New Year's Eve - the ball drops, the champagne corks pop and the United Kingdom finally officially finishes its divorce from the world's largest trading bloc, the European Union. Brexit has huge consequences for business, travelers and regular people who built lives based on a Europe that spanned the English Channel. This is a big gamble for the U.K., one that started more than four years ago when one of the biggest cheerleaders for Brexit was a former London mayor named Boris Johnson.
Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers had no real plan for how to actually untangle decades of economic and legal integration with Europe. And so a country known for effective, sometimes dull governance was plunged into years of political chaos that cost two prime ministers their jobs; first, David Cameron, the man who called the referendum, even as he urged Brits to vote against it.
From the perspective of a political scientist, you could not have hoped to live through a more interesting time to study the politics of your country. The other thing for me that is fascinating, though, is that many - for many people who supported Brexit, leaving the European Union wasn't an end in itself. It was a means to an end. That is to say if we leave the European Union, then we can, dot, dot, dot. You fill in that blank as you want - become a more activist international player, deregulating the way the European Union would never let us. So actually, the real test of Brexit in many ways is yet to come, which is now you've got that freedom. What the hell are you going to do with it? And how are you going to make people's lives better because of it, despite the fact that you're in charge of an economy that is growing less fast than it would have done had we not left in the first place?
Normally after big summits like the one we've just had in Brussels, leaders make media statements about their most pressing discussions.
Europe's leaders are keen to clarify they won't personally intervene in the current impasse in trade talks. There'll be no last-minute handshake or "a-ha" moment in Paris, Warsaw or Berlin.
There will be no more trade talks with the European Union unless the bloc fundamentally changes its stance on the discussions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Greek counterpart in a call on Tuesday.
Nearly two-thirds of Brits believe leaving the Brexit transition
period without a trade deal with the EU would be a "bad" outcome for the
UK, a new poll has found.
The survey shared exclusively with Business Insider, found strong opposition to a no-deal outcome in every part of the UK.
The highest level of opposition was in Scotland, where polls suggest growing support for independence.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently described no deal as a "good
outcome" and last weekend said the UK would "prosper mightily" in the
event of widespread disruption.
COVID-19, with both chief negotiator Michel Barnier and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson being personally affected.
In the meantime, a June deadline for significant progress is looming,
and key arguments remain unresolved. Questions remain over fishing
rights, how closely the UK will stick to EU regulations and allowing a
role for the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice.
More
bumps in the road came this week, as the EU Commission opened
infringement proceedings against the UK for failing to comply with free
movement rules. While the UK said the EU was at risk of breaching the
terms of the Brexit agreement over British expats registering to stay in
the EU.
British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Prime Minister Boris
Johnson on Tuesday of seeking to hijack Brexit to unleash a Thatcherite
bonfire of regulation that would usher in what he cast as a much harsher
brand of American-style capitalism.
Note EU- Digest : Corbyn hit the nail on the head by the way he described "tricky Boris Johnson"
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday called for a snap general election on December 1
The prime minister is expected to bring forward a motion next week to hold an election before Christmas.
It would require the support of two-thirds of MPs in the House of Commons.
Opposition
parties have rejected previous election motions for fear that Johnson
would take the UK out of the European Union without a deal during the
election period.
However, the EU is expected to
grant the UK another Brexit delay on Friday, paving the way for
opposition parties to back a fresh election.
The Labour Party is set to back a snap election once Brexit has been delayed.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent an unsigned letter to the
European Union on Saturday requesting a delay to Brexit but he also sent
another message in which he stated he did not want the extension, a
government source said.
Johnson was compelled by a law, passed by opponents last month, to ask the bloc for an extension to the current Brexit deadline of Oct. 31 until Jan. 31 after lawmakers thwarted his attempt to pass his EU divorce deal earlier on Saturday.
The government source said Johnson sent a total of three letters to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council:
a photocopy of the text that the law, known as the Benn Act, forced him
to write; a cover note from Britain's EU envoy; and a third letter in
which he said he did not want an extension.
As Parliament met in London Saturday morning and voted to force a Brexit delay,
hundreds of thousands of anti-Brexit protesters marched in the city’s
streets demanding citizens be given a second chance at deciding whether
to leave the European Union.
The massive crowds moved through the city towards
Parliament in a festive and defiant demonstration of frustration with
the country’s impending break with the EU, the New York Times reported.
Organizers of the effort told the Times they expected more than a
million demonstrators, which would make it one of the largest protests
Britain has ever had.
The demonstrators were joined by a host of current and
former politicians, as well as celebrities, who addressed the crowd. In
his speech, former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine
said Brexit represents“a creeping paralysis, where yesterday’s nostalgia distorts tomorrow’s opportunities”.
Note EU-Digest: Boris Johnson by politically manuevering in a very
devious and undemocratic way, without letting the people have a final
say on the agreement he reached with the EU, is taking Britain on a
disastrous destructive path, from which they probably will never recover
.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker a four-page letter on Wednesday
offering what he described as a "fair and reasonable" compromise to get
Brexit over the line before the October 31 deadline.
The
proposal said it would be a "failure of statecraft for which we would
all be responsible" if the two sides failed to reach an agreement. He
added that "both sides now need to consider whether there is sufficient
willingness to compromise" to get a "rapid" deal done in time.
According
to a UK official, Johnson subsequently spoke with European leaders,
including Germany's Angela Merkel and Ireland's Leo Varadkar, in
addition to the EU's Juncker.
The end date for the prorogation, October 14, just before the decisive
EU leaders' summit, is the same as the previous attempt to shut the
chamber.
No backstop, but also few details, for Northern Ireland
The
core suggestion in the letter to Brussels was the abolition of the
backstop for Northern Ireland — an insurance policy designed to ensure
there is no return to customs posts or other infrastructure on the UK border in Ireland.
Instead,
the government suggested "the potential creation of an all-island
regulatory zone on the island of Ireland, covering all goods including
agrifoods."
The letter offered few details on how or whether this could
be achieved and said it should depend on consent from the Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland's Assembly at Stormont
has not been in session since January 2017.
Boris Johnson has been given two weeks by London’s assembly to explain his relationship with an American entrepreneur who received up to £126,000 in public funds during the prime minister’s eight-year tenure as mayor of the UK capital.
Boris Johnson
has announced he will ask parliament to support plans for a snap
October general election after suffering a humiliating defeat in his
first House of Commons vote as prime minister.
Former cabinet ministers including Philip Hammond and David Gauke
were among 21 Tory rebels who banded together with opposition MPs to
seize control of the parliamentary timetable on a dramatic day in
Westminster.
The move was aimed at paving the way for a bill tabled by the Labour
backbencher Hilary Benn, which is designed to block a no-deal Brexit by forcing the prime minister to request an extension to article 50 if he cannot strike a reworked deal with the EU27.
Johnson lost the vote by 328 to 301, a convincing majority for the rebels of 27.
The PM had earlier described the legislation, drawn up by a
cross-party coalition including the senior Tories Oliver Letwin and
Dominic Grieve, as “Jeremy Corbyn’s surrender bill”.
After
his defeat, Johnson said he would never request the delay mandated in
the rebels’ bill, which he said would “hand control of the negotiations
to the EU”.
If MPs passed the bill on Wednesday, he said, “the people of this
country will have to choose” in an election that he would seek to
schedule for 15 October.
Boris Johnson‘s controversial decision to suspend Parliament in the build up to Brexit may be the moment that Scottish independence became “completely inevitable”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The Scottish First Minister claimed that support for leaving the UK
was growing with each passing day, accusing the Prime Minister of acting
like “some kind of tinpot dictator”.
She also said the suspension proved Mr Johnson would be willing to shut down the Scottish Parliament to achieve his political aims, a suggestion she had previously regarded as “silly”.
But the Scottish Conservatives backed the move, arguing there would still be “ample” time for MPs to debate Brexit and describing the SNP‘s reaction as “predictably hysterical”.
Queen Elizabeth II approved a request by Prime Minister Boris Johnson
on Wednesday to shut down Parliament for several weeks ahead of
Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union, a startling
maneuver that will rob his opponents of time to thwart a no-deal Brexit.
The announcement of Johnson’s plan prompted expressions of outrage
from many lawmakers, who said they are being deprived of their
democratic voice on Britain’s most momentous decision in generations. It
increased the chances that the country will sail out of the European
Union at the end of October with no transition deal to buffer its
passage, a move analysts say could cause major economic turmoil,
including food and fuel shortages.
Johnson told reporters he had asked the queen, who is on holiday at
her Scottish estate of Balmoral, to give her usual annual speech
outlining the country’s legislative agenda in mid-October, effectively
suspending Parliament between Sept. 11 and Oct. 14.
The queen acceded to the prime minister’s request, as is customary.
In an official statement,
the Privy Council confirmed that the queen had agreed to prorogue — or
suspend — Parliament no sooner than Sept. 9 and no later than Sept. 12.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, Natalie Evans, the
leader of the House of Lords, and Mark Spencer, the chief whip, were at
Balmoral to deliver the request.
Having lost the by-election
in the previously-safe Conservative Welsh seat of Brecon and
Radnorshire, the Remain coalition of Liberal Democrats, Greens and the
Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru has demonstrated that Conservative
seats – even in Leave-leaning constituencies – can be won, as the 'Boris
bounce' fails to annihilate the Brexit Party, and the weakness of the
Labour party fuels a Liberal surge.
With a majority of just one in the House of Commons, it takes only
two Tory defectors to carry a motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson.
This will happen, and the prime minister knows it.
So when actively preparing for a hard Brexit on October 31st,
Johnson is right to say it is less likely to happen.
Not – as he claims –
since the EU will budge, but because two or more heroes or traitors,
depending on one's point of view, will defect and bring down his
government to prevent no-deal Brexit from happening.
The interesting question is what happens next?
In any case, a hard Halloween Brexit on October 31st seems increasingly unlikely.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted he is “very confident” he can strike a fresh Brexit deal with Brussels before the end of October, as he spent a day north of Hadrian’s Wall trying to quell a potential Brexit rebellion.
Johnson headed to Scotland on Monday as a new report from a respected Whitehall think tank predicted the Union would come under “unprecedented pressure” in the months following a no-deal Brexit.
The Institute for Government report anticipated a fresh, heightened campaign for Scottish independence in 2020.
“Johnson may well find that having left one political union [the EU], he spends an increasing proportion of his time trying to keep another together [the UK],” the IfG report said. “All nations will look to Westminster to help cushion them against any economic fallout from no deal.
