by John Brian Shannon

New-ish Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, has promised dozens of times that he will deliver Brexit on October 31, 2019 and let’s hope he keeps his promise to the British people.

The UK people voted in a democratic referendum on June 23, 2016 to Leave the EU and won the poll with a 4 per cent margin of victory, and in the subsequent UK General Election held on June 8, 2017 — an election where all parties stood on a platform to take the UK out of the European Union — Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May won the General Election with a 2.4 per cent margin of victory.

Neither of those margins of victory are notable as UK governments have been elected into power with smaller margins of victory than those two examples.

In the UK electoral system, if you win by 5 per cent or you win by .005 per cent, you win. That’s all there is to the so-called, first past the post system employed by many Western democracies.

Therefore, all that’s required of UK Members of Parliament now in regards to Brexit is for MP’s to fulfil the mandate they were given by the British people on June 23, 2016 which was further bolstered by the 2017 General Election win by a party that ran on a platform of delivering Brexit.

Further, MP’s voted overwhelmingly (498-114) to approve the the House of Commons bill authorizing Brexit, called the European Union Bill.

From that perspective, anything less than delivering a successful Brexit in a reasonable timeframe would display either incompetence or laziness by British MP’s. And I don’t know which is worse. (Is it better that your government is incompetent, or is it better that it’s lazy?) Hard to choose.

Of course, that explanation leaves out the possibility that UK MP’s would actually betray their own country and actively work for the agenda of another country (the European Union) rather than work for their own country and the constituents who voted for them and their pro-Brexit platform as promised in the last General Election.

What Price Should British MP’s Pay Who Refuse to Honour the (Twice) Expressed Will of The People?

What should the punishment be for UK MP’s who choose to work against the 2016 referendum result, against the 2017 UK General Election result (where all parties ran on a platform of delivering Brexit) against the House of Commons bill approving Brexit, and their own constituents wishes?

1. Voter recall by constituents of their local MP, forcing that MP to resign his/her seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
2. Being held in Contempt of Parliament for ignoring a House of Commons resolution authorizing Brexit (where no preconditions had been placed on the type of exit) forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
3. Being arrested by the police/New Scotland Yard/the security service for treason, forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
4. Being arrested by the police/New Scotland Yard/the security service for insurrection, on account of promoting or leading public protests against the clearly and twice-expressed will of a majority of UK voters and being charged with treason, forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.

One thing is for certain; The present mood in the United Kingdom is becoming more anti-government and more pro-people power every day. It’s also becoming more patriotic and less pro-EU than at any time in recent memory.

And it’s becoming more pro-Brexit — even among former Remainers — who like everyone else just want the people in government to do their jobs, which in itself would end the present economic uncertainty. That’s 3-years of uncertainty and counting!

The People, it seems, have had enough of UK politicians gassing-off about how great they are, and about how they’re going to accomplish this and that, without it ever coming to fruition.

Some 1160-days have passed since the June 23, 2016 referendum where The People instructed the UK government to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.

I’ll remind you that it took 2041-days to defeat Hitler in World War II.

At the rate we’re moving on the Brexit file, it looks like the day will arrive when we can say it took longer to leave the European Union political apparatus during peacetime than it took to defeat the Nazis in WWII.

For now, I’ll continue to give Boris Johnson and his ‘can do spirit’ the benefit of the doubt. (But who knows what the other 650-odd British MP’s are up to, and even more worryingly, to whom are they beholden in the EU?)

Whenever any dissension appears within the UK government it plays directly into the hands of the EU negotiators tasked with outmanoeuvring UK negotiators. One wonders why some British politicians are so determined to make the UK appear weak, inept and disorganized.

Whatever! If Conservatives fail to deliver Brexit by November 1, 2019 I expect they’ll be booted from power by The People and that the UK Conservative Party will cease to exist for a generation, perhaps longer. That’s what happens when you don’t fulfil your promise to The People.

With a clear conscience have I warned the UK Conservative Party about the looming implosion of their party (that I and others foresee) should they be too weak to deliver Brexit by October 31, 2019. Let’s hope they’re ‘in-touch’ with the overall mood of the public… or they’re as good as gone.

Related Articles:

• June 23, 2016 | EU Referendum Results in Charts (BBC)
• July 13, 2016 | New UK PM: Theresa May becomes Prime Minister (CNN)
• February 1, 2017 | Brexit: MPs overwhelmingly back Article 50 bill (BBC)
• June 8, 2017 | UK Election 2017: Theresa May Loses Overall Majority (NYT)
• January 15, 2019 | May’s Brexit deal suffers worst defeat ever (The Guardian)
• March 13, 2019 | MPs reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a second time (BBC)
• March 29, 2019 | Prime Minister May’s Brexit deal fails for a third time (VOX)
• March 31, 2019 | Brexit day is here but Britain isn’t leaving the EU yet (CNN)
• April 12, 2019 | Brexit: UK & EU agree to delay Brexit date to 31 October (BBC)
• July 24, 2019 | New UK PM: UK’s Boris Johnson wields knife on first day (CNN)
• August 27, 2019 | Brexit: Opposition MPs agree strategy to block No Deal (BBC)
• August 29, 2019 | Prorogation of UK Parliament sparks furious backlash (BBC)