Eve of the Brexit Vote Storm

It is strange being here in Germnay, where Brexit is relegated to only the occasional byline inside the local newspaper and has been totally absent until late last night from the TV news.  As I write, the Prime Minster, as far as I can glean from UK news sources, is still planning to put the vote on the Withdrawal agreement before parliament on tomorrow, with still currentl an almst certain defeat. Perhaps pigs can be taught to fly within the next 24 hours - I am watching with morbid interest as, in parallel, the pound continues it´s steady decline, at this moment at 1.115 Euros.

What did gain a mention on the local news today was the decision by the European Court that the UK could unilaterally withdraw from Brexit and stay within the EU. The most recent UK poll result on how people might vote in another referendum is still split 52%:48% remain:leave, but that was on the 6th December https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/if-a-second-eu-referendum-were-held-today-how-would-you-vote/?.

President Trump is also experiencing difficulties. Having decided to remove General Kelly as his Chief of Staff for trying to instill some level of sanity into the White House, the planned replacement, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, has decided not to take the post after talking to Trump. A worrying aside on the BBC Today program was the comment that apparently retired Generals Kelly and Mattis (Secretary of State for Defence) decided as far back as 2017 that one of them should always be in the country to monitor the president. So what happens now?

Here in Germany, the news is still full of the repercussions of the election of the new head of the CDU, Annagret Kramp-Karrenbauer, already nicknamed AKK in Germany and abroad. Whilst she and Merkel take a more considered, consultative and pragmatic aproach to reaching consensus, the CDU is still worried about regaining a distinct identity in a climate where the main political parties are losing the confidence - and votes - of the electorate.