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MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018
Click HERE for last Friay's quote on production shits out of China.
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BREXIT: A VOTE DEFERRED
"If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow the deal would be rejected by a significant margin. We will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow and not proceed to divide the House on this issue."
Prime Minister Theresa May
in Parliament
December 10, 2018
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This was not a good day for Theresa May. Back on November 24, she wrote to the British people, advising them that she had reached an agreement with her EU counterparts on the terms of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. The following day, November 25, the 27 members of the European Council unanimously approved the deal. On December 4, the House of Commons began what was to have been five days of debate on the agreement, culminating in a vote tomorrow, December 11. Today, Mrs. May effectively ended the debate and announced that there will be no vote tomorrow. Today's quote is from the Prime Minister's statement to Parliament explaining that decision.
We shall keep this entry short. If there is agreement on anything having to do with Brexit, it is that Mrs. May's government is in apparent disarray and the fate of the Brexit project is very much up in the air. Whether it is headed toward a very hard Brexit, that is, one with no agreement whatsoever, or none at all, there will be a lot more to say on this subject in the coming weeks. For today, just two more bits of context.
First, The Irish Border. The only subject Mrs. May addressed in detail today was the so-called backstop for the Irish border. Aimed at ensuring that there is no "hard border" between Northern Ireland, part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, a member of the EU, the provisions of the backstop would only come into effect, Mrs. May said, if the EU and the UK are unable to work out a new border arrangement during the implementation period of the Withdrawal Agreement. It is an important but complex issue. We shall save the complexities for another day.
The point here is that the backstop for the Irish border would appear to be the only topic on which Mrs. May will seek anything further from her EU counterparts. She put it this way:
"I still believe there is a majority to be won in this House in support of [the Withdrawal Agreement], if I can secure additional reassurances on the question of the backstop."
Second, A Rebuke from the Speaker. We are not experts on Parliamentary procedure in the UK. Still, one has to believe that the decision by Mrs. May's government to call off such an important vote after several days of debate was more than a little unusual. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, described the action as "deeply discourteous." In the same statement, Mr. Bercow set out a procedure that would have allowed the House itself to vote on whether to cut off debate or proceed, but his proposal did not find favor with the government.
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Theresa May has proven to be a resilient leader, but today's developments have added significantly to the number of people suggesting she should step down. Nile Gardiner is one of those. Mr. Gardiner runs the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Appearing on Fox news this morning, Mr. Gardiner said:
"I do think that Britain needs a new Prime Minister, someone who can lead Britain into the Brexit era, somebody who really believes in Brexit in their hearts. Theresa May, as a remainer, has never really believed in Brexit."
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Vote Deferred is a link to Prime Minister May's statement in the House of Commons today, advising the House that the Withdrawal Agreement will not be voted on tomorrow, December 11. This was the source of today's featured quote.
Deeply Discourteous takes you to a YouTube clip of the statement by Speaker of the House John Bercow, in which he encouraged the government to give the House of Commons the opportunity to vote on whether or not to continue the current debate.
The Debate is a link to a page on the website of the UK Parliament with details on the Brexit debate of the last several days.
From the Heritage Foundation is a clip from today's Fox News interview with Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation.
Letter from Brussels takes you to the TTALK Quote for November 28. This highlights Mrs. May letter from Brussels of November 24, which was her notification to her country of the Withdrawal Agreement between her government and their EU counterparts.
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©2018 The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.
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R. K. Morris, Editor
Joanne Thornton, Associate Editor
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