Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London Calling to the zombies of death
Quit holdin' out and draw another breath
London Calling and I don't want to shout
But while we were talking I saw you noddin' out
London Calling, see we ain't got no high
'Cept for that one with the yellowy eyes
-- The Clash, "London Calling"
At some point talking British politics, you GOT to quote from the classics. I was due to quote my guys - The Only Band That Matters, aside from the Beatles and Ramones - considering Brexit. And boy, today it was way overdue.
Boris Johnson just crashed and burned in his first big vote as Prime Minister, and likely trashed his Tory majority for the moment. Via Patrick Smith at NBC News:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost a key vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday after lawmakers used an obscure procedural motion to wrest control of the parliamentary agenda from the government in a bid to stop a "no deal" Brexit.
The vote was 328-301, with several members of Johnson's Conservative Party rebelling and supporting the motion. They can now expect to be kicked out of the party...
Senior party figures, including former chancellor Philip Hammond, were among those who backed the motion. This means opposition members of Parliament and a handful of rebels from the ruling Conservative party can now introduce legislation to postpone Brexit beyond the Oct. 31 deadline...
The vote was perhaps the most dramatic moment since Britain voted to leave the E.U. in June 2016. Since then, British politics has been paralyzed and obsessed with the question of how the country should leave the bloc.
Most observers now expect the government to call for a snap election in October in order to win a mandate for a "no deal" scenario in case an agreement can't be made with the E.U.
However, it is unclear whether the opposition Labour Party, currently trailing in the polls, will agree to back an early election...
According to other commentators - I can't find the links at the moment - it's not in Labour's best interest to hold a snap election. Johnson could use that election to perform other tricks - such as delaying the election itself - to ensure the No-Deal break from Europe happens on October 31.
More than likely, Labour and the Liberal Democrats - who are likely picking up the exiled Tories to boost their numbers, they already picked up one today to legally break the Conservative majority to zero - could use their mathematical majority number to force another extension of the Brexit deadline and then force something that the Tories and Pro-Leave forces can't sabotage.
Everything is in chaos at the moment. The only thing we can be sure of is that Boris is running out of tricks to force the collapse of the United Kingdom to serve his whims. This is, unfortunately, the moment when a wounded beast is at his most dangerous.
2 comments:
I saw the Clash open for the Who in Oakland in '82, when I still lived in Eureka and it was a four hour drive. As I backed out of the driveway in my Torino, the brake pedal went all the way to the floor; the master cylinder was bad. After consulting with my friend Matt in the passenger seat, we decided we would see the Who or die trying. The only hard part was navigating Berkeley to get to Matt's sister's house, but since it was late at night by then, we had no real problems.
Still, I don't recommend it, and somewhere in there is probably a workable metaphor for the kind of risks the UK is needlessly navigating just now.
-Doug in Oakland
the car brakes dying on you is a perfect metaphor for Brexit.
Also, according to the 1982 Who lineup, it's a put on it's a put on...
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