Thursday 2nd February

For once the House of Commons excelled itself, brilliant speeches (on both sides) in the Brexit debate; or rather the bill giving permission for the Government to actually trigger Article 50.  It was presented by many, mostly Tories, as a carte-blanche for Mrs. May to do what she wants (which seems to be a hard Brexit) with no more ado, no further debates and no possibility of Parliament being able to reject or amend or even approve what she eventually ends up with.  This was of course nonsense.  But it was the first time an actual bill has been presented to Parliament for M.P.s to debate and pass or amend or reject.  There is no doubt that it will be passed; there never really was – despite some moving speeches from a few Labour and SNP M.P.s who said that in all conscience they had to obey their constituents (who voted remain) and vote against the Government.  But there were a few threats too, from the SNP mostly that they WOULD stay in the Single Market whatever; in other words a new, possibly illegal, Scottish Independence Referendum and then some form of Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

There are literally hundreds of amendments, which will barely get a chance to be debated or even voted on, but the hope is that somehow there will be some check on Mrs. May’s independence and that she will have to amend her plans.  Of course in the heat of negotiations there is no telling what Mrs. May will agree to or even be offered by the other 27 countries.  Her, and our, best hope will be a long transition period where we are still members of the Single Market but able to negotiate trade deals with other countries.  But that transition period will in all likelihood simply extend the free movement of people and our payments to the EU…not exactly what the majority of people voted for I think.