Brexit is finally happening. On January 31. For real this time.

[brooklynite]

Source: Vox

Brexit is finally, officially happening — for real this time.

The United Kingdom has passed the legislation to make the current Brexit deal with the European Union official UK law, paving the way for the country’s exit from the EU on January 31.

The House of Commons — the lower, elected chamber once the source of endless Brexit drama — quietly and quickly approved the bill on January 9. The House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber, approved the legislation this week with amendments. But the House of Commons overturned the changes on Wednesday, and the House of Lords relented and agreed to accept the legislation without tweaks.

With Parliament agreed, the legislation received royal assent on Thursday, allowing the Queen to give formal approval to a British exit (after approving one of a different sort this month).

Read more: https://www.vox.com/world/2020/1/23/21070594/brexit-royal-assent-january-31-uk-eu-trade

[unblock]

1. my understanding is that it will be a gradual process,

with the existing arrangement remaining in place for the balance of the year while new trade agreements are negotiated.

so for more practical purposes, brexit will really take place on january 1, 2021.

[Buzz cook]

2. And with that Britain moves right

toward fascism.

[Delphinus]

5. Agreed.

It will not be pretty.

[Yavin4]

23. But that's exactly what the capitalist vulture class wants.

Throw the British economy into chaos, and the only path out will be privatization. No more national healthcare. No more public services. What's left of the UK will be more and more like the US.

Congrats UK! You've just voted for more extreme income inequality.

[sakabatou]

4. Putin smiles

[oldsoftie]

6. The people voted for it. Move on & get it over with.

Deal with the consequences & problems as they come.
Good luck England!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. No. The BrExit referendum was every bit stolen as much as 2016 was stolen from Hillary

Nigel Farage, who led it, admitted on TV later to lying. Others lied and repeated lies.

Cambridge Analytica and their ilk were busy.

Russian web brigades were involved.

You think Democrats should "get over" 2016 and "move on"?

[KPN]

18. Hell, I'm not over 2000!

[oldsoftie]

26. Well, we HAVE because we're here talking about winning in '20.

Not rehashing whats not going away.
And I wouldnt compare our fiasco to theirs. There has been a push in England to leave the EU for some time. And it wasnt just the fringes. They never even really went to the Euro

[Mickju]

7. Now they have their chance to turn Britain into a right wing paradise.

I don't think they are going to much like what they have wrought.

[Initech]

9. The entire planet is turning into a far right shithole.

All thanks to two men: Mark Zuckerberg and Vladimir Putin. Well maybe throw in the Saudis for good measure. Putin + Zuckerberg = Make Nazism Great Again!

[Mickju]

11. True

[Mickju]

12. You could also add Rupert Murdoch.

[Initech]

13. True!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. No. How easy it is for Americans to forget their biggest trading partner & biggest neighbor

You know, the one that has a LIBERAL government.

The one with the 50-50 gender balance in cabinet.

The one that legalized cannabis and sells it from government stores like liquor.

The one with universal health care and debating universal pharmacare.

[Initech]

22. What? No country is immune from this right now.

Look at France and the Yellow Jackets. Or Spain and the Catalan separatists. Or England with Brexit. Us and Trump. Brazil and Bolsonaro, Turkey and Erdogan, The Philippines and Duterte, I could go on and on. Hell there was even a plot to get California to separate from the US, and it was found out that the guy who started it was a Russian stooge. Then there's our former allies like Poland and Hungary who have already flipped to the dark side.

My point is that the far right authoritarians like we're seeing here are the same no matter where you go, and it's getting uglier and uglier out there. With people being brainwashed by a steady diet of fear and misinformation out there, brought on by social media propaganda, and a Murdoch owned channel.

I don't see any country like you're describing. Who? Canada? The Netherlands? Sweden?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Canada, of course. It is as I described. Netherlands & Sweden do not border USA. . . nt

[onetexan]

27. Canada has a growing RW faction as well. It must heed the signs and be careful as well.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Sure. But "a growing faction" does not equal "the entire planet is turning", as the member I replied

... to said.

"growing" is far from "turning".

It is NOT the entire planet. The poster seems to have been in the dark about Canada twice (which proves my point) and confused about the limits / usefulness of hyperbole.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. Don't whitewash Republicons & tRump. . . . nt

[Initech]

8. Let this be a lesson. When you don't vote, conservatives win.

Too many precincts in Britain were able to be flipped because people just didn't care enough to vote. Elections have consequences.

[KPN]

19. I'm beginning to think the non-voters dont care

about consequences. That they don’t see consequences as being significantly different in their personal lives based on who they choose to vote for. So they don’t vote. In their minds, and perhaps truly in their lives, it doesn’t matter.

[Takket]

10. The coming depression for their economy will still be blamed on liberals somehow

[mwooldri]

14. A bit hard to do.

The last centre left government was voted out in 2010 with a Tory led coalition government, and Tory control since 2015. Another decade of Tory madness. I'm hoping a figure like John Smith, maybe Tony Blair (no, not actual Tony Blair, a more centre left person rather than hard left Jeremy Corbyn) will take Labour forward and in 2024 get the Tories out. Besides the Tories have four years to make this Brexit thing work.

[DFW]

15. Labour handed Brexit to the Tories on a silver platter

If they had chosen a pro-EU pragmatist like Blair to lead them instead of the rigid ideologue Corbyn, they might have been the ones salvaging a near-Brexit calamity right now with a new referendum that kept the UK in.

As it, is, the economic downside will now be felt as a slow slide downwards, rather than a sudden upheaval. Most of the major consequences, such as the loss of financial centers and their huge numbers of well-paid workers, are already gone from London. Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Frankfurt were already starting to profit from this over a year ago.

If the Tories are smart, they will declare Northern Ireland a special customs zone to keep the border with the Irish Republic a free and open one. No one wants a return to 1972, and there can't be much doubt that Putin would arrange to supply the IRA with as much weaponry as they could possibly desire. The trick is to keep them from desiring it. Once they do, it will already be too late to prevent a return to "the troubles."

[IronLionZion]

16. Sounds like it's oven ready

[Blue_Tires]

24. There's going to be a lot of resentment

when folks find out that Brexit didn't make all the nonwhite immigrants instantly vanish...