More politics, I’m afraid

Picture is the latest in my journey to try cooking new stuff.  Beef and tomato casserole.  T’was nice.

At 23:00 on the 29th of March this year, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will be leaving the European Union.

Last month, the House of Commons had a vote on the withdrawal agreement.  This is the document that sets the terms for us leaving the EU.  This was voted down on the biggest Government defeat in history.

Theresa May tried to renegotiate the deal.  But the EU, as they said would happen, refused to do so as the current deal is the best they can offer given Mays red lines.

And so, it came back to a vote on Tuesday.  But on Monday night, it was revealed that May had got something that might change the outcome of the vote.

Turns out, what she had got was basically a letter that said that the EU promised not to do something they had never threatened to do to begin with.

Hence, the government lost the second meaningful vote, but this time by only the fourth largest majority of any government defeat in history.

Yesterday, there was a vote against leaving the EU with no deal.  Bear in mind, that it’s not a binding vote because no deal is the default setting.  Now, we were told that the Tories would have a free vote, which meant that their MPs could vote with their conscience rather than the way the party wanted them to.

Then the motion was significantly amended.  So, the Tories were whipped.  There were still enough of them that rebelled and the government lost.

Today, there was a vote to ask the EU to extend the Article 50 deadline.  There was an amendment put forward to request an extension so we could hold a second referendum, but it failed.  The main motion, however, did pass.

So, here we are.  Theresa May has a deal that the Commons will not pass.  It’s due to come for a third vote next week, if the Speaker will allow that to happen (which he may not, he may call it disorderly instead).  Our MP’s have said that they don’t want to leave with no deal, but something needs to happen to prevent that happening, as, if not, it’ll happen regardless.  We’re going to ask for an extension, but we need the EU to agree.  Which they’re not going to do without there being an actual purpose to it.  which means renegotiation, which we’re not getting unless May moves on her red lines (hint, she won’t), we have a general election or we have a second referendum.  Or we could just rescind Article 50 and stay in the EU.

Oh, and another ting about the vote on Wednesday.  Theresa May, as it turns out, wasn’t able to defeat her own fucking bill.

Yeah.  And you thought everything up to now was a complete shitshow.

Will