Don't make me explain Brexit all over again. Instead listen to Colin Liddell's podcast on the issue HERE.
All you need to know for now is that British Prime Minister Theresa May's latest Brexit package -- designed to be a compromise that could unite hard Brexiters and soft Brexiters and be accepted by the EU -- has succeed in uniting them all.
Now EVERYBODY hates her -- Brexiteers, Bremainers, and members of her own cabinet, who have been resigning in droves today.
Usually when things get this bad, Tory PMs do the honorable thing and fall on their swords. So, today, after getting roasted in the House of Common, followed by FIVE ministers resigning, everybody expected Theresa May to come out and make a tearful statement in which she said she was looking forward to spending more time in the kitchen or cleaning out her attic, and leaving the troubles of government to someone else.
Instead, the nation was disappointed.
Putting on her favorite Frieda Kahlo bracelet and clunky necklace, the "Maybot" came out and robotically repeated how great she thought her Brexit plan was and that she would be "seeing it through." She even put on her mechanical smile in a desperate attempt to seem upbeat:
To see the Kahlo bracelet view from 18:50
The Frieda Kahlo bracelet is the best clue to what is going on here.
For those who don't know, Kahlo was a demented, Mexican, commie artist who spent most of her adult life in pain after a near-fatal bus accident in which an iron handrail impaled her through her pelvis and displaced three vertebrae.
She also had a complicated pregnancy, that she tried to get rid off, leading to a botched abortion, a continued pregnancy, and finally a serious miscarriage that nearly killed her.
For those who don't know, Kahlo was a demented, Mexican, commie artist who spent most of her adult life in pain after a near-fatal bus accident in which an iron handrail impaled her through her pelvis and displaced three vertebrae.
She also had a complicated pregnancy, that she tried to get rid off, leading to a botched abortion, a continued pregnancy, and finally a serious miscarriage that nearly killed her.
In short, her life was a childless mess of pain and suffering.
But what has any of this got to do with British politics?
Well, it's clear by now that May has long identified with Kahlo -- maybe it's the miscarriage, maybe it's the facial hair problem, maybe it's the crap art...who knows.
Anyway, just like her heroine, she believes in grimly suffering pain to the bitter end. In fact, the pain is the only reason she is still there.
Those analysts who think she will resign as soon as she recognizes the pointlessness of her position and feels the pain of being so widely detested and mocked are simply wrong. She definitely won't resign -- she'll have to be literally thrown out.
Hopefully the pressure against her is now so strong that a majority of her fellow Conservative MPs will agree with Jacob Rees-Mogg's push to hold a "no confidence" vote on her leadership in the party and have her kicked out.
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| Pain icon: the long-suffering, childless Kahlo has long been a heroine of Theresa May. |
Well, it's clear by now that May has long identified with Kahlo -- maybe it's the miscarriage, maybe it's the facial hair problem, maybe it's the crap art...who knows.
Anyway, just like her heroine, she believes in grimly suffering pain to the bitter end. In fact, the pain is the only reason she is still there.
Those analysts who think she will resign as soon as she recognizes the pointlessness of her position and feels the pain of being so widely detested and mocked are simply wrong. She definitely won't resign -- she'll have to be literally thrown out.
Hopefully the pressure against her is now so strong that a majority of her fellow Conservative MPs will agree with Jacob Rees-Mogg's push to hold a "no confidence" vote on her leadership in the party and have her kicked out.
What they don't want to do is have a "no confidence" vote on her as Prime Minister in the House of Commons, as that would cause a general election and could let in Labour.
But even removing May as Conservative party leader and then installing a new PM is unlikely to fix things. The government's majority in the House of Commons is wafer thin, so only a few Conservative MPs have to break from the party line to derail any new leader.
This mess looks like it will go on all the way to the Brexit deadline early next year, when a "No Deal" will become an inevitable fact. This is actually the best result, and should have been embraced long ago. The fact that it wasn't means that the UK is in for a few bumps, as it catches up with its own destiny.
