Theresa May's Brexit gambit fails as her premiership fades

[turbinetree]

Source: Reuters

World News
May 22, 2019 / 2:07 AM / Updated an hour ago

Guy Faulconbridge, Costas Pitas

4 Min Read

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s final Brexit gambit was in tatters on Wednesday just hours after her offer of a vote on a second referendum and closer trading arrangements failed to win over either opposition lawmakers or many in her own party.

Nearly three years since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union, May is trying one last time to get her divorce deal approved by the British parliament before her crisis-riven premiership ends.

May appealed to lawmakers on Tuesday to get behind her deal, offering the prospect of a possible second referendum on the agreement and closer trading arrangements with the EU as incentives.

But the backlash was fierce. Both ruling Conservative and opposition Labour lawmakers lined up to criticize May’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, or WAB, legislation which implements the terms of Britain’s departure. Some upped efforts to oust her.

“The proposed second reading of the WAB is clearly doomed to failure so there really is no point wasting any more time on the prime minister’s forlorn hope of salvation. She’s got to go,” Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative lawmaker, told Reuters.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/theresa-mays-brexit-gambit-fails-as-her-premiership-fades-idUSKCN1SS0GW

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I really have no sympathy for her, Farage, and for that matter the Tories....................they are a "clusterfuck'..............................

[hlthe2b]

1. F'ing second referendum should have been offered long ago.

Now, it seems to me that everyone just wants her gone, no matter what she brings up.

Sadly, she is so damned weak, I cringe thinking of her meeting with Trump on his "State" visit in June.

[turbinetree]

3. It would have solved the problem, it seems that when it comes to politcal whatever, they never

want to admit defeat, even when it is staring them right in the face...................because it shows them being weak, this is taking the entire country down and making them weak.........................they really need to hold another vote in Britian................amazing.
May is really trying to live in the foot steps of Margaret Thatcher with her / this new austerity program, because that is what it really is, and the right wing racism being pushed by Farage.......................and if he gets in....................watch out...................


Both of them are weak, and the world is going to hear more BS from the traitor, because he is going to be asked about his criminal intent that he is invoking here in the states.....................they really are like two peas in pod, the both of them....................they keep digging the hole deeper, and I really have no sympathy for any of them...............

[47of74]

8. I've always said that May looks upon her self as the second coming of Thatcher

And looks at fuck face as the second coming of Reagan.

[DFW]

2. May is done. She can go with grace, or go in disgrace

Offer the UK a chance to say "we fucked up, we want to stay in the EU, and that's that," or else keep flailing around looking for some face-saving solution that will fail in Parliament like everything else she has tried.

Either way, she goes, but at least if she offers the second referendum, the UK will acknowledge her for having done the right thing at long last, and won't whack her in the ass on her way out.

[zipplewrath]

4. I'm curious what the referendum would be

They could just "revote" the last one.
They could offer a "deal" or a "not leave" solution.
They could offer an "either or" set of two deals to which the EU would accept.
They could offer a "hard or soft" deal on exit.

It appears that the major/critical issue is Northern Ireland and I don't really see how there will be a solution on that other than staying. And I'm not sure how to word that referendum.

[DFW]

5. I would just word it the same way as the first one: remain or leave.

Remain solves Northern Ireland in one stroke.

Leave re-opens the whole disaster, not just with Ireland, but also the whole question of borders and customs treaties. Total folly, and helps no one in the UK or the EU.

I understand the arguments for leaving. The EU bureaucracy is horribly bloated and inefficient, and GB is flooded with more Eastern Europeans than it can handle. EU fishing rights in their waters threaten their sustainable stocks. But these can and should be negotiable within the EU--if not before, then certainly now. Brexit encourages the extremists in Hungary and Poland. Now Austria has even been affected, although catching one of their far right coalition leaders on tape making money deals with Russians has stuck a pin in that scheme--for now, anyway.

[zipplewrath]

6. And get a similar result?

My perception is that there are too many people voting to leave that also won't accept a hard border in Northern Ireland. It's the "eat their cake and have it too" problem. If another referendum is held, it would seem that the NI issue should be explicitly stated, especially as part of any "leave" proposal.

[DFW]

7. And definitely NOT get a similar result

The first one was ignored by much of the "stay" crowd as being such a ridiculous question that many of them didn't bother to vote, as remaining in the EU was such a no-brainer. They didn't realize that the "leave" people really meant it. This time, NO one will take the question so lightly, and I bet it will be a vote to stay in, and with a far greater margin of victory than the so-called victory of the "leave" crowd the first time.