UK prime minister tells lawmakers to back his Brexit plan

[turbinetree]

Source: Associated Press

By DANICA KIRKA today

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shot down the notion that he wanted an early election to secure Brexit, insisting Monday that it wasn’t the way to get a deal done.

Johnson decried parliamentary action set for Tuesday that is meant to delay Britain’s departure from the European Union, arguing that it would “chop the legs” out of the U.K. position. He spoke moments after lawmakers posted a copy of the proposed bill on Twitter, making clear that they would press the government to seek a delay if there’s no deal.

“Let’s let our negotiators get on with their work, without that sword of Damocles over their necks, and without an election, without an election,” he said. “I don’t want an election, you don’t want an election. Let’s get on with the people’s agenda.”

Opposition parties are pledging to challenge Johnson’s policy that the U.K. will leave the EU on Oct. 31 even if there is no deal. A no-deal Brexit is considered dangerous because it will sever decades of seamless trade with the EU single market of 500 million, Britain’s largest trading partner.

Read more: https://www.apnews.com/dfcb363368d8414db3e99c4feba6396b

[Denzil_DC]

1. Johnson's speech could barely be heard because of the demonstration outside Downing Street

Link to tweet

Sky News ✔
@SkyNews

Chants of "stop the coup!" from crowds of protesters outside Downing Street are heard as Boris Johnson begins his statement.

Read the latest here: http://po.st/jE6MiE

[Twitter video]

He seemed quite rattled, not full of bluster as usual.

[avebury]

2. I can't figure out why on earth Johnson thinks that the EU

would have any real interest in negotiating a soft landing for the Brits for their departure from the EU.
The UK needs a beneficial deal far more than the EU does.

If I were an EU negotiator I would be thinking, exactly what does the Brits reallly bring to the table. I would be more interested in negotiating with Scotland to see if they would be interested in joining the EU should they obtain their own independence. It wouldn' hurt to talk to the Irish and the Welsh as well.

If Brexit goes through I wonder how long it will take for the UK to break up into separate countries. Putin would love that. It may have a cascade effect in resulting in other Common Wealth nations breaking away as well.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. I've seen a lot of delusions from Brexit supporters on this

who think the EU is hurt just as much, if not more, than the UK, purely because the UK runs a net trade deficit with the rest of the EU. They think, along the lines of Trump with China, that this means less trade will hurt the exporter more. They are incapable of understanding (and god knows, I've tried to explain to them) that the proportion of EU production that gets exported to the UK is smaller than the proportion of UK production that goes there. Because we in the UK are a lot smaller. But they just can't get their head around that. They think the UK and the rest of the EU are 'equals'.

I would have thought that the Tory MPs were intelligent enough to grasp that, but I'm not so sure, now.

The only country that will get hurt as badly (probably worse) as the UK is Ireland, because a lot of its trade (both directions) is with the UK. And it literally has to go around the UK for shipping routes to the rest of the EU, so there are practically none, at the moment - they just drive through the UK. With customs checks and tariffs, they can't do that. And that's apart from the border issues with Northern Ireland.

But the EU is said to be readying emergency aid for Ireland, normally used for natural disasters like earthquakes and floods.

[moondust]

4. +1

Boris seems to think he has a lot more leverage over the EU than he actually has. Some kind of Delusional Authoritarian Syndrome--like tRump and other Tories who just want more control, more control, more control...and too much will never be enough.

[avebury]

5. So much for control if all they end up

doing is break the UK. The only winner is Putin. Having dealt with Trump it is not heard to see what is going on in the UK. Americans are not the only dumb people on the planet.