Theresa May to trigger article 50 on 29 March

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

Theresa May will trigger article 50 on Wednesday 29 March, the prime ministers spokesman has confirmed.

The UKs permanent representative to the European Union, Sir Tim Barrow, notified the EU on Monday morning that a letter should be expected on that date.

May, who was visiting Swansea on Monday, intended to visit Northern Ireland and Scotland before the formal notification was sent by letter on 29 March, Downing Street said.

Downing Street sources had repeatedly said May would take the action to start the Brexit process by the end of March.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/20/theresa-may-to-trigger-article-50-on-29-march

[Hokie]

1. Sad to see the UK become a third world country

I think eventually Scotland and Northern Ireland will leave too.

[Javaman]

2. yup. the brits brought this on themselves.

I could say the same about us with little hands tRumpnazi, but the election was rigged.

[Hekate]

5. Actually, Brexit may well have been rigged as well. Putin had a hand in financing the propaganda.

Knowing this, and knowing that the American behind Calexit has an address in San Diego but an office in Russia, makes me think that anyone supporting California secession is an idiot. A useful idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

[Denzil_DC]

8. Even most of those of us in the UK who're bitterly opposed to Brexit don't believe it was rigged.

There was plenty of money sloshing round from known sources without looking for a significant role for Putin, and there's been thirty-odd years of anti-EU propaganda in most of our media outlets.

From the post-polling evidence since, it seems to have been more of an anti-establishment tide that went pear-shaped.

[Hekate]

9. The last 30 years, huh? Sounds about how long we've been battling the Right Wing here.

And it's all gone pear shaped here.

How about I amend my statement to add that Putin is an opportunist who sees openings and takes advantage of them.

I am a Californian, by the way.

[Denzil_DC]

10. Oh, I agree with what's you're saying there, for sure.

Our own opportunist demagogues like Farage fit well with Putin, down to the financial greed.

If there was any influence from Putin, though, it wasn't so much rigging (we've no reason to doubt the result, dammit) as another push at an already opening door.

[OnDoutside]

4. Many of us in the Republic of Ireland don't want the North, there are many reasons not

to take them in, not least the economic cost.

[ManiacJoe]

6. third world country ???

Care to explain?

[Hokie]

11. An independent UK will be much less of an economic and otherwise influential world power

I think that the UK's status as a player on the world stage will be greatly reduced. Obviously not third world in the literal sense but if Scotland and Northern Ireland separate, the banking centers move from London to Europe, and the UK is decoupled from the EU economy I don't see anywhere to go but down in many ways.

I think the UK is thinking they can negotiate the kind of deal Norway has with the EU but what do they bring to the table?

[Denzil_DC]

12. "Third World" is an oldfashioned term, and was usually geographically specific

to Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America, or indicated countries not aligned with NATO or the old Soviet Bloc.

But ...

Britain Is Becoming an Emerging Market

Breaking up is hard to do — especially after a 43-year marriage. Which is why the notion that the United Kingdom might engineer a “soft Brexit” from the European Union, the innocent hope of many investors and some Brits, was always a delusion. Instead, Britain’s plunging pound, which has swooned to a staggering 168-year low against a benchmark of other major currencies, is just a taste of the economic deterioration to come.

Instead of the pro-Brexit camp’s promise that the vote was a push for independence from European red tape, the drive for sovereignty has turned into a quixotic exercise in isolationism that shows few signs of ending well. In effect, the United Kingdom has abdicated its chief source of economic and political clout — its close association with the European Union, the world’s largest economy. In so doing, Britain may be on the way to looking more like an emerging market, where suddenly political risk, currency volatility, and uncertainty about the future are the new normal. And if you’re thinking that long-term investment and private spending might suffer as a result, you’re bloody well right.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/17/britain-is-becoming-an-emerging-market-brexit-europe-united-kingdom-article-50-currency/

[Dawson Leery]

3. I fully support Scotland Independence.

Let England be half an island and the ruralists can go eat cow s**t.

[Denzil_DC]

7. And there are hitches before she even pulls the trigger

The president of the European council, Donald Tusk, responded quickly to say that he would distribute his response to the British government within 48 hours of next Wednesday. But sources made clear that it would take “four to six weeks” for the other 27 countries in the EU to reach consensus and start the more formal process.

...

The prime minister’s chosen date shortens an already tight timeframe in which the British government hopes to both agree on the terms of withdrawal, including its financial liabilities, and successfully negotiate a “comprehensive free trade deal” with the EU.

The EU had hoped to offer a substantive political response to Britain at a summit pencilled in for the 6-7 April, but the notification date announced by Downing Street does not now make that possible, EU sources said.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/20/theresa-may-to-trigger-article-50-on-29-march