The crushing defeat by 391 to 242 at the second time of asking of the British prime minister's Brexit plan surely cooks the goose of the plan but also bastes her ready for roasting.
The mighty labour, late night flights and all, has brought forth a mouse. She gave it her best shot but she has now been decisively rejected by record parliamentary majorities on two occasions. In any normal polity the leader at least would already be gone.
Also on rt.com Brexit chaos: UK MPs reject Theresa May’s deal AGAIN (VIDEOS)But as she croaked – it is her misfortune that laryngitis strikes her at the least opportune times – her determination to carry on regardless one side of the Commons laughed at the comedy of it all and most of the other half sank into their seats.
What happens next in the short term is easy to predict. A "No deal" Brexit will be rejected Wednesday evening but only thanks to opposition votes. She released her own MPs from party discipline by announcing a "free-vote" because she could not countenance at least half of her own side voting for No Deal (not least because they were all elected on precisely that platform). But the government's own members – the so-called "payroll vote" of a hundred plus, together with almost all of the opposition members will comfortably (for now) bury the "zero-option" of No-Deal.
The next night the House will vote again comfortably in favour of seeking an extension of Article 50 thereby abandoning the pledge repeated like a mantra so often that Britain would leave the EU on March 29th. Assuming the EU agrees Britain then sails not just into uncharted waters but an uncharted raging torrent of bitterness, confusion, currency tumult, uncertainty and certain political change.
Referendums in Britain change things for a generation as the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum shows. Political forces are unleashed, defeat is never accepted, never mind the victors of the referendum being denied as is the case with Brexit. All of the conditions which produced the Brexit result continue to obtain except where they have gotten more sharp. Austerity plus "free-movement" of largely cheap labour from eastern Europe plus fury at the perceived unreasonableness of our European "partners". If the EU was hated by 17.4 million people on Referendum Day it only got more visceral not less.
Not only did Leave win the referendum, parliament overwhelmingly voted to trigger the implementation of withdrawal in Article 50, and then 80% of the voters in the general election of 2017 voted for the two main parties which BOTH promised to honour and implement the referendum result. And they haven't.
READ MORE: ‘£1 billion extra a month’: Reported cost of Brexit delay if May’s deal fails
If that's not a recipe for cooked geese its hard to imagine what would be.
And then there's the practical problems which now face the government.
How long will be the extension they will now seek? And what can be done during that time to change this paradigm?
An extension of a couple of months will change nothing. The EU have no intention of making further meaningful concessions – certainly not to this prime minister – and so further votes in parliament on the current package are the very definition of pointless.
A longer extension as long as this current parliament is in place will achieve nothing either.
Except this. Both Nigel Farage and myself – both of us heavily involved in the referendum victory in 2016 – have announced that we will field lists of candidates to "Tell them Again" in the European Parliament elections which Britain will unexpectedly participate in should the extension take us past the deadline for those elections in the third week of May. With the state of confusion in the mainstream parties – and the large number of "Remainer" options to vote for it is likely that a focused Real Brexit electoral challenge will reap handsome political rewards. A disproportionate turn-out by angry Leave voters with a cause will change politics in Britain and in a likely Euro-sceptic new European Parliament too.
Also on rt.com Nearly 90% of Britons feel UK leadership spurns public – pollThe more you think about this the more obvious it is that the Conservatives simply must get rid of Theresa May. A new Conservative prime minister just might be able to wring further concessions from the European Union not least because they would not eschew leaving with no deal at all indeed would quite likely be amongst those voting for it tomorrow night.
I have said all along that no negotiator in any form of life, the law, trade unions, a troubled marriage EVER goes into a negotiation telling the other side that whether the other side makes concessions or not that they will NOT walk away under any circumstances. That's what Mrs May has been doing with the EU right from the start. Because her heart was never in it. A new Tory leader with their heart in it and with their head screwed on would leave the EU and fight a general election on it on the same day. A "Khaki" election, a Britain versus the European enablers election. They would sweep to victory.
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