May's government survives no confidence vote

[Recursion]

Source: BBC

Theresa May's government survives a no confidence vote by 325 to 306 - but has yet to get MPs to back a Brexit plan

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46899466

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. That's what the pundits predicted yesterday.

[zipplewrath]

2. As expected

We virtually knew this yesterday. Besides, who'd else want the job right now.

[yardwork]

3. Brexit is going down. Even so, it will leave irreparable damage in its wake.

The whole debacle is a disaster.

[Polybius]

7. Either that or a Hard Brexit

I believe the deadline is the end of March.

[Ghost Dog]

4. So now, UK is here:

... If the prime minister thinks her deal is so good, there is no logical reason why she should not put it to a popular vote against the option of remaining. Indeed, this concept of a second referendum once the proposed exit terms had been negotiated was advocated by David Davis and Jacob Rees-Mogg before they found it inconvenient to do so.

But a Final Say referendum can only happen with the cooperation of the government to put through the necessary legislation, and seek an appropriate extension to the Article 50 deadline. The Commons has no mechanism to impose it. And the prime minister has set her face against a People's Vote, continuing to insist on the false binary choice of “her deal or no deal” – a deeply flawed game of chicken on such a monumental issue.

So does the Commons have an escape route? Enter stage left Houdini, in the unlikely guise of a Humble Address. Not rediscovered until recently as a substantive assertion of parliamentary sovereignty (as against its traditional ceremonial role), the "Humble Address" is a mechanism under which a House of Parliament can make its desires and opinions known to the Crown. It cannot, however, be moved in relation to any legislation.


Addresses have – in the words of Erskine May, the authoritative guide to Parliamentary procedure – historically comprised “every matter of foreign or domestic policy”. The mechanism has recently been used with dramatic effect, first to compel the release of economic assessments relating to Brexit and then to force the publication of the attorney-general’s full legal advice on the Irish backstop. In the latter case, the speaker accepted the proposition that for the government to refuse to comply with a Humble Address would be a contempt of parliament, at which point the government caved in...

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-vote-theresa-may-no-confidence-vote-deal-commons-parliament-mps-a8730176.html

[IronLionZion]

5. I have no confidence in the US government or president

at least UK hasn't been shut down