"I think the truth is the argument about no-deal is just a re-hash of the debate about whether we want to remain or leave in the first place."
"With Brexit there is no point in talking about the electorate as a whole.
"We have two different electorates: we have a remain electorate and we have a leave electorate.
"Seventy five per cent of remain voters think that leaving without a deal is a bad idea and they oppose it. And around 75% of leave voters think that it is a good idea and they favour it.
"We're now seeing that divide remain/leave divide very, very clearly articulated in their preference for a general election."
Daniel_Av0cad0 on September 4th, 2019 at 20:47 UTC »
I can understand why this might seem confusing.
Parliament voted earlier today to force the Prime Minister to ask for an extension on Brexit so prevent a no-deal exit on the 31st of October.
The Prime Minister decided this was untenable, so decided to call for an early general election for the 15th of October to dissolve Parliament and get another one that would go along with his Brexit agenda.
In the UK motions for early elections need a 2/3 majority of the House of Commons to pass, so it mattered how all the opposition parties voted.
Those who don't want a no-deal exit decided that they couldn't trust the PM not to abuse the prerogative power to unilaterally alter the date of an election to after the 31st, therefore bringing about no-deal while parliament was dissolved and unable to do anything about it.
The motion therefore failed.
Nobody really knows what's going to happen now.
rumorhasit_ on September 4th, 2019 at 20:45 UTC »
This bill required a 2/3 majority (of all 650 MPs, not just number voting on the day) to pass into law. The government actually won 298-56 but did not achieve the majority.
Johnson called this in response to the opposition bill that would prevent Britain leaving the EU on 31 October without a deal: it was his best chance to be able to prevent the bill becoming law.
It was voted down because it would give Johnson the prerogative to chose the date of the General Election, meaning he could switch the date to early November. This would cause the UK to automatically leave without a deal (parliament is dissolved 6 weeks prior) and enable the election to take place before negative consequences of no-deal begin to bite.
Johnson will still try to prevent the anti no-deal bill from becoming law but his only reaming options are; filibustering in the House of Lords (not likely to work), call and lose a confidence vote in himself (requires simple majority, not 2/3), or to resign and force a general election. There may be some other archaic parliamentary device but no-one has thought of one yet but.
Of course, Johnson could do what he has said is possible for the past 3 years and actually negotiate an agreeable deal with the EU in the next few weeks. However, he has not managed to do that so far so unless he is playing his cards very close to his chest, he appears to have no ideas.
What happens next? I’ve not been able to turn this off all day and no-one has a clue!
Edit: several people have pointed out that Johnson resigning will not force a GE and they are right. Will only force a Tory leadership contest.
MegaShit on September 4th, 2019 at 20:40 UTC »
Dude, what the fuck is going on.