Yet Another Defeat For The Government

[ichkeria]

The amendment to the vote I mentioned yesterday has unexpectedly passed!

It’s not legally binding but it does mean that parliament has said “no deal is not an option - ever”

[ichkeria]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47562995

[Rockrose]

Oops sorry put similar in chatterbank

[jim360]

Surprised but pleased -- although, as I laid out at length yesterday, it's not exactly going to change anything unless Parliament also acts to *do* something to back up their statement of intent.

[Old_Geezer]

Just goes to show MPs are unfit negotiators.
Should be ashamed of themselves.

[fiction-factory]

You say it isn't an option- but it could still happen. It's just words. Parliament is good at saying what it doesn't want- but doesn't seem to have any proposals that would win a majority vote.

[ichkeria]

Indeed.
But it makes things v interesting. It would be interesting to see who if anyone from the government voted for it.
What is odd that one of the original movers of the amendment wanted to withdraw it because she thought it was no different from the main motion ...

[Old_Geezer]

I'll try to repeat what I posted in the mysterious disappearing thread.

Hardly, it just means a majority of MPs disapprove.

[grumpy01]

If EU do not allow any extension of Article 50 then we lave March 29th without a deal anyway.

[Gromit]

The Government tried to limit No Deal to be up to 29 March.
The amendment from Conservative Caroline Spelmen went much further, and rules out a No Deal Brexit ever.
The nightmare of Brexiteers of Brexit getting cancelled, took a step near.

[ichkeria]

That’s why I don’t understand why Caroline Spelman wanted to drop it.

The barmy Malthouse amendment has bitten the dust

[mushroom25]

the EU are going to want to see precisely what an A50 would be for, before they even consider it. a delay of a few months for the PM to tweak her deal = unlikely, it isn't gong to pass. a delay for a new (Labour Party?) deal could take years. A referendum could take getting on for a year to set up, particularly since no one knows what the question should, or will, be, not to mention how long whatever the electorate decides will take to legislate for. if the EU agree to a delay, it will likely outlast the current administration, even if it goes to full term.

[ichkeria]

Of course the main amendment might now lose

[ichkeria]

Main motion I mean sorry

[ichkeria]

But it hasn’t :-)

[-Talbot-]

Ruling out no deal carries 321 to 278

[ichkeria]

I think I’m right in saying that the amended motion was in the end whipped.
So that’s another government defeat :-)

I personally agree that an extension is pointless. This vote in a sane world would have been a blessing in disguise for the prime minister. It would give her an excuse to do what I suggested earlier: make it clear it’s the deal or no Brexit. She’s threatened no Brexit before but no one believed her. Faced with this grim reality they just might do the sensible thing.

[Peter Pedant]

oh jesus - itchy

we wont ever have - - no deal?
I hate these double negatives

hye you know the various govts and ministries get named - The Long Parliament - the Mad Parliament - the Barebones Parliament ( one MP was called 'Praise God Barebobes')

dja think this will go down in hx as the Toilet Govt ?
because it keep on getting flushed down the jarn ?

ter-daah - bit bored with brexit to be honest

[ichkeria]

Nigel Farage has just said he’s off to lobby “his mates” (as per the wonderful Andrew Neil) to get a veto for our extension. A man called Sr Malvini springs to mind. Then we’ll leave on 29 March because an Italian fascist says so. Interesting :-)

[fiction-factory]

Your solution has some attractions, ichkeria, but I think you know it will lead to Remain- the many Remainers in parliament would seek to justify it to themselves and their voters by saying it was only because TM's EU deal was so bad they had no alternative.

[ichkeria]

It would lead to an outcome that was honest.
At the moment the only reason many Brexit MPs are voting against this is because they have no incentive to.
Ever since the government was forced to give parliament a vote on the deal parliament has faced what always seemed to many of us as an unsatisfactory choice: what if the deal for whatever reason was not acceptable? The choice of deal or else a disastrous no deal is a pretty bad one. The only reason the no deal option is even being contemplated is because the government is more scared of defying the referendum result than of the consequences of pressing on without a deal.