The indicative votes have shown that the biggest hindrance to Brexit is the Conservative Party
When life imitates satire: This mock “Brexit 50p” is now eerily indicative of the way Parliament has behaved over Brexit.
Monday’s “indicative” votes on how Parliament wants the UK to exit the European Union went exactly as we all should have expected, with no option winning the support of a majority. Well, good golly, Mrs May.
But the exercise hasn’t been entirely pointless. Analysis of the way the different parties voted on the two options that came closest to a majority provides clear evidence that there is one thing holding back progress on Brexit: The Conservative Party.
The amendment for a customs union attracted 273 votes, with 276 against. That’s right – it lost by just three votes.
And the amendment for “Common Market 2.0” won 261 votes, with 282 against.
On the “customs union” amendment, Conservatives had a free vote (apart from cabinet ministers who were whipped to abstain) – and only 37 supported it while a massive 236 were opposed.
Sure, some Labour MPs voted against it, and they could have given it a majority. So, for that matter, could the DUP – whose 10 MPs all voted against something that would have made the Northern Ireland border “backstop” they hate so much irrelevant.
But 236 Conservatives against it? Really?
Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory chancellor who proposed the motion, was overly kind, in This Writer’s opinion. He said his customs union did not get a majority because some people’s vote supporters would not back it because they only wanted to back a second referendum. And some MPs would not back it because they wanted common market 2.0, even though they would have been happy with the customs union plan too.
He said he sometimes thinks the House of Commons is not very good at doing politics. How charitable.
Nick Boles, the Conservative MP behind the “Common Market 2.0” amendment, was more realistic about the reasons for its failure.
With 228 Tories voting against it, he said his party had refused to compromise – so he resigned the Conservative whip on the spot.
“I have given everything to an attempt to find a compromise that can take this country out of the European Union while maintaining our economic strength and our political cohesion,” he told the Commons.
“I accept I have failed. I have failed chiefly because my party refuses to compromise. I regret therefore to announce I can no longer sit for this party.”
And then he walked out of the chamber.
It seems the UK’s departure from the EU is facing a long delay.
Next step (at the time of writing) is the regular Tuesday morning cabinet meeting which, considering developments since last week’s cantankerous affair, is likely to be acrimonious.
The Commons won’t support Theresa May’s deal, and can’t find a solution of its own. MPs won’t accept “no deal” and they won’t cancel Brexit unilaterally.
No options are acceptable, it seems.
That won’t stop Mrs May putting forward her deal for a democracy-shattering fourth meaningless vote, probably on Wednesday.
In anticipation of this, Jeremy Corbyn has already said that if she can put her deal to the Commons three times, the other options should have the same opportunity.
And so, it seems, the long year will wear on.
There is a solution. Mrs May could admit defeat, accept that Parliamentary arithmetic means none of the options put forward by MPs will win a majority, and call a general election.
That, it seems, is the only answer. But we already know she doesn’t have the strength of character it requires.
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It would appear that had a rump of Labour MPs voted the other way on each of the indicative votes the result would have been different. It seems that MPs across the House are preventing Brexit, not just one particular party.
Problem is that the Tories polarised, blinkered thinking in general always leads to stalemate.
The utilitarian language of Black/White, Brexit/No Brexit, Rich/Poor, With us /Against us, My Deal/No Deal has always been the right wing’s failing.
Look at Labour’s willingness to compromise in a grown-up, civilised manner, I know who I prefer to listen to….
To be fair to politicians of all Parties (did I really just say that?), Parliament was handed a poisoned chalice by the British public. We shouldn’t forget that, at the Referendum, roughly 37% voted Leave, 35% voted Remain and 28% did not vote. Hardly a clear mandate with an obvious policy to adopt. Especially as definitions of what constitutes “Brexit” are as numerous as maggots on the rotting corpse of the Tory Party.
Not surprisingly, with such an evenly balanced Referendum result, MP s are thrashing around trying to work out what policy best suits them in their individual constituencies. Which involves all kinds of mental calculations about voters views and behaviour. Not easy!
MP s are accused of ignoring the public and just arguing in their Westminster “bubble”. Yet, I think the British public are centre-stage in the whole process. The MPs must be constantly trying to second-guess the voters in their constituencies, haunted by the fear that they will get it wrong, causing even a minor backlash that could just be enough to lose them the seat.
To be Perfectly honest, I see no compromise anywhere. Our M.P.s are fighting like cats in a sack, all determined to get their own way. Had Parliament exercised some proper planning, when it debated the Referendum Bill, it would have known what to do in the event of a vote to leave but it failed. That’s why we are in this mess; that’s why the poisoned chalice and I can’t see a way out of it that will end well. I have said this before and will continue to say it; a plague o’ both Houses!