EU oughta know

Monday was the second round of indicative votes. This time, the motions up for debate and vote were customs union, common market, second referendum whatever happens and one guaranteeing parliamentary sovereignty.

As the debate was going on, there was a bit of a commotion in the public gallery. Environmental activists, upset about little being done about climate change, had stripped to their underpants and, well, look at the picture:

Now, I also don’t think enough has been done about climate change, but this was stupid. They should have done it during PMQ’s. As it was, it was a sidebar to the vote.

As quite widely expected, not a single motion got a majority, though one was very, very close. Then we got a mic drop moment. Tory MP Nick Boles, who wrote one of the motions, stood up and spoke. He said that the reason none of the motions passed is because the Tories, his own party, refused to compromise. then, to a pitiful plea of “Oh, no, Nick. Don’t do it”, he announced that he was no longer going to sit with the party. Or, in other words, he resigned from the Tory party. He then left the chamber to applause from the Opposition benches.

Tuesday saw a seven hour Cabinet meeting. After which, Theresa May made a speech inviting Jeremy Corbyn to talks about a compromise. He accepted.

Today was another unprecedented day. It was blocked off for a further round of indicative votes. But that was changed, in order to get another bill, compelling May to ask for a further extension, ready to go to the Lords for their scrutiny and vote. The bill was starting today.

Normally, this takes months. Between the first reading, the second reading, the committee stage, the report stage and the third reading, it takes a while. To my knowledge, the whole process has never, ever been fitted in to a single day.

Some, mostly Tories, kept complaining to the Speaker that it shouldn’t be happening. These complaints fell on deaf ears.

There was an attempt to add an amendment. This would have given Monday over to another round of indicative votes. The vote on the amendment was a tie. This meant that the Speaker had to break the tie, the first time this has happened since 1993. As there is no status quo, he would normally vote in favour of allowing more debate. But, as there would probably still be nothing that would pass and therefore more debate isn’t necessary, he voted Nay and the amendment fell.

After a committee stage that saw the whole house turned into the committee, there was the third reading vote. This was the big one and it passed by a single vote.

Tomorrow the bill goes to the Lords. If they vote for it, it’ll become law.

Oh, here’s a thought. If anyone has any questions about British politics, ask and I’ll answer as best I can.

Will