Are you ready?
Well if you’re reading this in the UK then you really should assume the Brexit position.
You know the drill.
Bend down, head between your knees and kiss your aspirations goodbye.
Last night the Muppet Show at Westminster played the Amendment game.
After the votes had been counted the message to the EU and indeed the wider world was that negotiating a deal with the Brits was rather meaningless.
Prime Minister Theresa May will now travel to Brussels and ask them to amend a treaty she had previously told the Commons was as good as it gets.
If nothing changes now then the UK will leave the European Union without a deal at the end of March.
As I was writing this an NUJ colleague form Derry messaged me.
We are of the same mind that unless something changes we are both looking at a hard border between us.
The terms I have used for this shambles is “Slow Moving Suez Crisis” and I will keep to that.
Since the referendum vote in 2016, this was never going to end well.
The only thing to be decided was what bad outcome would end up being chosen by the Muppets at Westminster.
May’s deal reduced the UK to the status of a “rule taker” of Brussels.
On that the Brexiteers are correct.
However, their delusional belief in the sunlit uplands of WTO trading is bonkers.
Despite an amendment ruling out a No Deal scenario being passed in the Commons last night, that is now a likely outcome.
Currently, the law in the UK is that if there is no withdrawal agreement with the EU then the UK will leave on the 29th of March and trade under WTO rules.
That is the cliff edge.
In the aftermath of the votes last night the English media told their readers what they wanted to hear.
However, the folk who read the Financial Times are too important to be fed feel-good pish.
Many of their important readers are currently making plans to move businesses out of the Square Mile and relocating in laces like Frankfurt and Dublin.
For the avoidance of doubt, a No Deal scenario will hit the UK economy like a tsunami.
Meanwhile, we in the Republic will be the collateral damage of this madness currently gripping Middle England.
In Brussels, there is already in play a kind of Marshall Plan for the 26 counties should a No Deal crash out occur.
Of course, across the artificial line, our neighbours and cousins in Narne Arne are still handcuffed to Westminster.
I wrote this for Bella Caledonia in February 2016 about the consequences of a Brexit vote in the upcoming Brexit referendum.
Of course, Scotland had an opportunity in 2014 to avoid this shambles.
However, the good folk of Fair Caledonia were told that to vote for independence would risk their membership of the European Union.
At this point, I half expect to see Peter Capaldi walking across Parliament Green busily barking Scottish expletives into his phone at some hapless government minister.
The entire fiasco definitely has a Malcom Tucker feel to it.
I knew in 2016 that if the UK voted to leave the European Union then the issue would come down to our little island.
Of course, there was little mention of Britain’s border in Ireland during the Brexit referendum.
Now the Westminster tribe are fixated on “the backstop”.
This insurance policy now covers the whole if the UK because the British government, requiring DUP support, could not agree to a regulatory frontier in the Irish Sea.
There are no good outcomes in this as the UK is becoming the Sevco of Europe with every passing day.
This a perfect storm of a clusterfuck.
Brace yourselves…
It’s a shambles and May and her lot will just point the finger of blame at the EU when chaos ensues which will delight the Brexiteers.
Better together was the message when the Scottish referendum was the subject, now it’s better apart from the same people.
Sleep walking into an economic crisis.
Those who voted stay were voting for the status quo. 40 years plus as part of the EU with hardly any noticeable impact on our day to day lifes.
What were the leavers voting for? As sure as hell it won’t be the Utopia that they were promised but more likely hell on earth.
When the lorries start stacking up at Dover and there’s bedlam at the airports as people go and return from their annual European holiday there will be much wailing and screaming which of course will be far too late.
Strap yourself in and watch the money and jobs leave the country.
You seem to have forgotten how the EU screwed Ireland over their banking crisis.
No, we had not forgotten, we were merely waiting for the return spring to operate.
There was an SNP amendment for Scotland to remain in the EU but Labour abstained on account of their hatred for anything SNP. It would be a rather tidy affair to have the backstop at the border with England, given that they (and Wales) voted to leave. It is time for Labour folks to realise that the party you support does not support you or your wishes, just those of Middle England.
So Germany (the backbone of the EU”s economy) approaching recession doesn’t bother you? Deuche Bank teetering on the edge can be ignored?
Whatever your political persuasion, to laugh at those you dislike so much while your own boat sinks is a little unconstructive to say the least.
Would that be the same recession we’ve been in for a decade, and it’s about to get a whole lot worse.
Hi Phil, you’ve previously mentioned this ‘Marshall Plan’ that the EU has in place for the ROI. Hopefully it’s being arranged by the ‘No strings attached & Free Lunch’s on us, just coz we like you’ department of the EIB, can you confirm?
Retired Scotslrish living in Dublin last 22 years I have a son living in Glasgow with a young family. I will definitely be getting him the document’s to apply for an Irish passport.i would advise anyone with Irish descent to apply for an Irish passport travel on auk passport could become a nightmare.travel for work or just going on holiday. On the bright side you could have a great laugh at all the knuckle draggers queuing up to get through passport control with there beetroot heads ready to explode hh😁