[Headline from DRJ]
BBC – Tearful Theresa May resigns:
Theresa May has announced she will step down as Conservative Party leader on 7 June.
She broke down in tears as she said serving as prime minister was “the honour of my life”
— DRJ
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She seems like a courageous and honorable lady who tried to do the right things in an impossible situation.
Dave (1bb933) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:11 amShe thought the Brits were kidding when they voted for Brexit. Now, Farage is eating her lunch. It’s the story the media desperately wants to ignore.
Munroe (fe26e8) — 5/24/2019 @ 8:42 amThe EU pantsed her and then ate the UK’s lunch.
nk (dbc370) — 5/24/2019 @ 8:50 amwhoever succeeds her will be dealing with the same problem. They can’t get the kind of relationship with the EU they could have had had they never joined in the first place. Although maybe even that is not good.
If the UK wants ti restrict immmigration from the EU in any way they have to have ahard Irish border or a hard borer between Northern Ireland adnd the rest of theUK. They can restrict goverment benefits but not the right to work. And the thing is, they don’t want to really limit it muxh but they also don’t want to appear racist so they son’t really want different rules to apply to the EU and to Pakistan or Jamaica.
This is all a success for Putin.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 5/24/2019 @ 9:01 amEngland has their own stammering Pelosi. Just another Foreign deep state turd.
mg (8cbc69) — 5/24/2019 @ 9:11 am> If the UK wants ti restrict immmigration from the EU in any way they have to have ahard Irish border or a hard borer between Northern Ireland adnd the rest of theUK.
And they want neither of these things, and are continuing to pretend that they can just magically get a Brexit that doesn’t require either of them.
aphrael (3f0569) — 5/24/2019 @ 9:41 amPiers Morgan
@piersmorgan
This elderly gentleman served in the British armed forces for 22 years.
Today he was manning a Brexit Party polling station when he was attacked & had milkshake thrown all over him.
All because he wants the result of a democratic referendum to be honoured.
Disgusting.
https://mobile.twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1131513167975256064
harkin (1aa46f) — 5/24/2019 @ 10:54 am1. With respect, no. She was a grey undistinguished bureaucrat who believed that the Brexit vote was an error by the masses. She did nothing to effect it. Instead, she let it molder, and like the pre-1860 presidents, hoped this desire of the masses to be free of an ever-encroaching EU, would fade away, so it could be strangled in its crib with backroom deals.
She would have regarded the patriotic and deep feeling Churchill with disgust, the optimistic and freedom loving Reagan with contempt, and is out of touch with her own country.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 5/24/2019 @ 11:04 amMay respected the public decision on Brexit but she did not want to shatter the Conservative Party in the process.
Reagan did not destroy the GOP to implement his agenda. I doubt he felt that would be good for the country.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/24/2019 @ 11:34 am6. aphrael (3f0569) — 5/24/2019 @ 9:41 am
They want neither a hard Irish border, (which would be a change from the status quo) nor freedom of migration too the UK for citizens of the European Union (which they have now, but for demagogic reasons want the power to restrict, even though they;re not all that interested i restricting anything. And they also don’t want to disturb Britons residing in the EU()
They don’t want a hard Irish border because that would upset the Good Friday agreement that ended The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and while they can avoid a hard Irish border by having a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, they don’t want that either. The Unionists, upon whose support the Conservatives rely since the 2017 election, don’t want that.
Theresa May’s Brexit plan (which I think postpones full Brexit until the Ireland issue settled – it creates an Irish backstop with no termination date) might have a chance of passing iff Sein Fein would give up one of its principles – to run in contests for the Westminster Parliament, but never take their seats.
If there was customs union with the European Union they could also avvoid ahard Irish border, but the EU will not allow free movement of goods and capital withojut free movement of klabor. That wasn’t part of the common market when Great Britain joined, but it is now; and countries like Poland have a big interest in that. Even Hungary because that night be one thing that could create trouble for Victor Orban.
The UK also has no real reason to restrict immigration from the EU – there wouldn’t be a problem with eligibility requirments for the NHS or any other government benefit, but for demaggic reasons they want to keep totals down, and to avoid appearing racist they lump together all immigration equally
Well, they want two things and can only have one:
Either a soft Irish border or the legal right to limit immigration from the EU. One or the other. They can have one or the other but not both. But you have to get alittle deep into the issue to understand that those are the real sticking points.
There are other complications – like how much free-of-inspectiopneearetrade they can have if free of all of the EUs product rules.
Back in 2016 they thought they could get a Brexit that they can’t get, and also that they woud profit and had great bargaining power. There is bargaining power – they coud make trouble for te EU – but the EU could make trouble also for the UK.
Sammy Finkelman (db7fea) — 5/24/2019 @ 11:37 amBack in the day, when living in the UK, when the Chunnel was just a quaint dream project, a unified Germany still a dreaded, smoldering nightmare and conservative Ted Heath was PM, the Brits were vigorously debating tying themselves more tightly, economically, to continental Europe. Immigration wasn’t really that big a thing given the generational mix from Empire days already peppering the place. ‘Buy British’ parades in Central London were a quarterly spectacle along Park Lane; the Anglo-French Concorde was flying and hailed a success– their ‘moon shot’ and so forth. Strengthening the ties to Europe dominated domestic talk for months on end. Eventually the clamor for entry into ‘The Common Market’ as it was called, won out; the geography alone made it common sense. Cheaper goods, lucrative, cost-effective and cross-channel trade; echoes of Churchill’s ‘United States of Europe’ chatter and such was quite popular. In fact, for May, “her own people” 45 years ago wanted it; the upside of it for sure– but the down side never was their cup of tea. New generations and geo-politics shifts bring change– and not necessarily for the better. That thousand year ‘island nation’ mentality dies hard and untying this knot will be just as hard. A people can make mistakes; Prohibition, Trump… Brexit. Now that the complexities at the shopkeeper level are more apparent, a second referendum to reaffirm might be in order.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/24/2019 @ 11:54 amLol – keep voting till we get the result we want.
harkin (1aa46f) — 5/24/2019 @ 12:41 pmTearful Theresa at No. 10 Downing,
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/24/2019 @ 12:50 pmHad a Prime Ministery judged as astounding.
She fell down on Brexit,
As the bureaucrats vexed it,
And solidified the EU’s ill founding.
The selling points were economic. That did make sense. But the EU could not leave well enough alone.
EU bodies now dictate that Britain must accept certain immigration levels, must permit felons to vote, are pushing for more laws controlling “hate speech,” suggesting media controls, and a host of other items that no one ever voted on. The EU Commission is not elected. The UK is losing control of its country to the EU.
The EU wants to control Britain culturally. The Eu is also dividing Britain. An entire new mass of young Brits are now in thrall to the idea of being EU bureaucrats just like Jean-Claude Juenker.
Thatcher saw too late that all the gauzy ideas contained a threat to British sovereignty, but at least she saw it coming.
The UK had a vote: Remain lost. There is no need for or justification for “another” vote (as one notes above “till it comes out as we want it”).
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 5/24/2019 @ 1:09 pmEU bodies now dictate that Britain must accept certain immigration levels, must permit felons to vote, are pushing for more laws controlling “hate speech,” suggesting media controls, and a host of other items that no one ever voted on. The EU Commission is not elected. The UK is losing control of its country to the EU.
Not to mention the infamous EU-levied fine on a rural English greengrocer who had the temerity to sell his wares by the English system of pounds and ounces rather than by the EU-mandated metric grams and kilos. That is the perfect example of bureaucratic overreach.
JVW (54fd0b) — 5/24/2019 @ 1:25 pm15. JVW (54fd0b) — 5/24/2019 @ 1:25 pm
This is the sort of thing you’d have the greatest number of eople saying theyw ant to get away from.
The problem is staying in the customs union without oither things, or keeping the soft Irish border without the customs union.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 5/24/2019 @ 2:07 pmI don’t think so.
What the EU seems united on right now ius that the free movement of kabor goes with the free movement of capital and goods. You can’t have one with the ZEU without the other, and you can’t have nothing and avoid ahard Irish border.
You know what they were talking about? Some kind of automatic sensor.
That can work for cars in congestion pricing, not so much for goods.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 5/24/2019 @ 2:09 pmI think the UK / EU will just have to rip the bandaid off and setup the hard border at checkpoints and ports.
This isn’t rocket science and the rest of the world deals with it just fine.
whembly (fd57f6) — 5/24/2019 @ 2:12 pm@12/@14. The EU certainly isn’t perfect. But it works for the Europe of today. Neither of you really understand or appreciate the shopkeeper mentality in Britain’s towns and shires any more than they fully grasped the ramifications of Brexit along the high streets, lanes and mews to daily commerce. It was an emotional vote to be sure, more vexed by the immediacy of immigration issue but the ramifications to daily life were not thought through well at all. This ‘Common Market’ EU mix has been in work there in the post-war era for half a century and it’s a common sense good idea- the ‘United States of Europe’ thing Churchill talked of in theory. Even something as practical as the concept of ‘the Chunnel’ drew as much heated debate in the modern era as it did in the 19th century. After centuries as the ‘island nation’ – it literally linked Britain physically to the continent of Europe–France, no less. Old Britons were never keen on that. The geography alone dictates stronger economic ties to the Continent and the ying-and-yang of maintaining ‘British sovereignty’ arguments is something the Brits must sort out for themselves– it’s been an issue with them for centuries and certainly doesn’t need input from meddling Americans. They assumed they’d be running the show– not fielding dictates from Brussels- never expecting a strong, unified Germany so soon, either, and having to accommodate issues from other EU members as well. It’s simply not possible to maintain the level of independent ‘sovereignty’ the nut bags crave while at the same time being a full partner in the EU any more than it is possible for wackos in Virginia to mint their own currency and expect it to be accepted as coin of the realm in the rest of the United States. If/when they leave they’ll pay a dear price– and be back in it before the end of the century. A reaffirmation vote would clarify the national resolve. But to leave- a break-up; that is a win for Putin in the now. But the ‘sovereignty issue’ has always been there; it’s their mess to sort out– and it has been one for a very, very long time w/Britons, before and after the heady Empire- commonwealth days. It always comes back to the same thing w/them- do Britons want to be part of Europe or not. Bring that up in a pub on a Saturday evening and you’ll be arguing until closing time– then out into the street– especially if you’re from France.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/24/2019 @ 4:24 pm@15. No, that’s an example of being a part of ‘The Common Market.’ The metrics of change are hard to ignore and old habits die hard: was there when the Brits shifted from pound-shilling-pence to decimalization back in ’71. Even that was a ‘battle royale’ to witness first hand in daily life.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/24/2019 @ 4:52 pmEnglish brexiters have delusions that they can return to the level of power they had 150 years ago. It’s not going to happen and they are going to be disappointed, even if they get every single thing they want, because they are losing market access, so they will be losing money.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:12 pm19: Yeah, how dare those masses of shopkeepers that fended off the Nazis want to keep their own country?
Measuring the long term stability of France and Germany versus Britain; long term support for freedom in Britain versus EU countries. Ally status for the US of Britain versus Germany and France. I’ll take those shopkeepers versus the continent any day.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:35 pm21 Maybe they just want to be in their own country w/o being bossed about on matters from speech to immigration by an unelected body called the EU Commission?
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:36 pmThat’s just crazy talk, just knuckle under to the same German they fought two wars to avoid been controlled by.
Narciso (bfe04a) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:40 pm21 Maybe they just want to be in their own country w/o being bossed about on matters from speech to immigration by an unelected body called the EU Commission?
Given how shambolic Parliament has been for two years now, the unelecteds might not be a bad idea.
If Brexit goes through, Northern Ireland might indeed end up joined to the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland may indeed go independent. So the English will have their own country, but not much more than that.
And remember that the referendum approved Brexit by a fairly small margin: 51.89% vs 48.11%, less than a million and a half votes out of approximately 33 1/2 million total.
Kishnevi (803f72) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:54 pm@21. There is something to that.
@22. Again, it’s that ‘sovereignty’ thing; actually battling the ‘Nazis’ has a bit less to do w/it than the loss of the Empire; the Commonwealth; India and so forth. Those old wounds still comes up in chatter w/Brits- traditions; ‘1066 and all that.’ Even with those who have zero living ties to it other than the monuments that pepper the country to same cling to a greatness long gone. Looking back is not the way forward.
@23. But those are small particulars against the greater loss. You said it yourself- the ‘being their own country’ as opposed to being part of the greater EU comes back to that ‘sovereignty’ identity issue they’ve been dealing with for several centuries.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/24/2019 @ 6:56 pm23. And they can want that, but they can only get it with a trade off that I think they haven’t realistically considered.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/24/2019 @ 7:15 pmIf you believe that Britain should no longer be sovereign, do you believe the same for the USA? Do you believe in the dream of a one world government?
NJRob (4d595c) — 5/24/2019 @ 10:30 pmIf you believe that Britain should no longer be sovereign, do you believe the same for the USA? Do you believe in the dream of a one world government?
(*says it’s a duplicate comment, but the comment never showed up)
NJRob (4d595c) — 5/24/2019 @ 10:33 pm“So the English will have their own country, but not much more than that.”
-Preferable to being someone else’ vassal state?
” . . . the unelecteds might not be a bad idea.”
-Ah. There it is: the thought that the little people need direction. On that:
(1) since they don’t have direct elections for the PM, maybe they need MORE input from people, rather than insulated parliamentary types who resist what the people voted for? The people didn’t invite masses of immigrants. Or vote for the EU Commission.
(2), The EU “brain trust” nearly bankrupted itself by handing out EU credit cards to Spain and Greece; Merkel unilaterally invited in 1m migrants no one wanted, but Germany’s NATO contribution is 1.1% –as opposed to 2%, while Merkel buys Putin’s gas, and most of Germany’s typhoon and other fighters and Leopard tanks are inoperable for war; France is dependent on Germany’s banks, and Macron is hanging on for dear life.
Among that whole sorry area of the world, only one country has demonstrated durability and dedication to freedom. If anything the people there need more direct control, not less.
“fairly small margin” Love it. So that’s the basis for a redo of every election is it? I sense a remainer!
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 5/25/2019 @ 2:48 pm