Huinesoron

Today is the last day. Today, we finally reach the end of this long process: Britain is leaving the EU. Brexit is accomplished. The struggle is over.

Ha! Only kidding. Brexit has never been a single day: Brexit is the period which starts on that day. So far, despite the political anguish, we haven't seen too many actual consequences of the decision to Leave, but believe me, there are consequences, and they are heading our way.

Very little is actually expected to change today: the current situation is that we have a Withdrawal Agreement which will keep the UK effectively part of the EU, but without representation in the EU, until the end of the year (or until a final deal is made). This is happening because the government has been utterly unable to agree a deal on what the final relationship between us and the EU should look like, and I have no expectation that they will manage to do so in the next 11 months. So a Crash-and-Burn ("No-Deal") Brexit is still not only possible, but likely at that time.

So what does that mean for the people on the ground? Oh, there'll be all sorts of stuff about Single Markets and Free Movement of People, but for the actual British people, what are the consequences going to be?

( The consequences )

"And if our human rights laws get in the way of doing it, we will change the law so we can do it."

Who do you think - Trump, maybe? Nigel Farrage? Some African dictator, or maybe Kim Jong Un?

No, it's the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, explaining how she intends to combat terrorism by a 'guilty until proven innocent' policy:

"And I mean doing more to restrict the freedom and movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they are a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court."

Sweet flipping mercy.

So on the 23rd, the Copeland by-election happened. Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (Labour) managed to lose a parliamentary seat to Her Majesty's Government (Conservative). That's the first time that's happened in 35 years, the first time it's happened in a comparable by-election since 1878, and the first time Labour has lost control of Copeland since 1935.

What I'm getting at is that it was a pretty hard blow for anyone who feels that the Conservatives are trying to drive this country straight down the drain. The opinion polls are pretty rough, too - Labour are trailing by a good 12%, which is frankly dire.

So how did this happen? Are people genuinely in favour of the party of selling off the NHS, the party which repeatedly declared in the recent debate over Trump that 'good for UK foreign policy' is far more important than 'not morally repugnant'?

Well, possibly. They did vote for them, after all (though not for Theresa May, who remains steadfastly unelected). But I have a second theory, and it's about Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn was elected as leader of Labour because he is left-wing. He's radical. He's a wind of change over the indistinguishable-from-the-Tories days of the '90s and '00s. But... he hasn't done anything. The two times he's had major votes in parliament, he either let the MPs do whatever they wanted (air strikes in Syria) or commanded them to vote directly against his party's wishes (the Brexit bill).

He hasn't changed a single blessed thing. Local councils under Corbyn's Labour act exactly the same as they always have done. MPs, ditto, except they now spend their time resigning as well. Is he hampered by an uncooperative party? I guess, maybe. But 60% of the Labour party's membership wanted him as their leader. Surely that kind of popular mandate can be parlayed into some kind of change?

But apparently not. I've just read his Wikipedia article, and he hasn't done anything.

So yeah, now I'm fed up with all the major parties in the UK. The Tories are the Tories. Corbyn is useless. The Lib Dems are still the traitors to their stances that they were when they formed a coalition with the Tories. UKIP are vile. And the SNP are just mucking about up in Scotland.

Hope someone actually vote-worthy shows up before 2020.