At eleventh hour, Britain is mired in chaos over Brexit
Although March 29 was originally supposed to be the date on which Britain left the European Union, the country is still part of the EU and still cannot decide how it wants to leave. The government's proposed agreement to leave the union was rejected for a third time. Almost three years after its vote to leave the EU, Britain is no closer to finding a consensus on what kind of Brexit they want. Plus, learn the English expression "wear thin."
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The chaos in London is showing no signs of letting up, after Parliament rejected the proposed Brexit deal for the third straight time
Hey everyone, welcome back to Plain English. I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, second-in-command, and you are part of the best audience in the world. You know why? I have wanted to do another Brexit episode for a few weeks now, but I always thought, nah, we’ve done three of them. People are sick of hearing about Brexit. But then one of your fellow listeners, Rodolfo from Ecuador, asked me why I’m not doing more Brexit episodes. He even said it should be its own category on the web site. So Rodolfo, thank you for allowing me, for giving me permission, to do a fourth episode on this topic, because I’ve wanted to do another one for a while now. And it is important; it’s one of the most important issues in the English-speaking world.
If you have not heard those episodes before, I will give you the episode numbers. And you can either find them on your podcast app, in Spotify, or on the web site. To get them on the web site, just go to PlainEnglish.com, slash, and then the number. So the first one was Episode 80, so you get that at PlainEnglish.com/80. The others were numbers 105 and 113. And now we are on episode 143. So today’s transcript is available online for you to read along at PlainEnglish.com/143. Listen to this. Do you want to know the headline I put on the web site for Episode 80 in August 2018? Here it is exactly: “With deadline looming, Britain and EU still have no deal on Brexit.” If I were lazy, I could just copy that and put it on today’s episode too.
Real quick before we get started. Here are a couple of ways to get in touch. To get emails from the show, sign up at PlainEnglish.com/mail . If you prefer WhatsApp, drop me a note at +1 312 967 8757 .
Brexit delayed, but way forward is no clearer than before
March 29 was supposed to be the date on which Britain left the EU. Instead, Parliament engaged in what has become a depressing ritual: voting down a Brexit proposal from Prime Minister Theresa May’s government. It was the third straight defeat of the same deal, although it was defeated by a lower margin than in previous attempts.
Here’s where things stand: the deadline is now April 12. The deal the Prime Minister negotiated with Europe has been voted down three consecutive times in her own Parliament. The MP’s obviously don’t support this deal. Is it possible that they want to crash out of Europe with no deal at all? No, that is not possible, because they also voted down that idea. So Parliament has voted against the idea of leaving without a deal; they have voted three times against the deal Theresa May negotiated. Apparently they want a different deal—but that would mean re-opening negotiations with the EU, which EU ministers are reluctant to do. This has become an unending nightmare for the current government. Patience in Brussels is wearing thin.
Is there a way out? Theresa May has been inching closer to either resigning as prime minister or calling fresh elections. About a month ago, she told her Conservative Party that she would step down as prime minister before the next elections take place. Last week, in an attempt to persuade her colleagues to vote for her negotiated deal, she said would resign if the deal passed, and let someone else see Brexit through to its conclusion. After she lost again, she hinted that she might call fresh elections. It is not a good sign that she is most persuasive when she is promising to go away.
A new election would not clarify things because the Brexit issue is not split along party lines. Unlike in many issues, there isn’t one party for and one party against the issue. Part of the Conservatives are for it and many are against it; for the opposition Labour Party, the same dynamic exists—some in favor, some against. A new election might deliver different MP’s, but it wouldn’t make coming to an agreement on this critical issue any easier. The opposition Labour Party is no more coherent on this issue than the Conservatives are. If you heard the previous episode we did about Brexit, you know what I think: the only way to know whether people want to accept the negotiated deal, to leave with no deal, or to stay in the EU after all, is to ask them again in a referendum. Voting again is not a good option, but it is the least-bad option.
Meanwhile, all the uncertainty is causing headaches for business. Nine out of ten businesses want some type of deal, given the havoc likely if Britain crashes out with no deal. Even so, they have to be prepared for the worst. The biggest disruption would be getting goods into the country, so any firm that relies on imports is affected. Take car makers, for example. Fearing controls at the border, BMW, Honda, and Land Rover idled their factories for the month of April. The idea was to sit out the first month of chaos. It is too late to start up production again, now that the exit date may be further delayed. Other companies that distribute food and medicine have leased, have rented, refrigerated warehouse space that they were planning to use to stockpile supplies.
They may not need it, but they have to keep the space just in case Britain leaves with no deal on April 12. Other firms have been gradually importing and stockpiling their own goods and supplies in Britain—but many small manufacturers have to do so on credit, meaning they had to borrow the money and pay interest while their stockpiles sit there. Many other companies have just put production and investment on hold while the political situation sorts itself out. The longer that takes, the worse it is for both the British and European economies. One business group told Parliament to “stop this circus.”
There may be some hope of that. Back in Westminster, Parliament is this week holding a series of “indicative votes.” These are non-binding votes—meaning they are just for discussion; they won’t have the force of law. But they are intended to determine, broadly, what kind of deal the MP’s would support. Perhaps after this series of votes, we will know more about what Britain’s elected representatives think their country’s relationship with Europe should look like. If they do that, they could then put the idea to a referendum, so they can confirm the consensus agreed-to in Parliament. That would then let Britain conduct effective negotiations with the EU, which is how it should have been done in the first place.
That would take time, however. Britain has squandered the almost three years since the people voted to leave in June 2016. If they finally decide, as a country, what they want their future relationship with Europe to be, they will have to go back to Brussels, ask for another extension, and then use the time to negotiate that deal with the EU. Ironically, a new election for the European Parliament is due in June of this year. Britain faces the very real possibility of having to elect new Members of the European Parliament three years after they voted to leave.
The government had commemorative 50 pence coins printed with the date March 29 to celebrate its departure from the EU. Those will have to be melted down. Maybe they should have taken the effort they devoted to the celebratory coin and devoted it instead to making sure an orderly exit actually happened.
Today’s expression is going to be “wear thin.” And this was a good day because as soon as I typed it, I knew that was the expression I wanted to do. It doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes I get to the end of the main topic and I have to re-read it three or four times to get an expression to put in there. Then if I’m on the fence, if I don’t know if the one I picked is a good one, I text JR and ask him. Half the time he says no, that’s obvious. Or no, it’s a cognate and means the same thing in Spanish. So I have to go looking for another one. But this time was easy—wear thin.
Before I get to that, though, I wanted to remind you about the offer for a free audiobook with Audible, available at PlainEnglish.com/book . The deal works like this. You can sign up for a free trial membership that lasts a month. In that month, you get to download one book, which is yours to keep for free, forever, no matter what. If you continue as a member, you get one audiobook every month for about $15 per month. If you don’t want to pay, just cancel the trial membership after you get your free book—and that’s it. You don’t have to pay anything. They have all the details at PlainEnglish.com/book.
I just read a book called “The Happiness Advantage,” by a psychologist named Shawn Achor. It was all about the science of happiness, and why that’s important at work and in your personal life. It’s funny, easy to understand, but backed by the latest science. The Happiness Advantage, and it’s available as an audiobook on Audible. You can get that as your free book by going to PlainEnglish.com/book.
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