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15th Nov 2018

House of Commons shambles was an insight to the inescapable chaos that now faces Britain

Carl Kinsella

Brexit

The walls began closing in on June 24, 2016.

Once it was set in stone that 51.89% of the British electorate had opted to leave the European Union, the pandemonium that has now consumed Parliament has been inevitable.

Since then, since the flight of David Cameron and George Osborne, from Theresa May’s disastrous snap election which saw the Conservatives lose their overall majority in parliament, from the ascent of the hardline DUP to key players in British politics, to the resignation of a Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and two Brexit secretaries.

May’s calves were put to the test in Parliament this morning as she leapt up to answer question after question from each side of the divide of the most divisive issue Britain has faced in some time.

She repeatedly refused to return the issue to the people, she dodged countless questions on how or why her deal will actually benefit Britons, she was accused of dishonesty, she was threatened with formal requests for her resignation. It was the closest thing to a public stoning that a democratic society will ever see.

Perhaps the saddest moment during today’s interrogation of the withdrawal agreement arose when Labour MP Phil Wilson asked May if she could say, with her hand on her heart, whether it was any better than the UK’s current status as a member of the EU.

The most emphatic response that May could muster was her confidence that “the United Kingdom’s best days are ahead”. That would be a “No” then.

But what other options now lie ahead of Theresa May? All the doors are blocked by a different beast.

There cannot be a clean Brexit, as the EU and Ireland will not allow for economic divergence that would necessitate a hard border between north and south.

But there cannot be special circumstances for Northern Ireland, as May’s failed snap election in 2017 resulted in her government being propped up by the hardline DUP, who will not allow for any difference in economic status between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

And yet there cannot be a deal which employs a backstop agreement that affords the UK and Northern Ireland the same status and a temporary regulatory alignment with the EU, because the hardline leavers don’t believe that the deal would be temporary. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab became the second to resign his post over this issue on Thursday morning. Whether he resigned in protest or in disgrace is a matter of perspective. Nevertheless, it has been thoroughly proven that there is not support for May’s withdrawal agreement.

Still, there cannot be a second Brexit referendum (or “People’s Vote”) as it would be seen as May caving to the demands of Lib Dems and Labour backbenchers, losing what little support she has left from the members of her own party.

And as for a no deal… nobody on any side of the divide wants to see it happen. And yet the MPs refuse to pull their country back from the ledge.

The walls are closing in.

May’s Commons performance on Thursday may yet stand as one of her final acts as Prime Minister. Halfway through the session her own backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg had asked her why he should not formally ask for her resignation, and upon leaving the house appears to have done exactly that.

Asked by the press if he was perpetrating a coup, Rees-Mogg did the most Rees-Mogg thing imaginable and said no, because a coup implies that the means are illegitimate, whereas the means by which he seeks to displace May are “entirely constitutional.”

There is nowhere left for Theresa May to go, and so she must go. Really go. And this will only further prolong the turmoil. It seems very likely now that May will face a vote of no confidence from her own party, and if she fails to withstand this crucial test, it seems eminently plausible that the United Kingdom could face yet another general election. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of whatever is going to happen next.

Labour MP Barry Steerman touched hard on the truth when he said of May: “Let down by the disloyalty of her colleagues. We have given her an impossible task”. Steerman is right. There is no hard Brexit deal or no deal scenario that will improve the fate of those in Briton. The UK has undermined itself at every possible turn since June, 2016 while the EU has remained resolute. No matter who takes over May’s brief — whether it’s Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson — will preside over a fatally fractured union, scarred in ways that cannot be sutured. At least not by March 2019.

The UK doomed itself when it voted to leave the EU, since then it has been an exercise in damage limitation. May is now surrounded by those who believe she has not sufficiently limited the damage, or those either cynical or delusional enough to believe that Brexit was the correct choice, and that May simply isn’t committed enough.

Whether Theresa May stays or goes is immaterial now. Chaos rules Britannia now, no matter who holds the title of Prime Minister. The walls are closing in.

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