FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
British Government’s Cul-de-Sac Deepens
Nov. 18, 2018 (EIRNS)—Britain’s government crisis deepened today, as Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reiterated, in a Sky News interview reported by BBC, that his party would oppose Prime Minister Theresa May’s phony agreement with the EU on Brexit when it comes before Parliament. Many Tories oppose it as well, and some will surely break Conservative Party discipline to vote against it, while the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which gives May a slender majority in Parliament, will also vote against it. All that appears to ensure that the agreement will lose, which might be sufficient to bring down May’s government by itself, even without the threatened Tory vote of no-confidence (see Nov. 16 EIR Daily Alert).
Corbyn’s own position is peculiar. He is known to oppose the supranational tyranny of the EU, even though he voted “Remain” in the 2016 referendum. But his party has a different view, accepting that tyranny, and Corbyn officially represents his party’s position rather than his own.
At the same time, the procedure to force a party no-confidence motion against May is proceeding in the Conservative Party. British media report that 25 named Tory MPs have confirmed that they have sent letters of no-confidence, out of the 48 required. But it is also known that other, not-named MPs, have sent such letters as well. Once the 48 letters are in, there is a grace period of two days before that fact is made public. Some British media estimate that the two days’ grace period may already have begun.
Furthermore, Tim Ripley and Mark Hookham report in the Times of London today, that
“a team of Army planners has started drawing up emergency measures for deploying troops to respond to any chaos caused by the U.K. crashing out of the EU without a deal.”
The same newspaper sent out a newsletter Nov. 15 with the subhead “What the Hell Is Going On?” It began, “For the avoidance of doubt, I am writing this at 5:45 p.m. and everything that follows was right at the time I pressed send.
“If a lot of time has passed since then, like 15 minutes or more, everything could have changed. We might not have a prime minister. You might be prime minister. I might be prime minister. I might have been ousted by now....”
