Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[mongers]

Breaking News - Jeremy Corbyn has sacked his shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

Apparently because Benn has started photo fellow shadow cabinet members to arrange to resign on mass if Corbyn loses the vote of confidence amongst Labour MPs.

[mongers]

The EU officials have said article 50 must be formally invoked in a speech or a letter before any talks can begin.


So that could mean they're saying no to extended informal discussions?

Chaps make your mind up time.   

[11B4V]

Baby boomers stick it to the Millennial Assburgers FTW.

[MadImmortalMan]

Breaking News - Jeremy Corbyn has sacked his shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

Apparently because Benn has started photo fellow shadow cabinet members to arrange to resign on mass if Corbyn loses the vote of confidence amongst Labour MPs.

All your parties are falling apart over this. This is a perfect Jim Hacker situation, too.

[mongers]

Breaking News - Jeremy Corbyn has sacked his shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

Apparently because Benn has started photo fellow shadow cabinet members to arrange to resign on mass if Corbyn loses the vote of confidence amongst Labour MPs.

All your parties are falling apart over this. This is a perfect Jim Hacker situation, too.

Though no one knows what the Liberal Democrats are doing, all last seen sharing a taxi ride to the airport.

[CountDeMoney]

All your parties are falling apart over this. This is a perfect Jim Hacker situation, too.

Or a Jack Ryan situation.

[Berkut]

I think it will be too difficult to ignore the referendum result.  They voted leave.  The best, or only way to overturn that result is by another referendum.  But there needs to be an excuse before another one could be held.  The trigger could be after negotiations with the EU, the harsh divorce terms are presented to the electorate for another decision. 

They won't ignore the results, they just won't actually leave. They will hem and haw, and come up with plans, and this and that and the other thing.

They just won't actually leave - they might do something so they can pretend like they left...

[jimmy olsen]

The EU officials have said article 50 must be formally invoked in a speech or a letter before any talks can begin.


So that could mean they're saying no to extended informal discussions?

Chaps make your mind up time.   

And if no politician is actually willing to do so, what will the EU do?

There doesn't seem to be a mechanism to kick them out.

[mongers]

The EU officials have said article 50 must be formally invoked in a speech or a letter before any talks can begin.


So that could mean they're saying no to extended informal discussions?

Chaps make your mind up time.   

And if no politician is actually willing to do so, what will the EU do?

There doesn't seem to be a mechanism to kick them out.

How many large companies will be willing to make investments in UK operations with all of this uncertainty hanging around; it's very much in the UK's economic interest to get plans and timetables organised for an orderly exit.

We do not need a rout nor a Dunkirk, a strategic withdrawal is needed. 

[Admiral Yi]

And if no politician is actually willing to do so, what will the EU do?

I expect they will do nothing.

[dps]

I'm highly confident they will.

I wouldn't want to have to bet even a dollar on it either way.

I would bet that there will be new elections for Parliament very soon.  And I'm not sure anyone will actually want to win, because who really wants to be Prime Minister right now?

If you become Prime Minister and don't trigger Article 50, ignoring the referendum, that's probably political suicide for you personally and a big blow to you party's election chances for years to come.  If, on the other hand you trigger Article 50, you have a bunch of problems to deal with that you'll get blamed for (though in honesty, the voters really would only have themselves to blame, and see below) that will make having triggered it political suicide for you personally a a big blow to your party's election chances for years to come.

The thing is, I don't think the actual consequences of the UK leaving the EU are nearly as bad economically as has been suggested.  The biggest thing that will happen is that Scotland will probably leave the UK, but, then, that was probably going to happen fairly soon anyway.  I don't think, though, that any UK Prime Minister can survive having that happen on his watch.

But then again, I said that Remain would win and that Donald Trump couldn't win the Republican nomination for President, so what do I know?

[viper37]

I predict that Britain will not leave the EU.

the damage is pretty much done.  Announcing "hey we're not leaving!  That was just a joke" is not gonna recuperate all those lost billions.  And they would look like fools since the EU will not renegotiate the deal under these conditions.

[Berkut]

I predict that Britain will not leave the EU.

the damage is pretty much done.  Announcing "hey we're not leaving!  That was just a joke" is not gonna recuperate all those lost billions.  And they would look like fools since the EU will not renegotiate the deal under these conditions.

They won't announce anything of the kind, of course.

They will state that they are, according to the will of the voters, working on a plan to exit the EU. And they will get back to you guys on that...shortly.

[dps]

I predict that Britain will not leave the EU.

the damage is pretty much done.  Announcing "hey we're not leaving!  That was just a joke" is not gonna recuperate all those lost billions.  And they would look like fools since the EU will not renegotiate the deal under these conditions.

They won't announce anything of the kind, of course.

They will state that they are, according to the will of the voters, working on a plan to exit the EU. And they will get back to you guys on that...shortly.

I'm not sure that you're wrong here, but the problem is that triggering Article 50 is supposed to be the start of a process that includes working out the details of the exit.  I'd think that claiming to be working of a plan but not actually triggering the Article wouldn't be credible.

[Berkut]

I predict that Britain will not leave the EU.

the damage is pretty much done.  Announcing "hey we're not leaving!  That was just a joke" is not gonna recuperate all those lost billions.  And they would look like fools since the EU will not renegotiate the deal under these conditions.

They won't announce anything of the kind, of course.

They will state that they are, according to the will of the voters, working on a plan to exit the EU. And they will get back to you guys on that...shortly.

I'm not sure that you're wrong here, but the problem is that triggering Article 50 is supposed to be the start of a process that includes working out the details of the exit.  I'd think that claiming to be working of a plan but not actually triggering the Article wouldn't be credible.

I don't know how credible they really need to be though - seems like plenty of Brits are already experiencing a healthy dose of "WTF did I do last night???"

Hell, if they had this based on a referendum, can they just have another referendum to change their mind again?