The Brexit Chronicles

Deal, or No Deal?

Published on March 13th, 2019.

May-Bot

Maay-Bott

Ma-aaay.... B-otttt...

It must be obvious to anyone watching her performance yesterday that the wannabe Dalek is running low on energy. But before MayBot shuts down completely there are just a few more things she must do: Today another installment of her plot to frustrate the will of the people by any means will be enacted when Parliament is given the opportunity to exclude the possibility of a No Deal Brexit as an outcome.

However, even if Parliament does choose that option, there are doubts as to whether there is enough time left to amend the legislation before the automatic NDB comes in to effect, as explained in these articles. You'll need to copy and paste them into a browser as I can't convert them into hyperlinks.

https://brexitcentral.com/deal-no-deal-heres-brexit-cannot-stopped/

and

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/03/13/uk/no-brexit-possible-vote-analysis-intl-gbr/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dbrexit%2Bnews%26client%3Dfirefox-b%26source%3Dlnms%26tbm%3Dnws%26sa%3DX%26ved%3D0ahUKEwjMq5T3wP7gAhU6ShUIHR7BAQsQ_AUIBigB

I doubt though if that is the case. Though I'm not an expert in Parliamentary procedures I'm sure that if there was the will to do so, a breakneck emergency session could be arranged if required, even if it defied existing conventions. But what might trip up May's plan to kick Brexit into the long grass is if the vote tonight goes against setting a clean break as the new goal, and tomorrow's vote enables the government to request a further extension of the article 50 deadline from the EU. That would require unanimous agreement of the other states, which is by no means assured. Perhaps Italy or Hungary , who both have their own disagreements with Brussels, might do us a favour and do what our own politicians seem incapable of doing: Their objections could be what carries the UK over the line to a clean Brexit.

So we await the result of this evening's vote.