Brexit

Britain’s Brexit brawl leads to a no confidence vote today (Updated)

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The Guardian reports, Brexit in chaos as Tory MPs trigger vote of no confidence in Theresa May:

Conservative MPs have triggered a vote of no confidence in Theresa May, plunging the Brexit process into chaos as Tory colleagues indicated they no longer had faith in the prime minister to deliver the deal.

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, has received at least 48 letters from Conservative MPs calling for a vote of no confidence in May. Under party rules, a contest is triggered if 15% of Conservative MPs write to the chair of the committee of Tory backbenchers.

A ballot will be held on Wednesday evening between 6pm and 8pm [11am to 1pm Arizona time], Brady said, with votes counted “immediately afterwards and an announcement will be made as soon as possible”. Sources said an announcement could be made by 10pm [3pm Arizona time].

If she is effectively sacked after the ballot, a contest could take up to six weeks to complete.

On Tuesday night, ministers warned that such a successful challenge would mean that article 50 might have to be suspended.

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Britain’s Brexit is blowing up

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Great Britain may be about to demonstrate to America that when you go on a bender and do something really stupid, you can still correct your unwise error and attempt to redeem yourself.

The white nationalist Brexit from the European Union still might not happen after all.

The European court of justice has said the UK can unilaterally stop the Brexit process in a ruling that will boost demands for a second EU referendum. Brexit: UK can unilaterally revoke article 50, says ECJ:

The court concluded that any EU member state can revoke an article 50 process without needing approval from every other member state, but only before its withdrawal comes into force.

“The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU,” the ECJ said.

The emergency judgment came the day before the critical Commons vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal and will be reviewed urgently by Scotland’s civil court in Edinburgh.

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Brexit makes a global recession more likely

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I have been warning you for months now about the economic slowdown in China, China economic news: Asian indicators likely to confirm slowdown continues, and uncertainty over the pending Brexit vote in Britain.

heston-beachAs I was streaming the BBC News election coverage last night, I was reminded of George Taylor (Charlton Heston) in this famous scene from Planet of the Apes (1968): “We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”

As I was watching returns, “the British pound fell more than 10 percent Thursday night, reaching $1.34 per pound, after midnight Eastern time, a stunning decline for a rich country’s currency in a single day.” The stunning collapse of the British pound, in charts.

When it became clear that “Leave” the EU was going to win, the next dominoes to fall were Prime Minister David Cameron announcing that he would resign in October, and the global markets responding with steep declines. Britain’s shock vote brings swift consequences as leader to resign, markets plunge:

A day after British voters defied widespread warnings of economic and political peril should they cut ties with the European Union, the country reckoned with the consequences as markets tanked across the globe, the prime minister said he would resign and the United Kingdom felt the renewed pressure of a breakup.

Brexit resultsThe cascading developments, all within hours of the result of a deeply polarizing referendum, reflected a country shocked by its own decision.

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[I]n the short term, the pessimistic view appeared to be winning out Friday as the country endured layer upon layer of self-inflicted turmoil — and a sudden question over who would lead Britain at a crucial moment.

With Britain still absorbing the dawn news that the country had voted by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent to withdraw from the E.U., an emotional Prime Minister David Cameron appeared in front of 10 Downing Street on Friday and said he would step down after championing a failed campaign.

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The Brexit: anti-immigrant xenophobia behind exit from EU

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The front page of the Daily Mirror today from Britain.

DailyMirror

Britain leaving the European Union has frequently been portrayed as a desire to leave an overly regulated and overly burdensome economic system in which British “sovereignty” was suppressed in favor of a European identity. Late in the campaign, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), led by a Donald Trump–style populist demagogue named Nigel Farage adopted this nationalistic slogan, ‘Let June 23 Be Our Independence Day’.

The Brexit was never really about the EU economic system. The nationalism expressed by Nigel Farage represents a nativist, anti-immigrant xenophobia in Britain.

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