Alright, having read the source article and a few other sources... I'm still fairly wildly confused on the scope of this. Can someone explain this in simpler terms to my dumb little American brain?
In basic terms:
- the UK is set to leave the EU on October 31st;
- the UK and the EU have a deal to leave gracefully (Withdrawal Agreement) ;
- but that deal has been rejected 3 times by UK parliament;
- Johnson's goverment was appointed in July after Theresa May resigned (because she couldn't get that deal passed) and Johnson won the leadership contest of the Conservative party;
- When there's a new government, the Queen makes a speech outlining the policies to enact;
- This normally requires a new session of parliament, so the previous one ends;
- This is what's happening here;
- But it doesn't usually take 5 weeks to do this, this length hasn't happened in decades;
- Meanwhile, almost all of the other political parties and some Conservative MPs are trying to find a solution to block a "no-deal"/chaos Brexit and this suspension of Parliament makes things harder (not impossible) to get through. It's not clear if they can block by passing a law or a vote of no confidence of the PM (and if that vote of no confidence will pass).
- Obviously this length is deliberate in order to put pressure on MPs(and the EU) to accept what Johnson wants, which is to get rid of the backstop and replace with ?????? (seriously he hasn't set forward a clear replacement)
- Backstop is there to avoid violence in Northern Ireland between unionists (who want to remain in the UK) and republicans (who want to unite Northern Ireland with Ireland). Anything that fucks up Northern Ireland means no trade deal with the US (which is Brexiters el dorado)
