The United Kingdom has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership, in a step cast by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the dawn of new era.

Britain formally withdrew from the EU at 23:00 GMT on Friday, marking by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests.  

Thousands of Brexit supporters gathered outside the British parliament to celebrate the country’s departure from the EU after more than three years of wrangling. London’s Parliament Square was lined with national flags, and government buildings were lit up in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack.

Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU.

In a public address ahead of Brexit, Johnson promised a new era of friendly cooperation with the European Union.

He acknowledged there may be burdens ahead, but described Brexit an opportunity for “stunning success.”  

In the pre-recorded statement, the premier stressed that the departure is not an end but a beginning.

“The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but a beginning,” he said.

After more than three years of wrangling, Britain remains as split over leaving the EU as it was in the 2016 referendum where Britons voted with a slight majority for their country to leave the union.

“For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come,” Johnson said.

“And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss.

“And then there’s a third group, perhaps the biggest, who had started to worry that the whole political wrangle would never come to an end.

“I understand all those feelings, and our job as the government — my job — is to bring this country together now and take us forward.”

Johnson pledged to deliver a clean Brexit after winning the December 12 general election. Johnson had called for the election in order to break a deadlock in parliament, which had blocked the country’s withdrawal from the European Union, more than three and a half years after the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Source: Presstv

A group of Labour MPs who lost their seats in the general election have predictably tried to blame Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leadership for their loss.

In a letter to the Observer yesterday, the group blames “cronyism” and “anti-Semitism” for Labour’s worst electoral performance in 85 years. Some have also blamed Brexit.

Labour won only 203 seats, a drop of 59 seats, qualifying as the party’s worst national election performance since 1935.

But in a parallel move, a review launched by “Labour Together”, a network comprised of leading activists and senior Labour party figures, is said to be opposed to identifying a single issue, notably Corbyn’s leadership, for the historic defeat.

But leading signatories (of the Observer letter), including former MPs Mary Creagh and Anna Turley, argue that the magnitude of Labour’s defeat necessities soul-searching that goes “way beyond a simple review”.

Meanwhile, the Labour party leadership contest has picked up steam, with Yvette Cooper indicating she is considering joining the race.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Cooper, who has been the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford since 2010, argues that whilst Labour “did badly” in the general election, it still has the capacity to “pull the UK together again”.  

Hitherto, only two candidates have formally declared their intention to contest the Labour leadership once Corbyn steps down as leader early next year.

The declared candidates are shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, and shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis.

However, other leading Labour figures, notably shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, and shadow secretary for business, energy and industrial strategy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, are widely expected to join the race.  

Source: Presstv

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “huge” victory Friday, after winning a leadership primary that ensures he will lead his right-wing Likud party into March elections.

Israel’s longest-serving premier, who faces a corruption indictment and a third general election in twelve months, was expected to beat rival Gideon Saar but the convincing margin of victory strengthened his position in the party he has dominated for 20 years.

With all votes counted, Likud announced early Friday that Netanyahu had secured 72.5 percent, with Saar winning 27.5 percent. 

“A huge win! Thank you to Likud members for their trust, support and love,” Netanyahu tweeted.

“With God’s and your help, I will lead Likud to a big victory in the upcoming elections and we will continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements,” he added.

Around 57,000 Likud members cast their ballots across the country throughout Thursday a little less than 50 percent of those eligible.

Saar, a former minister seen as to the right of Netanyahu, campaigned on the basis that the leader was no longer able to win elections after deadlocked polls in April and September.

“I am content with my decision to have stood. Those who are unwilling to take a risk for what they believe in will never succeed,” Saar tweeted. 

“My colleagues and I will stand behind (Netanyahu) in campaigning for the Likud’s success,” he added.

He announced his leadership challenge last month after Israel’s attorney general indicted the prime minister for fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

Netanyahu, 70, denies the allegations, accusing the police, prosecutors and the media of a witch hunt.

Stephan Miller, a pollster who has worked on multiple Israeli campaigns, said Netanyahu had campaigned harder than ever before to defeat Saar.

Netanyahu held multiple campaign events a day in different parts of the country, while on Thursday his Facebook page broadcast live video of him phoning supporters.

In the campaign’s most dramatic moment on Wednesday, Netanyahu was rushed off stage at a rally in Ashkelon in southern Israel after a rocket was fired from the nearby Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

“His job was on the line and he fought to keep it successfully,” Miller said.

Immunity focus 

Netanyahu’s downfall has been predicted multiple times since he was elected for a second term in 2009, but he has defied expectations and beaten off multiple potential rivals.

He will likely remain prime minister at least until new elections on March 2.

Likud and the centrist Blue and White were near neck-and-neck after polls in March and September, with neither able to form a coalition under the country’s proportional system.

Early polls indicate that the third round could again be a stalemate.

In the short term, attention will now turn to Netanyahu’s legal woes.

Netanyahu is accused of corruption in three separate cases, ranging from receiving illegal gifts worth thousands of dollars to offering to change regulatory framework in exchange for positive media coverage.

On Tuesday the country’s supreme court is expected to hold a hearing on whether a prime minister that has been indicted can form a government.

Under current understanding of the law, a prime minister is only forced to step down once convicted with all appeals exhausted.

Netanyahu also has until January 1 to decide if he will ask parliament for immunity.

Gayil Talshir, a professor of politics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the result could embolden Netanyahu in his campaign against the charges.

“He is going to argue that the people chose him and not the mechanisms and the judiciary,” Talshir said.

“The big game for Netanyahu is immunity and for that he needs 61 votes (in the 120-seat parliament),” she said.

(AFP)

The Scottish National Party has enjoyed a landslide victory north of the border, and sent a clear message to Westminster that Scotland will now set the wheels in motion for a second independence referendum from the UK.

The SNP clinched 13 extra seats in Scotland compared to its 2017 election campaign, and after the 59 constituency results were announced, the SNP now holds 48, with the Tories coming in second with 6, down 7, the Liberal Democrats third with 4, and a disappointing 1 seat by the Labour party who lost 6 seats in a disastrous campaign.

One of the most significant victories by the SNP was the ousting of Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrats party leader from her Dunbartonshire East seat.  The Liberal Democrats who campaigned to keep the UK in the European Union share the ideology with the SNP, and as SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon stated after the election on the Tory victory, ‘Boris Johnson has a mandate to take England out of the European Union. But he emphatically does not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the European Union’.

She further went on to state, ‘if he’s going to claim a mandate for Brexit, he cannot deny the mandate that the SNP has to offer people in Scotland the choice of something different’.

The SNP’s 48 seats in Westminster now makes the party the third largest in parliament, and although Johnson has clearly sealed the largest Tory majority since the Thatcher era, the debate will now spark as to whether Johnson will listen to the voices of Scotland, who in 2014 voted to stay within the United Kingdom as it was part of the European Union, however, with Brexit now a formality, will Johnson abuse his majority power and swipe the SNP voice under the table, or will Sturgeon use the momentum to bring Scotland out of the UK, and into Europe as an Independent nation state?

With Northern Ireland seemingly now being handed to the Republic of Ireland on a plate with the partition in the Irish Sea as part of Johnson’s new deal with the EU, and Scotland now also on the brink of IndyRef 2, could we now be witnessing the end of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and could the famous British divide and rule ideology now be returning to bite its own master on the rear?

Culled from Presstv

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party were on track for an outright majority in Parliament, according to a UK exit poll released late Thursday, likely making a January 31 Brexit deadline a reality.

The poll predicted that the Conservative Party was on track to take 368 of the 650 House of Commons seats to the Labour Party’s 191 seats.

The poll, which is conducted for UK broadcasters, projected 55 seats for the anti-Brexit Scottish National Party and 13 seats for the Liberal Democrats.

That outcome will likely allow Johnson to fulfil his plan to take the UK out of the European Union by a January 31 deadline.

A spokesperson for Britain’s opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn said it was too early to jump to conclusions.

“It’s only the very beginning of the night, and it’s too early to call the result,” the party said in a statement.

More than 45 million Britons are voting Thursday in a snap pre-Christmas general election that will be key to determining the future of Brexit amid political deadlock and bitter divisions over the country’s European Union membership. 

A win for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party would likely make a January 31 Brexit deadline a reality.

A win for the opposition, however, could mean another referendum under a new prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn.

Johnson, who has said the result is on a “knife edge”, was the first party leader to vote in person, arriving at a central London polling station with his Jack Russell dog, Dilyn. People bringing their dogs with them to vote quickly emerged as a trend, giving rise to the hashtag #dogsatpollingstations.

Corbyn, who has had to brush off criticism for his neutral stance on Brexit and claims of anti-Semitism within his Labour party, flashed a thumbs-up sign before casting his own ballot in north London.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party both voted soon afterwards in Glasgow.

The polls will remain open until 10pm local time (GMT).

Source: France 24

As the campaign period draws to a close, there is every indication that the Tories are set to score a small victory and thus remain in power.

The latest opinion poll by YouGov (released yesterday evening) suggests that the Conservative party is set to secure a majority of around 28 seats in the House of Commons, enough to form a government.

However, YouGov was anxious to stress that the margin of error cannot rule out either a hung Parliament, or conversely, a larger Conservative majority.

The findings of YouGov are consistent with polling by multiple sources over the course of the campaign which has placed the Tories ahead of Labour by at least six percent.

Most significantly, an opinion poll for The Observer last Friday placed the Conservatives ahead of Labour by 15 points.  

The Observer poll placed the Tories ahead with 46 percent of the vote, Labour in second place with 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats in third place with 13 percent of the vote.

But pollsters have warned politicians and pundits alike to be cautious as recent elections in the UK, notably the Brexit referendum of June 2016 and the general election of June 2017, delivered unexpected results.

With the general election only a few days away, Nicola Sturgeon has thrown down the gauntlet at the entire British political establishment.

The leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is now calling for a fresh poll on Scottish independence regardless of Brexit.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Sturgeon, who is also Scotland’s First Minister, said that the “contemptuous way in which Scotland has been treated” justifies a new independence referendum.

Previously Sturgeon had linked a fresh independence poll to Brexit, on the grounds that the Scottish people – unlike the English – had not voted to leave the European Union (EU).

Sturgeon defended her new position by claiming that Scotland’s “interests, voice and views” had been “ignored” over the past three years.

And to reinforce the urgency of her position, the SNP leader revealed that she will approach the UK government by the end of the year for an agreement to hold a legally binding referendum.

The SNP needs the British government’s agreement to hold a legal referendum whose outcome is guaranteed to be respected and implemented.

In addition the Scottish Parliament – which is dominated by the SNP – also has to pass necessary legislation to create the grounds for a referendum next year.

Sturgeon has repeatedly said that she wants to hold an independence poll in the second half of 2020.

The SNP leader’s new position indicates a hardening of her approach and crucially it points to her bridging the divide with more radical Scottish nationalists who are unaffiliated to the SNP.

The broader Scottish independence movement has been critical of the SNP’s cautious and legalistic approach toward achieving independence.

Now that Sturgeon has shifted toward a more radical position – by effectively setting Scotland apart from the rest of the UK – the Scottish independence movement is likely to pick up additional momentum going forward.

Source: Presstv      

As he works to deliver the much awaited divorce of the United Kingdom from the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decade-old views deemed insulting to Nigerians has surfaced.

The man who has vowed to deliver Brexit has been accused of making “racist and offensive” comments by implying Nigerians are obsessed with money. His controversial views date 20 years ago when he was a journalist.

In an October 1999 article he wrote as Editor of the Spectator, Boris took a swipe at young Brits but in so doing compared them to Nigerians saying that young people “have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”

In another column which has come to light, Johnson blamed single mothers for “producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”, saying that social housing was an enticement for them to become pregnant.

The prime minister has been under pressure in recent months over a series of comments he made during his career as a columnist, writer and editor, including referring to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” and arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the west.

Critics have bashed Johnson for his comments which they say follow a pattern of sexist and misogynistic words and behaviour.

Source: Africa News