike the Norway-plus option now being canvassed among MPs, our plan would not leave Britain as an across-the-board rule-taker of EU regulations without a say. It’s a plan that can be negotiated with the EU, even at this late stage, with most of the building blocks already in place. The EU has shown it is prepared to renegotiate even more complex agreements than this, such as the Lisbon treaty. And ours is a plan I believe could command a majority in parliament and bring the country together.

The stakes could not be higher next week. If the prime minister’s deal is defeated, the government will have lost its majority on the most important issue facing the country and lost its ability to govern. The best outcome in those circumstances would be to let the country decide on the way ahead and the best team to lead it. That means a general election.

In the past, a defeat of such seriousness as May now faces would have meant an automatic election. But if under the current rules we cannot get an election, all options must be on the table. Those should include Labour’s alternative and, as our conference decided in September, the option of campaigning for a public vote to break the deadlock. Two years ago, people voted remain because they wanted an open, international relationship with Europe and a multicultural society. Many voted leave out of anger at the way the political class had left them behind, with crumbling infrastructure and low-paid, insecure jobs. Our job is to unite people with a plan that works for the whole country.

Theresa May cancels a vote in the U.K. Parliament on her Brexit deal to avoid a huge defeat, a source says https://bloom.bg/2RPjJlB 

Brexit is a failed project. Labour must oppose it

Paul Mason

Sometimes, in politics, you just have to fight for what you believe in. I believe that – amid the current geopolitical meltdown – staying in the European Union and reforming it is safer than casting ourselves adrift with a bunch of rightwing Tory xenophobes at the helm.

But since the referendum, I’ve understood that a leftwing Labour government can only be achieved by building a coalition of voters across the Brexit divide. It’s a belief based on the experience of the 2017 general election, when I campaigned in solidly working-class areas where, to keep a doorstep conversation going for more than 30 seconds, the first sentence had to be: “We will deliver Brexit.”

However, the voters chose Theresa May to deliver Brexit, and it is she who has to take responsibility for the catastrophe that’s unfolded. As she heads for Brussels, and further fruitless days of negotiatons, those who supported Brexit have to face the fact: there is no form of possible Brexit that you are going to like.

quote:

The only form of softer Brexit available is likely to be the one called Norway-plus, as advocated by both Tory and Labour backbenchers. It means joining the customs union, staying in the single market and applying an “emergency brake” to free movement. Though not ideal, it is a solution that could achieve what so many voters in hard-pressed towns want: to sort the Brexit issue, give us a modicum of control over migration policy, and move on. I would back it, if it were enacted by a temporary coalition of Labour and the nationalist parties. But the numbers don’t seem to be there in parliament and I expect it to fail.

So what is Labour’s fallback? Should it be, as John McDonnell and Keir Starmer have intimated, a second referendum with the party campaigning for remain? Or should it conduct a rearguard action on behalf of the June 2016 referendum majority, in an attempt to get a soft Brexit deal that can unite the population? It’s a challenge that hinges on a question that many in Corbyn’s Labour party don’t want to answer: who does Labour really represent?

Since 2014 it’s been clear that the tribal alliance that used to put Labour into power is pulling in different ways. Traditionally this included the working-class towns of England, the inhabitants of Great Britain’s largest cities and the wider population of Scotland and Wales plus – to seal the deal – the suburban middle-class swing voter. Once a majority of young, educated Scots had swung behind the independence project, and the Scottish radical left joined them, the old tribal alliance began to fall apart.

Meanwhile a cultural divide has opened up: the cities, the university-educated, the public-sector employees and the professional middle class are more socially liberal, more globalist, more supportive of a migration than before. But in small towns, and among those with low skills and low incomes, the cultural pull is in the opposite direction.

Finally, the middle-class swing voter just wants all the chaos and fractiousness to go away. If Labour had remained a hollow shell, bereft of a vibrant intellectual life and mass involvement, the problem would be less acute – the manias and enthusiasms currently energising grassroots politics would, in Ed Miliband’s day, have been filtered through layers of dull technocracy.

But hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to Corbyn’s project – and it is important to recognise that they come both from working-class towns and university cities; from the manual working class and the educated salariat.

What unites most of them – including, I stress here, those from working-class communities – is a globalist and socially liberal attitude to life, the desire for a radical programme of redistribution and investment in, and support for, human rights. In the industrial town where I grew up, the labour movement was always a line drawn through the working class, in favour of values: social justice, tolerance and solidarity. There were always people on the other side, though they used to vote Tory rather than Ukip.

The answer to “who does Labour really represent?” should be a no-brainer. It represents people who are prepared to put evidence before prejudice, fight for social justice, save globalisation by doing less of it – and who are not prepared to throw their black, brown and eastern European colleagues under the bus of xenophobia. It represents women not misogynists, internationalists not nationalists.

'I Will Contest It': UK PM May to Face Vote of Confidence in Leadership Over Brexit Deal

https://on.rt.com/9kbi

"Embattled British PM Theresa May will face a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party on Wednesday after the necessary threshold to possibly oust her was reached by the party's 1922 committee. The move follows a week of chaos and speculation after May's proposed Brexit deal was openly derided in the House of Commons."

UK PM Facing 'No Confidence' Vote Over Brexit Deal

https://youtu.be/dIlU5bcTH5c

"The British PM faces a crunch test to her leadership in a few hours - after her own MPs forced a vote of no confidence."

U.K. PM Theresa May survives non-confidence vote on her leadership amid Brexit turmoil

From above: the recorded version (easier to fast forward through the relentless adverts)

https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1544652000

What Do Some Investors Fear More Than Brexit? Jeremy Corbyn

It isn’t just Brexit that has investors on edge in the U.K.: It’s the possibility of a new Labour government run by an avowed socialist.

Rebel lawmakers within the Conservative Party called for a vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday. And though Mrs. May narrowly won the secret ballot, the small margin has undermined her authority in the ongoing Brexit negotiations and strengthened calls for opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to demand a general election.

Mr. Corbyn—a former union organizer who was long a fringe member of the party—has pledged to put workers on corporate boards, break up banks, freeze energy prices, raise corporate taxes and renationalize public utilities such as water, rail and the Royal Mail postal service.

The probability of a Corbyn-led government taking the reins before the U.K. exits the bloc has ticked up from 25% to 30% over the past week, even as the risk of a “hard Brexit,” where the U.K. exits the bloc without an agreement in place, dipped, according to an analysis by brokers Berenberg.

Some common sense.

Withdrawal Agreement Bill 'should include public vote'

The government should add a public vote to the Brexit legislation which MPs will vote on next month, the shadow Brexit secretary has told the BBC.

Sir Keir Starmer said including another referendum in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill would "break the impasse".

Talks between Labour and the government to find a compromise Brexit deal broke down on Friday without agreement.

Theresa May has said she would consider putting different Brexit options to MPs to see which ones "command a majority".

Labour's preferred plan is for changes to the government's Brexit deal or an election, but if neither of those are possible, it will support the option of a public vote.

There have been calls for giving the public another say on Brexit. One widely discussed option is for a "confirmatory vote" with the choice between accepting whatever deal the government agrees, or remaining in the EU.

Others argue any new referendum should include the option of leaving the EU without a deal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48319757

"Detailed thoughts from me on the Brexit Party, on the Full Brexit. In short, TBP is the only thing preventing the Remainer elite from scuppering Brexit and undermining democracy. But a populist party can't solve the crisis of UK's representative politics."

https://twitter.com/DrLeeJones/status/1127941153658146818

'The Left Must Fight For a Real Brexit' (and vid)

https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/07/the-left-must-fight-for-a-real-...

NOT  a 'Soft-Brexit'. "The deal fails to recapture national sovereignty and leaves Britain in a halfway house, uncertain what will follow. No Deal should have been the default position from the outset. It is an outrage that the government has not prepared the country for it. What have they been doing for three years...?"

Thank goodness!

How easy it is to forget Europe's history.

Of all the ideas that have come out of the UK in the last 50 years Brexit must be the dumbest one of all. How tragic for the people living in the UK to be going through this nonsense. The sooner Brexit is dead and buried the better off all Europeans will be, except for maybe the one percenters who came up with this idea in the first place. And to be allying with the likes of Farage is unbelievable. Supporters of this monstrosity need to give their heads a serious shake.