Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
May Quells Latest Tory Brexit Rebellion
The Conservative Party is still divided over Britain's departure from the EU. The latest proof stems from the term "meaningful vote." What happens if the mandarins of Whitehall and the bureaucrats of Brussels can't come to a post-Brexit agreement by the deadline set by Article 50 of the EU Treaty? Does the House of Commons get a say? Does that potential say undermine the government's negotiating position? Prime Minister May has avoided answering such questions again by negotiating a compromise with those who want a hard-Brexit. Some day, the Tories won't be able to kick the can down the road.
The argument that no deal is better than a bad deal sounds right. Yet, given the magnitude of the disaster that no deal represents, is there such a thing as a bad deal? Perhaps, the EU could extract concessions from the UK while giving the UK nothing in return, but that falls under the heading of possible but not probable.
If there is a deal between the UK and the EU by next March, or at the end of the transition period anyway in 2020, then none of this matters. The government has the authority to agree terms, and if by some miracle, all 27 EU members can agree to what the Tory Party seems to want, life will go on with a quiet acceleration of Britain's decline.
Where the rapid acceleration would occur is if there is no deal. Then, British goods and services would enter the EU and vice versa under the global terms of the World Trade Organization. That would be a huge burden for all concerned, and it is for this reason that a deal is vital and why there isn't such a thing as a bad deal.
Nevertheless, there are some hard-core Brexit fans who believe that there is a secret plot to prevent Brexit. They want out all the way, and they don't care how bad it gets.
The latest compromise is best summed up by Jessica Elgot live blogging for The Guardian who wrote, "if MPs have not approved the Brexit withdrawal agreement by 21 January 2019, the government must schedule a vote within five working days. But the government was saying that motion must be 'in neutral terms, to the effect that the House of Commons has considered the matter of'. A motion like that would not be amendable. But Grieve and the rebels were not happy, because, in those circumstances, they wanted MPs to be able to table an amendment saying something like: 'This House now requires the government to return to Brussels to try again/negotiate EEA membership/or whatever'.
"The government has now issued a statement saying that, actually, it will be up to the speaker at the time to decide if said motion debated under the terms of this clause can be amended."
It turns out enough of the rebels are happy with this to stay in line and not vote against the government. The final bits of the debate are going on now, but the vote is already in the books.
That does not necessarily mean that Ms. May and her cabinet are out of the woods. It just means that they will not face a confidence motion over this in the next few days.
© Copyright 2018 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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