Well here we are on 29th March, 2019, and today is supposed to be Brexit Day, when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.
The last few weeks have seen a fury of activity in the House of Commons, culminating in the votes on Wednesday night to decide which is the preferred way forward. It does rather beg the question why that decision was not taken at the start of the process, before negotiations with the EU got underway. In fact, it would have probably made more sense to agree on one of those options before the referendum itself. That way, at least the Leave campaign could truthfully argue “people knew what they were voting for”. As we saw on Wednesday, not even the MPs in the House of Commons can agree on what “Brexit” is going to mean.
Theresa May, of course, would have us believe “Brexit means Brexit”, or more specifically her withdrawal deal which somehow has been agreed on in Brussels without MPs agreeing on what they want in the first place. Appearing on national television to then apparently blame those MPs for not agreeing to her deal, gave moment to an online petition to revoke the article 50 declaration and remain indefinitely in the EU.
That petition is now approaching 6 million signatures, and if you are a British citizen living anywhere in the world, or a UK resident of any nationality, and you haven’t yet done so: please click here and sign it now!
Despite being the fasting growing petition that the website has ever seen, and now the largest petition as well, the UK Government release a statement on Tuesday evening saying that they will ignore it. “This Government will not revoke Article 50. We will honour the result of the 2016 referendum and work with Parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union.” Sent out by e-mail, that must have keep the mail servers going for a while. With one million people marching through London last weekend calling for article 50 to be revoked or a new referendum on the day, as opposed to the 200 who gathered in support of Brexit, that short statement for me shows how little the Government and Prime Minister are listening to public opinion.
I have never known a Government so determined to see a policy or election promise through.
Meanwhile, to say the the UK is the laughing stock of Europe for its handling of Brexit in recent weeks is an understatement, although the whole situation was already being mocked online in short videos back in 2016.
- Cassetteboy created a mashup of speeches in December that year
- When Boris Johnson claimed that the Government would make a “Titanic success” of Brexit, Comedy Central came up with a new look at the ship sinking
More recently, Germany TV channel NDR has produced its own satirical videos, first showing the conundrum of how to solve the Irish border problem, by locking a remainer, a leaver and a hard brexiteer in the “Brexit-Room”:
Their latest clip, released only yesterday, compares the behaviour of the UK Government in negotiations with the EU, and in particular the last-minute discussions going on, with a couple getting divorced:
With Brexit now moved to 12th April, or maybe even 22nd May, in may not be their last sketch either.
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