Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish - reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!
Last week, I wrote about a dramatic week in British politics when the Prime Minister lost his majority in Parliament and Parliament voted for a bill meant to block the Prime Minister from implementing a no-deal Brexit. That was my 15th post in what had been an irregular series to learn about Brexit for myself and other Americans. Suddenly, that has become a weekly series. Next week, I'm writing about Downton Abbey on the day the movie opens. British politics will just have to wait for a week.
Monday was a busy day in British politics:
- The bill to delay Brexit completed the British law-making process with a Royal Assent from the Queen. I wrote about this bill last week.
- The call for a General Election didn't pass the House of Commons for second time. The opposition parties don't want an election until a no-deal Brexit is clearly off the table. Even with the law, they don't fully trust that Boris Johnson and the Conservatives wouldn't run on a get-Brextit-done-no-matter-what platform.
- House Speaker, John Bercow, resigned effective October 31.
I've been watching Parliament proceedings a lot in the last few weeks. They're fascinating because they look so different from the American equivalents. I'll miss John Bercow. Check out this video and see what you think:
On Wednesday, a Scottish court said that the prorogation was unlawful. I wrote about prorogation two weeks ago. Some people are interpreting that as a nullification and that MPs should report back to Parliament immediately. That didn't happen yesterday, so apparently MPs are waiting for the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday.
Beyond the facts of what happened on Monday and Wednesday, British news consists of a lot of speculation. I don't know enough to have an opinion, much less a prediction, of what happens next.
What are your thoughts?
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books
