Brexit Madness Overdrive

I had a boss once who kept warning me "Madness is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." I have to admit I didn't even see what it was I was doing wrong and what I needed to change, but I understand what she was talking about.

That noted, I look at the United Kingdom right now and (via Joshua Alvarez at the Washington Monthly):

(Prime Minister Theresa) May is expected to put her negotiated deal up for a third vote this week. But even that faces its own legal hurdle. On Monday, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow ruled out a third vote on May’s deal, citing a procedural rule prohibiting the same question from being repeatedly brought forward during the same parliamentary session. No word yet on how May will overcome that, but let’s assume that the vote will happen. Almost certainly, the deal will be rejected again.

On March 13, Parliament twice voted (in a non-binding way) that the UK should not leave the EU without an agreement. Amid the din of Parliament’s Hamlet-like indecisiveness, Donald Tusk’s January tweet has a ghostly echo: “If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?”

What we're seeing is a Conservative Party that has spent decades hating being a part of the EU but had really no plan on how to reasonably exit that economic cooperative, but they HATE the EU so much they can't admit they've painted themselves into a corner and are stuck in Suicide Over The White Cliffs Of Dover Mode. They want Brexit but they can't deal.

This is what blind partisanship looks like, by the way. A more pragmatic leadership would have had something in fucking place for all this shit before they voted for the damn thing.

But now the British Parliament is stuck with an April 12th deadline - they were able to deal for an extension from March 29, but the EU wants England to make up its damn mind before their own membership elections - and they are down to two options. Take May's terrible Brexit deal that the hardliners see as too Soft and the Remainers see as too Hard, or settle for a No-Deal Brexit that pretty much blows up every aspect of the UK economy, kills the peace deal between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and essentially ships off more than ONE TRILLION British Pounds off-shore permanently.

Meanwhile, the streets of London filled up with a million (maybe two mill) residents protesting the Tories' effort to Leave, demanding a second referendum - because 1) they were lied to by Farage and the other Leave advocates 2) no one realized what the real consequences would be until it started happening and most Brits don't like it now - and for Parliament to just cancel the Article 50 altogether.

Check out the crowds:

I have no seen comparable marchers demanding the UK continue its Leave course. I found this, from a planned march a week ago for a "Leave Means Leave" movement but look at it, there are more cops than marchers at one point:

May might not even last until April 12 (via Dan Sabbagh at the Guardian):

With the prime minister preparing to meet a group of senior Tory rebels at her Chequers country retreat, the chancellor told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday that Conservative colleagues were “very frustrated” and “desperate to find a way forward.”

But as two ministers who had been named as possible interim successors, Michael Gove and David Lidington, played down speculation about the prime minister’s future, Hammond said that talk of pushing May out was “frankly self-indulgent at this time.”

The chancellor – who had been named as one of a group plotting to force her out in a crunch cabinet meeting on Monday – refused to be drawn on whether his colleagues had approached him asking him to intervene...

Cabinet anxieties about May and her ability to maintain control of the stalled Brexit process remain acute, with few in Westminster believing she can get a revised version of her deal through the Commons in the coming days.

Duncan Smith said the idea of a coup “would be unacceptable to my colleagues” and accused cabinet members of breaching collective responsibility by briefing against May...

At this point, let's be honest Tories. YOU dug this hole for yourselves. Your leadership in Cameron recklessly put up an ill-thought referendum without putting any safeguards in place should it pass, and now you're all in cleanup mode... but instead of cleaning up you're digging deeper. There's your sign of madness, Britons.

Blowing up Parliament - no, not like Fawkes! - is the only sane move to make right now. Either admit Brexit is a bad idea and cancel it and deal with the wrath of your (shrinking) Leave constituency, or plunge your whole island kingdom into chaos and economic failure.

Either way, you're fucked Tories. At least take the hit so your people won't have to.