Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/19/andrea-leadsom-mp.html
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In the past two weeks Tusk has told the UK it’s not too late to reverse course, Farage has said he’s open to a second referendum (trollishly, and then he walked it back like the coward he is when he saw the public response of “hell yes!”), it’s obvious to everyone that the Tories have no real exit plan or negotiating position, and yet May steams ahead. Is everyone in the party infected with with whatever delusional virus afflicts Boris Johnson?
Also, why the hell is Mr. Man-of-the-People Corbyn not jumping on a second referendum? Instead we get:
“We are not supporting or calling for a second referendum; what we’ve called for is a meaningful vote in parliament.”
Yeah, like that’s going to happen unless the Tories are out of power (which the old Eurosceptic Corbyn places as the higher priority than making this debacle go away).
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Who needs his neighbors if he is best buddies with Trumpistan?
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Fixed that for you.
Judging by the radio phone-ins I listen to, there are an awful lot of people just getting angrier and angrier that we haven’t already told everyone else to fuck off and die.
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Watching the action from several thousand miles away, it does seem like a Parliamentary vote would be the quickest resolution, whereas the second referendum seems like it would still leave the issue up in the air. What’s to say the Tories wouldn’t counter with, “best 2 out of 3?”
Then again, I strongly urge you not to take an American’s advice on how to avoid chaos in politics! 
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If talk radio there is like talk radio here I’m guessing a lot of those angry voices belong to old white males. But interesting to hear that there’s a lot of delusions and spiteful nose-cutting across the board.
For example, people there seem to be talking about “Canada + +” being a basis for trade relations post-Brexit, not understanding that it can’t exist as described due to a little something in CETA called Most Favoured Nation status.
The problem is that a Parliamentary vote that would end Brexit (assuming that’s what Corbyn even wants) would require the Tories to be out of power, which means an election that would essentially be a referendum on Brexit anyhow. Assuming all that happened, Farage (the millionaire banker who masquerades as a regular bloke) would be right in there complaining about the “elites” thinking they know better than the people.
A second referendum would either confirm that there is serious doubt about Brexit or confirm that a slight majority of British people are that bitter and ignorant and willing to sell out their futures.
I think May would jump at the chance to end this if a second referendum resulted in a “Stay” decision. She’d probably lose the leadership, but at this point she knows that’s going to happen for sure since her government’s bungling of the exit process is so obvious.
Oh, I’m not a Brit, so no need to worry. Like you I’m more focused on the disaster here in the U.S., but Brexit and Il Douche are ultimately part of the same right-wing populist phenomenon.
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A lot but also plenty of old, white women.
There was one recently who wanted to express her support for Brexit based on ‘all the illegal migrants coming over and changing our country’. Apparently, they are all hell-bent on imposing sharia law. Quite how Brexit is supposed to stop illegal migrants was not made clear.
She made the mistake of saying that where she lived was changed beyond recognition from 20 years ago. When asked where she lived, it turned out she lived in Kingston-upon-Thames.
It was then pointed out to her that it was perhaps unlikely that all the foreigners living in Kingston-upon-Thames are illegal migrants given that average flat prices are just under £400,000 or so.
Tsk, do you not understand? We don’t need these pesky deals. We will be Top Nation again naturally and automatically just as soon as we get out of the EU. /s
Except: We don’t have the ships, we don’t have the men, we don’t have the money either.
Yup. By the way Farage is already busily assessing the level of support for him and presumably Arron Banks setting up a new anti-EU party.
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Because he’s no less of a Brexiter than the other ****ers.
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Well I for one would note that we had one referendum in 1975 (solidly in), and a second one in 2016 (narrowly out). So yeah, a third one would probably produce a “best 2 out of 3” result…
As with the US and Trump, it would be funny if one didn’t have to live through the middle of it.
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Talk Radio, aka radio phone-ins: Massive sharing of ignorance and prejudice.
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Re JC, I reckon a: he wants them to hang themselves with their own rope and b: (softly) exiting the EU means that its restrictions on re-nationalising industries go out the window (so he hopes). I’m all for water, power and transport being re-nationalised. At gunpoint if necessary.
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Hopefully, given today’s news, Farage will have his collar felt shortly and be fully enmeshed in the Russia foofaraw.
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I don’t see a soft exit happening. A soft Brexit would require the Tories to have a realistic plan and an actual negotiating position, which they don’t.
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Well, yeah, we’re all getting hanged on their rope, sadly.
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I feel especially sorry for the young people who’ll have to live in whatever pinching, miserly, privatised Tory hell that results from a hard Brexit.
Assange is involved, too? Nice company he keeps.
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I voted for him but I can’t actually speak for Our Jeremy. But…
The Labour Party has not been historically for Europe. This might seem a bit weird as the Party of the Workers ought to be international; but it often comes down to protecting British Jobs against Foreign Investment, which isn’t quite Giving Johnny Foreigner What’s Coming To Him, but some days it is hard to tell. The Conservatives used to have the better foreign policy, and they got us into Europe.
It might seem a practical to Root for Europe, and capitalise on the Other Side’s debacle, and so much of this sort of British Politics seems to run like that. However, he cannot claim executive powers to enforce a policy that is counter to the traditions of the party. Or, rather, he can but things would not go well with him. He could lead the party that way, but I am not sure enough of them want to come.
Teresa May has claimed executive powers to sign article 50 without a vote, which should have been illegal, but it is just what her hoard of Neo-Liberal asset strippers, Brexiteers, and Colonel Blimps want to hear, so she gets away with it.
And if that wasn’t depressing enough, then there are the people on phone-in radio. Dear Santa, if each and every one of them dropped dead after phoning “Any Answers”, I’ll be the best boy ever.
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It’s yet another generational problem in politics. Young people understandably liked Corbyn because he wanted to take party back from the Third Way Blairites, but they didn’t realise that his vision of going back to the traditions of the party also included 1970s-vintage protectionist Euroscepticism. And thus Corbyn becomes yet another old person mired in nostalgia selling out the futures of young people, the left-wing version of the Little Englanders on phone-in radio.
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