Today, Halloween, was supposed to be Brexit Day in the U.K., when the country would officially leave the European Union and regain its independence and sovereignty. Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised the nation that Brexit would occur on October 31 “do or die.” The avuncular Johnson also claimed that he’d rather “die in a ditch” than agree to another Brexit deadline extension.
[See Updates below]
Instead, Brexit is cancelled again, and yet another extension has been imposed, through the end of January. In the interim the U.K. will go to the polls on December 12 to elect new members of parliament (MPs).
In the event of a decisive win by one party or a coalition rather than a deadlock or “hung” parliament, the U.K. will know its chief executive on, appropriately, Friday the 13th.
As this blog has chronicled, U.K. politics may be even more convoluted and devious than what’s going on here in the U.S. if that’s possible.
Johnson, the leader of the”Conservative” Party, a.k.a. the Tories, has already lost his majority in the parliament, the House of Commons, creating what is termed a “zombie” parliament. Johnson is thus presiding over a minority government (in the U.K., the term government means the prime minister and his cabinet made up of elected MPs doing double duty overseeing the executive branch),
Unlike the U.S., a British PM has no veto authority over legislation either.
Breitbart London describes the impasse that may or may not resolved in the December election:
“While Brexit remains the defining political issue for the United Kingdom, one of the key issues that have informed progress — or a lack thereof — over the almost three and a half years since the 2016 referendum is the composition of Parliament.
“With the majority of members in the present house being dead set against a full, clean-break Brexit and many opposing even a Brexit with a withdrawal agreement, parliament has consistently voted against Brexit in recent years. The issue has become so pronounced with the composition of the parties, informed by defections and expulsions in recent months, the government has become basically unable to govern…This left the United Kingdom in a peculiar situation where it had a government unable to govern, a shadow government frustrating Brexit from the opposition benches, and no opportunity to address the balance by voting in a new parliament that might better represent the views of the British people.”
Ordinarily under a parliamentary system, when the PM’s party or coalition no longer controls a majority of seats, this automatically triggers a new election. However, under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which perhaps seemed like a good idea at the time, a two-thirds majority is required to schedule a new election prior to May 2022.
In a June 2017 snap election, Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May lost the Conservative majority but was propped up by the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. It was the inept May who gave away all the U.K.’s leverage in negotiating a disastrous withdrawal agreement that many deemed a surrender document, or Brexit in Name Only, and which — for different reasons — parliament voted down three times.
May promised more than 100 times that the U.K. would leave the EU on March 29, and that no deal is better than a bad deal, but she didn’t mean a world of it.
The opposition, far-left Labor Party was for a new election before it was against it, but finally gave in, along with several smaller parties, to authorize a national vote. Labor floated the idea of letting non-U.K. citizens, plus 16 or 17 year olds, vote, but those proposals never gained traction. Labor also opposes photo ID, even though you need photo ID to gain entry to Labor conferences and vote in their equivalent of primaries.
Labor also wanted an election a few days earlier in December before the universities go on Christmas Break. You may recall that the GOP narrowly lost New Hampshire in 2016 in the state that allowed college students who don’t legally live in the Granite State to vote there.
Labor has a lot in common with U.S. Democrats in that regard. The U.K. also has big problem with absentee ballot fraud (which it calls postal votes). Sound familiar?
Although the U.K. political establishment across the spectrum promised to deliver a “proper” Brexit and respect the will of the people, the anti-democracy, Remainer-dominated parliament has done everything it could to prevent it. The media as well as the crony capitalist/corporate socialism sector has pitched in too with anti-Brexit fear mongering.
Those in the anti-Brexit cohort which prioritizes foreign interests over their own country is a lot like the globalist cabal that fights tooth and nail against U.S President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.
The Remainers have, for now, taken a no-deal or clean-break Brexit off the table. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, however, about 50 or more of these stubborn Remainers (or Remoaners or Remainiacs) in Leave constituencies aren’t running for reelection.
Boris Johnson’s influence helped convince voters to back Brexit in the June 23, 2016, referendum, but only after endorsing it at the 11th hour.
In recent weeks, Johnson managed to extract a few concessions from the EU in an attempt to “get Brexit done,” but what he came up was Brexit in Name Only 2.0. In the U.K. terms, this is called a “stitch up.”
As more fully detailed on the the Brexit Party website, leader Nigel Farage outlined the flaws in Boris’ treaty that still keeps the U.K. under the thumb of the bloated EU and continues the shakedown of the British taxpayer.
Although it’s moot now, Johnson’s deal nonetheless received preliminary approval from pro-Brexit MPs (Brexiteers) who admitted they had to swallow hard to back it along with the influential Leave.EU organization that went along with it to prevent the Remainers from rigging a second Brexit referendum.
As December 12 approaches, Farage wants to broker an arrangement with the Conservatives to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit, pro-Leave vote.
Under Farage’s plan, Brexit Party candidates would stand down in constituencies where the Conservative incumbent or candidate is pro-Brexit. In exchange, the Conservatives would give way to the Brexit Party in Labor Leave strongholds, which would never vote Tory under any circumstances. Johnson so far has shown no inclination to enter into an electoral pact of that nature.
If the pro-Brexit vote is splintered, the London-centric Labor coalition may be able to install Marxist, anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. Against that backdrop, tactical voting becomes crucial. In the meantime, Leave.EU is launching an app to help with tactical voting.
“One form of this would see the Brexit Party standing candidates in the north, midlands, and Wales in Labour heartlands where voters support Brexit and feel abandoned by the London-centric party machine of … Corbyn. Meanwhile, the Conservatives would concentrate on the South and Scotland,” Breitbart London explained.
There are now rumors that Farage’s party may unilaterally stand down in sold Conservative areas and concentrate resources on a select number of Labor seats.
Farage and others have long criticized a political system made up of elitists with no real-world experience. Many of then graduate from the equivalent of the Ivy League and then go directly to work for political think tanks before running (i.e., “parachuting in”) for the House of Commons from constituencies that evidently require minimal residency requirements.
Based on the intransigence of the past three years, voters have a right to be suspicious that even a Conservative majority elected on December 12 would actually deliver Brexit rather than BRINO 3.0.
Check back for updates.
Added: In a call-in on Farage’s LBC radio show today, President Trump opined that it would be a plus if Boris Johnson and Farage could work together in the December 12 election campaign. He also noted that even Johnson’s revised withdrawal agreement prevents the U.S. and the U.K. from striking a trade deal.
Update: On Friday, Nigel Farage has called upon Boris Johnson to form a Leave alliance with the Brexit Party, and to drop BRINO 2.0 in favor of a Canadian style or WTO trade deal with the EU. Absent such an alliance, Farage indicated his party has sufficient funds to field candidates in all 650 constituencies, contrary to earlier rumors that the Brexit Party would contest only a select number of seats. Some 500 Brexit Party candidates from around the country will officially sign their campaign paperwork on Monday in London, Farage noted. He also implied that informal talks are underway that might lead to a truce with individual Conservative candidates who will oppose BRINO 2.0.
Farage, who is an elected member of the mostly ceremonial European parliament, added that he plans to announce next week if he will run for the U.K. parliament. MEP Claire Fox summed up the issues with the two major parties: “Whether it’s Labor’s pessimistic lack of confidence in our own ability to take control of improving working conditions without the patronage of Brussels’ employment lawyers or the Tories defensive, minimalist message that the only choice is to get a shoddy deal over the line, both dangerously threaten to squander the promise and potential of Brexit, which is real change.”
Watch the entire Brexit general election launch announcement below:
Boris Johnson has publicly ruled out any bargain with the Brexit Party, but the facts on the ground may be different, the Guido Fawkes bog reports:
[Featured image credit: U.K. government, Wikimedia Commons, Open Government Licence v3.0]“Several MPs were supportive of a behind-the-scenes pact where both parties put up paper candidates against each other in seats where the other has more chance of winning; with one high profile Brexiteer telling us Corbyn’s Remain candidate will undoubtedly win if the Brexit Party put up a candidate against them… No deal between the Tories and Brexit Party could lead to the opposite of a no-deal Brexit.”
