Dominic Cummings said in a provocative series of tweets that he had always intended to get “the trolley” – his derogatory nickname for the Prime Minister – to “ditch the bits we didn’t like” after beating Labour in the 2019 general election.

His latest intervention came after Brexit minister Lord Frost set out the UK’s demands for fundamental changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol contained in the agreement which Mr. Johnson signed in January 2020.

Dominic Cummings@Dominic2306
Oct 12, 2021
Replying to @Dominic2306

For all those whining, you try solving a once-a-century constit crisis starting on 10% in polls with totally fkd negotiating situation, SW1 hysterical, joke Cabinet, mutinous GLS & a fkd for PM who only understood even vaguely WTF the Customs Union was in 11/20 – not easy!

Dominic Cummings@Dominic2306

No what I’ve said does NOT mean ‘the PM was  lying in GE2019’, he never had a scoobydoo what the deal he signed meant. He never understood what leaving Customs Union meant until 11/20. In 1/20 he was babbling ‘I’d never have signed it if Id understood it’ (but that WAS a lie)

He said that when Mr. Johnson finally realized the true implications of the deal, he claimed he would never have agreed to it – although Mr. Cummings said that was a lie.

During the election campaign, Mr. Johnson repeatedly boasted that the “divorce” settlement he had negotiated with Brussels – including the Northern Ireland Protocol – was a “great” deal that was “oven ready” to be signed.

Mr. Cummings said: “What I’ve said does NOT mean ‘the PM was lying in General Election 2019’, he never had a scoobydoo what the deal he signed meant.

“He never understood what leaving Customs Union meant until November 2020.”

When the Prime Minister did finally comprehend, “he was babbling ‘I’d never have signed it if I’d understood it’ (but that WAS a lie)”.

Dominic Cummings@Dominic2306

We took over a party on ~10%, worst constitutional crisis in century, much of deep state angling for BINO or 2REF. So we wriggled thro with best option we cd & intended to get the to ditch bits we didn’t like after whacking Corbyn. We prioritized.

Mr. Cummings, who was credited with masterminding the successful Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, said that, when Mr. Johnson entered No 10 in 2019, the country was facing the “worst constitutional crisis in a century” with much of what he called the “deep state” angling for “Bino” (Brexit in name only) or a second referendum.

“So we wriggled through with best option we could and intended to get the trolley to ditch bits we didn’t like after whacking (Labour leader Jeremy) Corbyn. We prioritized,” he said.

He dismissed suggestions that abandoning those elements of the Withdrawal Agreement would mean breaking international law.

“Our priorities meant e.g. getting Brexit done is 10,000 times more important than lawyers yapping re international law in negotiations with people who break international law all the time,” he said.

“EU membership infantilized SW1 (Westminster) as yapping re ‘international law’ clearly shows.”

Source: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-did-not-understand-brexit-deal-dominic-cummings-b960229.html

The post Boris Johnson did not understand his own Brexit deal, says Dominic Cummings first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson and health secretary Matt Hancock have both tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Johnson announced on social media he had mild symptoms and is now self-isolating.

He said: “Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus.

“I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.

“Together we will beat this. #StayHomeSaveLives”

The Prime Minister was tested in Number 10 after experiencing mild symptoms on Thursday.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “After experiencing mild symptoms yesterday, the Prime Minister was tested for coronavirus on the personal advice of England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty.

“The test was carried out in No 10 by NHS staff and the result of the test was positive.

“In keeping with the guidance, the Prime Minister is self-isolating in Downing Street.

“He is continuing to lead the government’s response to coronavirus.”

Later it was confirmed health secretary Mr. Hancock has also tested positive.

Mr. Hancock tweeted: “Following medical advice, I was advised to test for #Coronavirus. I’ve tested positive.

“Thankfully my symptoms are mild and I’m working from home and self-isolating. Vital we follow the advice to protect our NHS & save lives.”

After Mr. Johnson posted a Twitter video explaining that he had suffered “mild symptoms”, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led messages from across the political divide.

He tweeted: “I wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery and hope his family is safe and healthy.

“Coronavirus can and does affect anyone. Everyone be safe. Our own health depends on everybody else.”

Source: https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/18339536.prime-minister-boris-johnson-says-tested-positive-coronavirus/

The post Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock both test positive for coronavirus first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Admittedly, Johnson did himself few favours with his bumbling performance when put on the spot by a TV reporter over photos of a young boy sleeping on a hospital floor.

But it wasn’t the NHS that made millions brave driving rain to mark an ‘X’ with a stubby pencil.

For most Tories – and many former Labour voters – it was, in the words of the only three words the campaign will be remembered for, to ‘get Brexit done’.

Simon Walters writes that the election was all about Brexit. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at Copper Box Arena in London in a last campaign effort the day before the General Election

And for Home Counties Tory Remainers egged on by Sir John Major, hectoring Jo Swinson’s Lib Dem Europhiles and Labour’s pro-Brussels London luvvies, it was to get Brexit undone.

The truth is that almost exactly three and a half years after the referendum the country is still deeply divided over whether the UK should leave the EU. Every party was tied in knots trying to grapple with Brexit fissures during the campaign.

Corbyn panicked when he realized his feeble fence-sitting was driving working-class Leavers in Labour’s so-called Red Wall of seats in the North into Boris’s arms.

A token pro-Leave Corbynista was sent North to try to curb the insurrection – and was greeted with a loud raspberry from one end of Hadrian’s Wall to the other.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer – a silken-tongued southern MP and arch-Remainer – was so invisible in the North he might as well have spent the campaign on Mars. But if you were a Labour supporter in pro-Remain Putney, south-west London, you could have been forgiven for thinking Starmer was Labour leader, not Corbyn.

Brexit party leader Nigel Farage pictured on the campaign trail in Hartlepool, the day before the general election

Starmer’s face, not Corbyn’s, was plastered all over one of the Putney Labour candidate’s leaflets in a straightforward attempt to milk the Remain vote and ‘Stop Brexit’.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson did the seemingly impossible when she was rejected by fellow Remainers who said her pledge to summarily revoke the Article 50 departure process from the EU made a mockery of the word ‘democrat’ in her party’s name.

She consoled herself by trying to wrestle the Foreign Secretary – karate black-belt Dominic Raab – out of his seat in Esher in the heavily Remain Surrey commuter belt.

Nigel Farage disappeared in a cloud of his own cigarette smoke when his Brexit Party supporters concluded he had become the biggest threat to his own declared objective.

Johnson got every Tory candidate to sign his Brexit pledge, but this did not prevent blood-letting between the Conservatives’ warring factions.

In Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve, standing as an independent after being thrown out of the party for his one-man crusade to block Brexit, called Johnson a ‘pathological liar’.

Parliament is widely held to have failed to do its duty over Brexit, with endless dither, delay, bickering and back-biting that reduced a once great nation to a laughing stock.

If only Brexit cheerleader Boris had moved into No 10 after the referendum instead of Remainer Theresa May, we would have ‘got Brexit done’ three years ago and moved on, goes the argument.

I am not so sure.

Current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pictured outside a polling station in his North Islington constituency in London

Before the referendum campaign began, veteran Brexiteer John Redwood told me it would be ‘the English Civil War without muskets’. That war lasted nine years, cost around 100,000 lives and split families for generations. But it but sowed the seeds for the nation’s future tolerance, prosperity and success.

The long-term consequences of Brexit may not be so profound. Most would settle for a decent trade deal with the EU, continued pet passports and controlled immigration while ensuring we have enough people to staff the NHS, care homes and the local Costa Coffee.

There has been vicious social-media abuse and threats to MPs on all sides. Tory Iain Duncan Smith received a dismembered rat through his letterbox just days ago.

But staying in the EU has not prevented neo-Nazi protests in Merkel’s Germany and Gilets Jaunes riots in Macron’s France.

The Parliamentary deadlock in Westminster has been petty, agonizing and frustrating – but in my view, the extra three and a half years spent thrashing out a hugely complex issue have not all been wasted.

Most people who turned out yesterday had a greater understanding of Brexit than they did in June 2016, when few had heard of the Customs Union, let alone knew what it was – including some MPs I could mention.

If you wanted to vote for or against Brexit yesterday, there were guides on how to vote tactically in every seat.

Before the election was called, the depressing prospect (to me, anyway) of the UK spending much of 2020 fighting a long, bitter second referendum seemed increasingly likely.

With luck, it took place yesterday. And not a musket was fired.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7787071/SIMON-WALTERS-election-came-just-one-thing-Brexit.html

The post This election came down to just one thing – Brexit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Polls show his Conservative Party on course to win a majority, which would mean Parliament voting to leave the European Union by Jan. 31. But in the 2017 election, those polls were wrong, and Johnson will urge supporters not to be complacent.

On Monday, the prime minister is visiting Sunderland in Northeast England, one of the first places to declare in favor of leaving the European Union on the night of the 2016 referendum. He’ll say that vote has been frustrated by members of parliament with “dither and delay, prevarication and procrastination, obfuscation and obstruction,” according to his office.

Johnson himself was part of that parliament and a leader of the Conservative rebellion that stopped Britain from leaving the EU in March. But the signs are that voters aren’t going to punish him for this in Thursday’s election.

Polls in the Sunday newspapers all put the Conservatives in the lead. There were some signs that Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition Labour Party was closing the gap, but not by enough yet to keep the Conservatives out of power.

“No one can rule out a surprise, especially after the surprise of 2017, but on the face of it, Johnson is headed for victory,” said Anthony Wells of polling firm YouGov. “There’s a spread in the polling, but it’s between polls that show Johnson getting a big majority, polls that show a medium majority and polls showing it’s touch-and-go for a majority.”

One possible catalyst for a Tory upset would be if opponents of Brexit manage to persuade people to vote “tactically” for the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservatives. The difficulty is that in tight races, it’s not always clear which party that is.

Labour Campaign

Labour, too, will return to its core message, with Treasury spokesman John McDonnell telling voters that the party will put “money in your pockets” and “power in your hands” by increasing government spending and setting up new bodies that will regenerate the U.K. outside London.

But the party is struggling. McDonnell acknowledged on the BBC on Sunday that the emergence of a strain of anti-Semitism in the party under Corbyn’s leadership was hurting Labour in the election. “I worry that this has had its effect,” he said.

Johnson on Sunday strove to brush off issues about his Brexit deal, denying that products traveling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain would need to undergo inspections. “There won’t be checks,” he told Sky News. “There’s no question of there being checks on goods.”

Johnson Sows Confusion Over Northern Irish Trade After Brexit

The prime minister’s campaign message of the final weekend was that he will curtail immigration. Even so, the details of his “Australian-style points-based immigration system” suggest its workings will change little from the U.K.’s existing points-based system.

Both offer a smooth pathway into the country to the highly skilled and the rich and a route to citizenship for those who have skills that are needed. The new plan expands an existing third route for temporary unskilled workers, which is currently restricted because it’s easy for employers to get unskilled workers from the EU.

For its part, Labour said it would introduce free care for all elderly people. It’s an increasing problem in the U.K. that parties have struggled to solve as the cost of looking after an aging population rises.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson will try to mitigate the damage done by her pledge to simply revoke Brexit — something critics view as undemocratic — by saying her party has legislation drafted for a second referendum. On Sunday, she said that if there’s another hung parliament, she’d be willing to put Labour in power, but not Corbyn.

To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net; Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/johnson-returns-to-key-brexit-message-as-polls-put-him-ahead-1.1359494

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When and if Brexit is finally delivered, a vast array of questions will immediately spring up.

Britain’s prime minister told the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Monday that victory in the December 12th general election will allow him to “get Brexit done” and then swiftly broker an agreement with the EU on the two sides’ future relationship.

Noting the UK would embark on trade talks from a place of “perfect alignment and harmony” after leaving the EU on January 31st, he told business chiefs he saw “absolutely no reason” why an agreement could not be reached by the end of next year.

It is a line the Conservatives will stick to in their campaigning ahead of polling day as they warn victory for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party would mean more “dither and drift” on Brexit. Mr. Corbyn claimed at the same conference that the Tories’ approach would “subject us to years of drawn-out, bogged down negotiations” with Brussels on a future relationship deal. He said his approach of holding a second referendum would deliver clarity sooner.

But as politicians spar over who is best placed to lead Britain out of its Brexit quagmire, top officials in Brussels believe the UK population faces a brutal reckoning for which it is ill-prepared. EU officials have been preparing for negotiations with the UK on the post-Brexit relationship for more than two years, and behind the scenes, many member states are urging them to take a very hard line indeed.

British prime minister Boris Johnson: ‘absolutely no reason’ why an agreement with the EU could not be reached by end of next year. Photograph: FRANK AUGSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

‘Worst thing’

“What is going to come is going to be much more challenging and demanding than what we have seen up to now,” says one senior EU diplomat. “I would not wish to negotiate a trade deal with the EU on anybody. It’s the worst thing that can happen to you, especially if your administration doesn’t have any experience negotiating trade issues.”

When and if Brexit is finally delivered, a vast array of questions will immediately spring up. The two sides will need to do their best to safeguard a trading relationship worth £650 billion (€758 billion) in 2018, as well as define the terms of co-operation on everything from air transport to fighting terrorism.

The talks will take place to the beat of a ticking clock. The UK’s post-Brexit transition period will expire at the end of 2020 unless Britain requests an extension by the middle of next year – something Mr. Johnson is loath to do.

Both Mr. Johnson and Phil Hogan, the EU’s incoming trade commissioner, have emphasized the two sides are not starting from scratch.

Mr. Hogan told RTÉ last week that Brussels would seek to kick off the negotiations swiftly, noting the UK’s 46 years of EU membership created a unique context: one where Britain is integrated into the European market and in sync with its rules.

“With a bit of goodwill on both sides we can do an agreement more quickly than we would do with any other negotiations around the world, which would take three or four years,” he said.

Mr. Johnson told the CBI the two sides would begin talks “in a state of grace as far as our tariffs and our quotas are concerned”.

“There is no other trade negotiation the EU has ever embarked upon with a third country where that has been the case,” he said.

Another advantage is Mr. Johnson and the EU have already agreed a 27-page political declaration setting out their shared vision of the future relationship. It forms part of the Brexit deal he struck with the bloc in October.

At the heart of the relationship would be a free-trade deal ensuring duty-free and quota-free access for goods, and providing market access for services at least similar to that granted in the EU’s recent trade deals with Canada and Japan. The declaration also covers other key areas of co-operation such as nuclear energy and joint military operations.

The City of London is preparing to lose the right to offer services across the EU

Highly sensitive issues

But EU diplomats warn that putting flesh on the bones of these plans will require a hard-fought negotiation and that the question of how far the UK is prepared to stick to EU rules will be one of several highly sensitive issues needing to be resolved.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has already made clear Brussels will be guided in the talks by a simple principle: the further the UK aims to diverge from EU rules in Mr. Johnson’s avowed quest to boost the country’s economic competitiveness, the more restricted Britain’s access to the single market will be.

The EU argues it is being asked to grant Britain market access on goods going beyond any other trade deal the bloc has with a major economy, creating a clear risk of unfair competition for Europe’s companies. Such access will come at the price of sticking closely to EU law on workers rights, environmental standards, state aid, and other rules.

Britain, by contrast, argues a free-trade deal is a fundamentally looser economic relationship than membership of the EU’s single market and customs union, and that it would be hypocritical for Brussels to demand far more alignment than it has done in negotiations with other countries. Dominic Raab, the UK’s foreign secretary, said on Sunday that the country is “not going to align ourselves to EU rules”.

The post Brexit talks: the brutal reckoning that awaits the UK first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Speaking at the House of Commons on Tuesday, Johnson accused lawmakers of being “caught in a deadlock of its own making” and warned that a vote against his timetable would delay Brexit for 3 months if the EU decided to grant an extension past the Oct. 31 deadline. He said it was something he would not allow.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking in the House of Commons, London during the debate for the European Union Withdrawal Agreement Bill: Second Reading. Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.  (House of Commons via AP)

“I will in no way allow more of this,” he said. “If Parliament refuses to allow Brexit to happen and instead gets its way and decides to delay everything until January or possibly longer, in no circumstances can the government continue with this.”

He added: “And with great regret, I must say the bill will have to be pulled and we will have to go forward to a general election.”

BREXIT STUMBLES – AGAIN – AS BORIS JOHNSON’S BID FOR NEW VOTE REJECTED BY UK SPEAKER

The latest developments come just days after Johnson negotiated and agreed on his new plan with European leaders last week – despite repeatedly saying the United Kingdom would leave by the end of October, with or without a deal.

His government seeks to rush the legislation through the House of Commons in three days, but Johnson faces two crucial votes on Tuesday that could prevent him from delivering on his pledge.

An anti-Brexit demonstrators banner near Parliament in London, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.  (AP)

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Firstly, the bill will be voted on by lawmakers at its second reading. The second – and probably most crucial vote – is on the program motion, the timetable for passing the bill.

Johnson said backing the bill would allow lawmakers to “turn the page and allow this Parliament and this country to begin to heal and unite.”

NIGEL FARAGE SAYS ANGER OVER BREXIT DEAL IS ‘UNLIKE ANYTHING I HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE’

Lawmakers may reject the three-day timetable because of concerns it doesn’t provide enough time for scrutiny of the 115-page document, which sets out the terms of Britain’s departure from the 28-nation bloc.

The bill turns the deal Johnson struck with the EU into law. It sets out the terms of Britain’s departure, including measures to maintain an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. It also enshrines the right of U.K. and EU citizens living in the other’s territory to continue with their lives, and sets out the multi-billion pound (dollar) payments Britain must make to meet its financial obligations to the EU.

It also confirms a transition period lasting until at least the end of 2020 — and possibly 2022 — in which relations will remain frozen as they are now while a permanent new relationship is worked out.

An anti-Brexit demonstrator wears a European Union patterned hat near Parliament in London, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.  (AP)

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Opposition lawmakers called Johnson’s threat to pull the bill “childish blackmail,” with the Brexit spokesman for Liberty Democrats saying that members of parliament “shouldn’t be bullied into voting in favor of this ridiculously short timetable,” according to the BBC.

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would not be supporting the bill at its second reading.

“They always say, Mr. Speaker, the devil is in the detail. And, having seen the detail, it confirms everything we thought about this rotten deal,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Johnson’s Conservatives hold just 288 of the 650 House of Commons seats, so he will need support from the opposition and independent lawmakers to pass the bill — if, that is, Parliament approves the timetable on Tuesday.

European Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday that EU leaders “will decide in coming days” whether to grant Britain another extension to the deadline for leaving the bloc, but said their decision depends on developments in London.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/boris-johnson-brexit-bill-christmas-election

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–Boris Johnson could soon be removed as prime minister under a plan being pushed by opposition parties.

–Johnson’s opponents fear that he will find a way to force Britain out of the European Union without a deal next month.

–The Scottish National Party now believes the only way to prevent this is to make the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a caretaker prime minister.

–Under the plan, Corbyn would become prime minister for a few weeks to delay Brexit and call a general election.

–Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Boris Johnson could soon be forced out as prime minister to make way for the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Here’s why.

Johnson is the leader of a minority government, following the defection of one former Conservative MP to the Liberal Democrats and Johnson’s decision to expel 21 members of his own party.

Johnson’s advisers originally believed this would only be temporary and that opposition parties would swiftly vote for a general election, which some polls have suggested he would win.

However, the opposition has other ideas, blocking a general election until Brexit has been delayed beyond its October 31 deadline.

Johnson is running out of road

This presents a problem for the prime minister, who insists he will not delay Brexit, despite members of Parliament passing a law instructing him to do so.

This means Johnson may ultimately have little choice but to resign. However, Johnson’s allies are saying he would take a different course and find some way to circumvent the Brexit-delay law.

John Major, a former Conservative prime minister, warned on Thursday that this could be exactly what Johnson is planning.

As a result, the UK’s opposition parties are growing nervous and believe they may have to act first to prevent Johnson from finding some method of forcing Britain out of the European Union next month.

The caretaker prime minister ‘has to be Corbyn’

“It is increasingly clear that we will have to install a new prime minister via a vote of no confidence so that we can request a delay to Brexit and hold an election,” the source said.

“The convention is absolutely clear that it is the leader of the opposition — in this case, Jeremy Corbyn — who should become prime minister in those circumstances.

“Trying to find a compromise candidate, a national unity candidate, is too complicated, especially in the time we have. Whether people like it or not, the temporary prime minister has to be Corbyn.”

Johnson’s opponents see Corbyn as a lesser risk

Winning a vote in the UK Parliament to make Corbyn prime minister, however, looks tricky.

The post Boris Johnson could soon be forced to stand down as prime minister to make way for Jeremy Corbyn first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

BRUSSELS — Wistful Europeans once hoped Britain would reverse itself on Brexit, abandoning its divorce from the European Union in favor of kissing and making up.

As months of departure negotiations dragged into years, devoted Anglophiles in Europe fantasized about a second referendum in which all was reconsidered, then forgiven. They seized on the ups and downs of the Liberal Democrats in Britain, the party that is most unabashedly pro-European. They cheered as Labour Party activists overwhelmingly supported a do-over referendum at their party conference last fall.

European Council President Donald Tusk said in April that he had been warned against dreaming Brexit could be reversed. Still, he resisted, saying, “At least I will not stop dreaming about a better and united Europe.”

But some of those who once wished for a change of heart now just want to finalize the breakup and move on.

E.U. leaders would almost certainly agree to a delay beyond the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline if Prime Minister Boris Johnson asks for one — as a new law passed by the British Parliament requires him to do. The Europeans do not relish the prospect of an abrupt and economically destabilizing no-deal Brexit, preferring an agreement to manage the withdrawal and ease the transition to new trade terms.

At the same time, though, E.U. negotiators are eager to usher Britain out. Policymakers in Brussels and in capitals throughout Europe worry about the consequences of continued uncertainty — and some say Britain is so poisoned on E.U. issues that it might be more destructive inside the bloc than outside of it.

[Scottish court rules Johnson’s suspension of Britain’s Parliament was illegal]

“Immediately after the referendum, among the pro-Europeans in the European institutions, there was the wish that, over the course of time, there would possibly be a reversal,” said Alain Lamassoure, a longtime French member of the European Parliament who retired in June. “But after three years, after all these appalling, ridiculous, dramatic things in the House of Commons, there is a very wide sentiment whereby too much is too much. Now, it’s too late. And it would be better to put an end to this drama.”

Lamassoure said his own reversal occurred in January as he watched British lawmakers vote down the withdrawal deal negotiated between E.U. leaders and then-Prime Minister Theresa May by 432 to 202 — a defeat with little precedent in modern British history.

“It was a shock for all of us, because we overestimated the spirit and the strength of the British parliamentary system,” he said.

A man stands by a souvenir stall during National Day celebrations in the British territory of Gibraltar on Sept. 10. Gibraltar voted 96 percent in favor of Britain’s remaining in the E.U. (Marcos Moreno/AP)

Until Britain formally leaves the E.U., it retains the right to cancel the divorce notification — the Liberal Democrats are campaigning on just such a proposal. Legally, relations would return to the status quo. So some European policymakers like to game out the result they once dreamed about.

But what they see now gives them a headache. Britain remains profoundly split on the question of its relationship with Europe. Opinion polls suggest that if a second referendum were held, it would be unlikely to yield a large majority in favor of leaving or remaining. As in 2016, when Brexit campaigners won narrowly with 52 percent of the vote, any new balloting is likely to produce a knife-edge result.

That means, say those who do not want the British back, that a Britain that decided to stay in the E.U. would have a powerful anti-Europe lobby that would be eager to take down any British leader who played a constructive or conciliatory role in European decision-making.

“It will be a new British prime minister coming to Brussels, explaining to us, ‘It’s a victory for us, it’s a victory for Britain and the E.U., but half of my people are very reluctant to continue to be members, so we need more opt-out provisions,’ ” or ways to avoid E.U. rules, Lamassoure said. The subsequent discussion would be likely to spur other countries to push for their own opt-outs, weakening the E.U. as a whole, he said.

[Frexit? Italeave? After watching Brexit, other European countries say: No, thanks.]

A British reversal “has the potential of very seriously impeding decision-making,” said Fabian Zuleeg, the head of the European Policy Center, a Brussels-based think tank. “It isn’t a very attractive proposition anymore. The U.K. has burned so many bridges.”

Major decisions are looming, including on the mammoth seven-year E.U. budget that will determine the shape of E.U. priorities for years. It needs to be sorted out in the spring, and many policymakers in European capitals fear that Britain could use a continued membership inside the E.U. to hold them hostage and make tough new demands.

European trust in Johnson has quickly vanished. If he were toppled, his likeliest replacement would be Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a far-left figure who has long been skeptical of the E.U., because he views the bloc as favoring corporations over people. Many European diplomats doubt he would be significantly easier to work with than the Conservative Party leader.

[Boris Johnson’s statements about the state of Brexit negotiations bear little relationship to reality, E.U. officials say]

Nor is there any guarantee that a future leader could not try, yet again, to pursue a departure from the E.U., creating more uncertainty and chaos.

“What sort of trust can you have in the U.K.?” said a senior European diplomat who is directly involved in Brexit negotiations, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to undercut what talks remain.

In the meantime, with E.U. companies struggling to plan for a jolting shift to their business model that could happen next month, or in three months, or not at all, their planning costs are mounting, further infuriating the Europeans.

European policymakers are coming to accept that it may be best to deal with the pain of Brexit and move on.

“The certainty of a deterioration can be better than continuous uncertainty without a new perspective,” Dutch Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag told Het Financieele Dagblad, a daily newspaper, on Monday.

That was the position of French President Emmanuel Macron at an emergency Brexit summit in April. Macron was an outlier then, pushing for a shorter Brexit extension than other leaders wanted to allow and arguing that British lawmakers should be forced to pick between the existing withdrawal deal and a chaotic, no-deal Brexit. Now there is broader support for Macron’s point of view.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, hosts British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G-7 summit in Biarritz on Aug. 24. (Neil Hall/Pool/Reuters)

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europeans-once-hoped-the-british-would-reverse-brexit-now-many-cant-wait-for-them-to-leave/2019/09/11/729477ba-d33a-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html?noredirect=on

The post Europeans once hoped the British would reverse Brexit. Now, many can’t wait for them to leave first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

LONDON — He jabbed his finger in the air and shook his head theatrically. He dared the opposition to back his call for an election and sneered that the Labour Party’s leader was a “chlorinated chicken.”

By the time Prime Minister Boris Johnson finished taking questions in Parliament on Wednesday, he had ushered in a new season of political mayhem in Britain, one in which the voters are now as likely as their feuding leaders to resolve the questions over how and when Britain should leave the European Union.

The raucous spectacle in the House of Commons illustrated the obstacles Mr. Johnson will face as he tries to lead Britain out of the European Union next month. On Wednesday, Parliament handed the prime minister two stinging defeats.

It first blocked his plans to leave the union with or without an agreement. And it then stymied his bid, at least for the moment, to call an election for Oct. 15, out of fear he could secure a new majority in favor of breaking with Europe, deal or no deal.

The frenzied maneuvering showed how Brexit keeps propelling the country ever deeper into uncharted political territory, where centuries of unwritten rules and conventions are giving way to a brawl over the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies.

The upheaval in Parliament on Wednesday was the latest and perhaps the ultimate test of a political system that has been under unrelenting strain since the British voted narrowly to leave the European Union in June 2016.

Britain has since unwittingly become a laboratory for how a deeply rooted parliamentary democracy can be shaken to its core by populism, especially when wrapped in the democratic legitimacy of a public referendum.

Parliament has become a theater, beamed live around the world, in which democracy’s messy, self-interested and self-destructive tendencies are laid bare in real-time.

Despite the vote by lawmakers defying the prime minister’s call to go to the polls, Britain still appears headed for a general election in the coming weeks or months, with the opposition likely to agree to a vote once a law forbidding a no-deal Brexit is firmly in place.

An election could clarify a debate that has become hopelessly muddled. A clear victory would give Mr. Johnson’s Conservative government a mandate to withdraw, regardless of whether it strikes an agreement with officials in Brussels. A defeat would eject him from office and in all likelihood delay and reshape the terms of Britain’s exit.

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition, in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Mr. Corbyn complained that Mr. Johnson refused to answer questions about the economic costs of a no-deal Brexit.CreditJessica Taylor/UK Parliament

Yet an inconclusive result — equally plausible, given the splintered nature of British politics — could leave the nation even more paralyzed than it is now. With one of the last political mechanisms exhausted, an indecisive vote could deepen divisions and reinforce fears that Brexit is a problem that defies a democratic solution.

In many ways, Britain appears set on a course, not unlike that in the United States, where President Trump, an ally of Mr. Johnson’s, has galvanized his political base by vilifying his opponents. Like Mr. Trump, Brexit has not just dominated the nation’s political debate but changed the very nature of its politics.

“You have a complete fracturing of the British political system and a British government that has ground to a halt,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who advised the Conservative Party in past elections and knew Mr. Johnson as a student at Oxford.

“Everyone is seeking to be as dogmatic and punitive as they can,” he said. “This is doomsday politics at its worst.”

If Mr. Johnson can ultimately get Parliament to agree to an election, he hopes to mobilize those who voted to leave by tarring his opponents as lackeys of Europe. He is ruthlessly purging the ranks of the Conservative Party to make it more radically pro-Brexit and fend off threats from a new Brexit Party.

Mr. Johnson got an endorsement from Mr. Trump. “He’s in there fighting,” the president said. “Boris knows how to win.”

The parallels between Mr. Johnson’s campaign and Mr. Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party are obvious, but there are important differences as well. Lawmakers in Britain have pushed back vigorously on Mr. Johnson’s tactics, with even members of the prime minister’s party rebelling against his drive for a swift exit.

The proposed timing of a vote, before the Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union, has stoked suspicions that Mr. Johnson is acting in his own interests rather than the nation’s. Rather than embracing the call for an election, the Labour Party insisted that Parliament first prohibit Mr. Johnson from pursuing a no-deal Brexit before it would agree.

On Wednesday, Parliament moved closer to achieving that. By a vote of 327 to 299, lawmakers advanced a bill that would tie Mr. Johnson’s hands-on Brexit, barring any departure without a deal. The bill now goes to the House of Lords, which must give its assent.

Until it’s the law of the land, Parliament is determined to resist Mr. Johnson’s push for a new election. And late Wednesday night, Mr. Johnson failed to win in another vote the two-thirds majority he needed to call an election.

The expelled Conservative lawmaker Kenneth Clarke, left, and Theresa May, the former British prime minister, in the House of Commons on Wednesday.CreditJessica Taylor/UK Parliament

“Under normal circumstances, no opposition party would ever get in the way of a governing party calling it quits,” said Baroness Rosalind Scott, a member of the House of Lords and a former president of the Liberal Democrats. “But all the normal rules are gone, which makes it difficult to predict the outcome.”

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