Brexit in a nutshell

David Cameron made a promise he didn’t think he’d have to keep to have a referendum he didn’t think he would lose.

Boris Johnson decided to back the side he didn’t believe in because he didn’t think it would win. Then Gove, who said he wouldn’t run, did, and Boris who said he would run, said he wouldn’t, and Theresa May who didn’t vote for Brexit got the job of making it happen.

She called the general election she said she wouldn’t and lost the majority David Cameron hadn’t expected to win in the first place.

She triggered Article 50 when we didn’t need to and said we would talk about trade at the same time as the divorce deal and the EU said they wouldn’t so we didn’t. People thought she wouldn’t get the divorce settled but she did, but only by agreeing to separate arrangements for Northern Ireland when she had promised the DUP she wouldn’t.

Then the Cabinet agreed a deal but they hadn’t, and David Davis who was Brexit Secretary but wasn’t said it wasn’t what people had voted for and he couldn’t support what he had just supported and left. Boris Johnson who hadn’t left then wished that he had and did, but it was a bit late for that. Dominic Raab become the new Brexit secretary.

People thought Theresa May wouldn’t get a withdrawal agreement negotiated, but once she had they wished that she hadn’t, because hardly anybody liked it whether they wanted to leave or remain. Jacob Rees-Mogg kept threatening a vote of no confidence in her but not enough people were confident enough people would not have confidence in her to confidently call a no confidence vote.

Dominic Raab said he hadn’t really been Brexit Secretary either and resigned, and somebody else took the job but it probably isn’t worth remembering who they are as they’re not really doing the job either as civil servant Olly Robbins is.

Then she said she would call a meaningful vote and didn’t, that she wouldn’t release some legal advice but an administrative decision meant she had to, that she would get some concessions but didn’t, and got cross that Juncker was calling her nebulous when he wasn’t but probably should have been. At some point Jacob Rees Mogg and others called a vote of no confidence in her, which she won by promising to leave, so she can stay. But they said she had really lost it and should go, at the same time as saying that people who voted Leave knew what they were voting for which they couldn’t possibly have because we still don’t know now, and that we should leave the vote to Leave vote alone but have no confidence in the no confidence vote which won by more.

The government also argued in court against us being able to say we didn’t want to leave after all but it turned out we could.

She named a date for the vote on her agreement which nobody expected to pass, while pretending that no-deal which nobody wants is still possible (even though we know we can just say we are not leaving), and that we can’t have a second referendum because having a democratic vote is undemocratic. And of course as expected, she loses.

Some people are talking about a managed no-deal which is not a deal but is not no-deal either.

The good news is that the government has to come up with a viable Plan B by next Monday to present to parliament!

Thank goodness for “strong and stable government.”

The sooner it's all over and we're out of Europe, the better!

I thought this thread would be full of bile from the Remainers, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

Things have changed a great deal since I came across that original quote. By law, we are due to leave and act according to World Trade rules at midnight tomorrow, 29 March. But as I understand it, the EU has passed a rule to extend that date - but hang on, it's us who want to leave! As Jacob R-M said, that's one very good reason why we want to be out. Why should another country make the rules for us to follow? And why should the EU prevent us from making out own trade deals with countries outside of the EU?

It should never have been put to a vote of the general public, 90% of people didn't have a clue as to the ramifications, but voted anyway, by way of asserting their self importance.

I think it was done the way it was is so whatever happens, the government can say "the people voted for it"
We still don't know how it will pan out.
there will be good and bad.
who knows??

At the time of the vote, words like 'hard Brexit' and 'soft Brexit' didn't exist. As I understood it, the referendum was either for remaining as we are, or for leaving completely, following World Trade Rules, as we did before. Both main parties promised in their manifestos that they would honour the result, leave the Single Market and also leave the Customs Union....

But did they do that? No, in a departure from the usual adherence to manifesto promises, the mostly Remain supporting government (and opposition) have done all they can to remain in Europe, while pretending it *is* Brexit, but a 'soft' version of it. Most are now in favour of remaining in either the Single Market, or the Customs Union, or both.

I no longer think any of our MPs are fit for purpose. Some want a general election. That would be interesting, as both parties would have to have clear and coherent policies, together with convicing promises that they will keep to their manifestos if elected.

I wonder what will be on these manifestos when the next election is called? We live in Interesting Times, I think!

Could be another hung parliament...

vote of no confidence.
interesting times indeed

occurs to me, if you had got a deal maker like Trump, it would've been simpler..
Euro-Exit

It seems that the UK Parliament and the US congress (all politicians) operate in almost the same fashion. Seldom can they agree on anything, they have no sense of reality, and they won't resolve any issue until the crisis is upon them. I guess that is just the way of politicians!! Business and technical people are about solving problems not playing politics and placating their base!

Yes indeed, Trump claims he told May how to do it but May didn't do as he told her and the resltant mess is all her fault! I do agree that with someone like him as our PM we would now be out of Europe. That would suit me, but the Remainers would be creating a lot of noise about it.

I am in full agreement with both jaish and oldkid.

I am a leave supporter. The root problem is our balance of Payments which means we don't pay our way in the world. We export a lot in cars but we are losing our car industry, not due to Brexit but because there are too many car plants in the world and they are all foreign owned. By French law, you cant close a French plant so its goodbye Vauxhall, The Germans are not going to close a German plant for the midlands and the Japanese have just signed a trade deal with the EU which means they do not need a plant in the EU. That is a hell of a lot of Jobs lost.

With the loss of car exports and all cars having to be imported our Balance of Payments will be Horrific and nothing we can do about it.

The advantage of Brexit was that we can go round the world doing trade deals with the rest of the world but the economy will take a hit for 3-5year but our economy is reasonably strong.

If we remain in the EU when our Balance of Payments collapses, we have no-where to go and our economy will be badly weakened. That is why I feel we must leave

I'm also pro Brexit. Someone needs to be the first to break this shite EU. And the English are strong & resilient enough to make it through. Another advantage is that they still have their own currency, so no problems with switching back from Euro.
In a way you've always set the tone in the world, as good as invincible. Let it remain that way and you setting an example for the rest of Western European countries who are badly damaged by the EU.
We unfortunately have had a weak leader in place for years who has his nose up EU @$$es, guaranteeing a well-paid job when he's done running our country in the ground.

I don't know much else about politics and economics, not my thing. On another level I deeply feel this is soooo needed! And I'm glad more and more people in my country are beginning to be against the overdose of EU influence.
So I hope Brexit is going to happen and that more countries will follow, hopefully mine as well.
And you likely won't have an influx of eastern Europeans anymore either. Another thing that hasn't done our country any good.

That's like if California wants out of the US ain't gonna be pretty for Californians.
Sure they'll survive but consider the tariffs and gridlock for paperwork to get tomatoes to Arizona . Wham !!! All of a sudden it's 10 dollars a pound. You gonna be happy with that?

Tha EU was created to rid of these tariffs across Europe to be able to catch to the geographical mass, people and production of the US.
Ergo , by themselves, France,Germany and the rest cannot compete successfully in economic terms against china, Russia or the us. It's economics 101 .

I think I said we were due to leave the EU on 29 March. That date has of course been and gone and so has a second date. Reason is that May was a remainer, trying to recogise the result of the referendum, but her heart was not in it. And the EU knew it, so they just waited, knowing she would cave in and request another extension.

The EU would have loved it if she were still in power, requesting extensions, one after another for ever - which is effectively remainining in Europe!

But no, we now have Boris who has made it quite clear that although he wants a deal, if he doesn't get one we will leave with no deal regardless, and there will be no further extensions.

Some Remain-voting MPs are reacting as though he really does want a no-deal exit and are doing all they can to stop us leaving. The old idea of each party having its own identity has now been replaced with each MP having his or her own idea of where to go and no interest whatsoever in cooperating with the others. The word 'compromise' is probably about to disappear.

Some Remainers are now saying that all they want it out. It's very difficult for business to plan when they don't know what they should be planning for.

Thoughts, anyone?

Hi mk, it's still dragging on
If thatcher had of been in charge the eu would have been on there knees trying to help!
We've had to many weak leaders the past few years.
And as for Corbyn and the other half wits all they was is bring down the government whatever the cost.
Cameron called the vote because that's what he promised, successive governments have refused.
The thing is that even though we voted to leave they didn't have to evoke article 50 straight away. It was Corbyn who pushed that.
What really pi sses me of with the media and the short term memory loss brigade is Cameron went to Brussels before he called the vote. Brussels basically told him where to go. The eu was and is desperately in need of change but they wouldn't have it.
I refer to the eu but anyone with any savvy knows it's Germany who run the show with a bit of french help!

I was told Italy also wants out of the EU?

Mikey, it is funny (to me) how you in a way call on Thatcher yet normally speaking most everyone despises her, hihi.
For some reason I always liked her.

Lol
People are 2 faced crystal, they mostly will say whatever you want to hear.
She made it possible for people to have their own business which labour hated, she enabled people to buy houses and so on. Now it was the poll tax that most hated. Imagine this.
Your living on your own and a family are living next door with working adults. why should you pay the same council tax as them? Her system was a tax per person. I think fair.
As for the coal miners, we couldn't sustain the loss the pits were making.
The fact is that Harold Wilson, a labour prime minister shut more coal mines than she did lol
I do refer to her, she was a very strong leader. she took us through the Falklands war which labour wouldn't have done. they'd of caved in.

All sounds positive to me too. And the coal mines, difficult thing. Was difficult here too. The area where the mines used to be is still struggling economically. No matter what, coaling wasn't sustainable anymore. And the labour itself inhuman.
And yes, the Falklands, the lady did not fool around, did she, hihi. She put Britain back on the map as a country & force to be reckoned with. I can appreciate that over the lame indecisive people that often 'rule' a country.
Maybe that was why I somehow liked her.

I liked it when the war started the french were going to send missiles to Argentina!
She told the french if any of your ships leave port they will be sunk!
An analogy, if there was 2 bags of coal at the shop, one was imported at €5 and the other bag was from here at €10 which one would you buy ?everyone would go for the least expensive and this goes for everything.