Opinion: Brexit shambles ever onward, destination unknown
Brexit opponent Steve Bray demonstrates outside the Houses of Parliament in London on Thursday. By Megan McArdle Megan McArdle Columnist Bio Follow Columnist March 28 at 4:49 PM LONDON — On Wednesday night, British Prime Minister Theresa May told her party that she would agree to resign and make way for another leader if it voted to approve her plan for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday the House of Commons settled down to the exciting business of charting a path for the nation. Eight indicative votes later, members had voted down every alternative on offer. May’s Brexit process has been an unbelievable shambles; the parliamentary Brexit process turned out to be the same shambles, but noisier.
Conservatives, meanwhile, are hamstrung by their own accidents. First came the Brexit referendum itself, which was supposed to quiet the party’s Brexit faction by handing it a public loss but instead handed it the keys to the kingdom. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron went into exile, and May, his replacement, soon called an early election, seeking a bigger majority heading into Brexit negotiations.
In ordinary times, a vote of no confidence would have been called and won by the opposition. Britain would be headed for a general election and, very probably, a Labour government. But with Corbyn atop the party, victory is uncertain, and Labour moderates are loath to empower him anyway.
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