The country will leave the European Union…
It WILl take sometime to figure out how the final relationship will be…
PM Boris Johnson wins this round…
The U.K.’s House of Commons voted 330-231 in favor of the European Union withdrawal agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Why it matters: The bill must still be passed by the House of Lords, but the Commons’ approval essentially ensures that Brexit will happen on Jan. 31. The passage of the bill after three years of deadlock is a result of the landslide victory Johnson’s Conservative Party won in last month’s snap election.
After three years of deadlock, the Northern Ireland Assembly may soon be sitting again.
See: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-51059859
All 330 votes in favour came from the Tory benches, but what’s unclear to me is whether any Conservie MP’s voted against or abstained from voting, and how many of the Opposition parties’ Members did not join either the Either the Aye lobby or the Nay lobbay (i.e. sat this vote out).
330 + 231 = 561 of of, I think, 635 members of the House of Commons, leaving about 74 who did not vote. Some of these do not customarily vote (the Speaker, 3 Deputy Speakers and 6-7 absentionist members of Sinn Féin), but I suspect that the pro-Bresit and 8-9 membes of the pro-Brexit but Opposition Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) sat out this vote. While I’m pretty sure that the fiercely pro-Remain LIberal Democrats all voted against (since it was a major part of their election manifesto), what I don’t know is how many abstainers came from Labour and how many from the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parites.
This is just step one I’d assume…
More of a separation then a divorce?
So far as I can tell (given the mandate for Brexut that Boris Johnson & the Tories concluded they won lasst month), more of settling the joint estate than of separation negotiations. The U.K., says H.M. Government, will be out of the E.U. by 31 December 2020, with or without a deal, no matter how complete or incomplete the deal reached by then.
There is, I understand, a two-year transition period after the formal break, during which the U.K. and E.U. observe many of their current obligations, but as separate entities — roughly similar to cohabitation for two years after a formal divorce degree but before the joint home is sold.
The hard part is coming for the parties involved….
Finally (with Hansard & Wikipedia) I was able to work out the votes & abstentions on this “final, final” Brexit vote in the House of Commons. An equal number of Conservative and Labour MP’s did not vote (35 each). The debate — seen as having a foregone conclusion after the last election produced an absolute Tory majority — was poorly-attended on Tuesday, so I don’t know how much of the non-votes were pairs either understood or arranged by the Chief Whips, and how many were just coincidences.
Aye-No-neither = Total
330-231-89 = 650 Total MP’s in UK House of Commons
330-0-35 = 365 Cons.
0-167-35 = 202 Lab.
0-64-19 = 83 others, of which
0-45-2 = 47 Scottish Nationalist
0-11-0 = 11 Liberal Democratic
0-4-0 = 4 Welsh nationalist (Plaid Cymru)
0-2-0 = 2 Social Dem & Lab. Party (Irish nat. in N,. Ireland)
0+1-0 = 1 Alliance Party of N. Ireland (unaligned)
0-1-0 = 1 Green Party of England & Wales
0-0-8 = 8 Democratic Unionist (N. Ireland)
0-0-1 = 1 Ind. (ex-Scottish Nationalist)
0-0-7 = 7 Sinn Féin (Irish Republican, N.I. who never take their seats)
0-0-1 = 1 Mr Speaker (only votes to break ties)