Finally, Britain's political ice floes are moving. After three years of Brexit impasse, an election in six weeks may break the logjam. Or it may just rearrange the ice pack, keeping the UK trapped half in and half out of the European Union.
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Official campaigning for the December 12 poll hasn't even started yet but Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn are already laying out their key arguments for a Brexit-dominated election as they sparred on Wednesday in the House of Commons.
Johnson claimed his left-wing rival would subject the country to endless "dither and delay" over its EU departure while Corbyn accused Johnson of planning to slash employment rights and sell off chunks of Britain's health service after Brexit.
The partisan peacocking came a day after the House of Commons approved an early election, 2 1/2 years before Britain is next scheduled to go to the polls.
The date will become law once it is approved on Wednesday by the unelected House of Lords, which doesn't have the power to overrule the elected Commons.
While Johnson's Conservative Party has a wide lead in most opinion polls, analysts say the election is unpredictable because Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties. For many voters, their Identities as "leavers" or "remainers" are more important than party affiliation,
The Conservatives face a challenge for pro-Brexit voters from Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, which wants to leave the EU without any deal on future relations. The centrist Liberal Democrats, who want to cancel Brexit, are wooing pro-EU supporters from the Conservatives and Labour in Britain's big cities and liberal university towns.
All parties worry that that they could be hurt by voters' Brexit fatigue. Britons are tired and grumpy as they face the third major electoral event in as many years, after the country's 2016 EU membership referendum and a 2017 election called by Johnson's predecessor Theresa May to try to boost the Conservatives' majority and strengthen her hand in negotiations with the EU.
Instead, the party ended up losing its majority in parliament and May failed to pass her plans for leaving the EU.
"This has become 'Groundhog Day,"' said Patricia Sharman, a Brexit supporter who for almost a year has been coming to stand outside parliament with her "no betrayal" sign. She thought she would be able to stop on Thursday, Britain's scheduled EU departure date. This week the EU postponed Brexit until January 31 because of the political gridlock in London.
"We need to be relieved of purgatory," Sharman said.
Johnson is hoping to win over voters like Sharman, even though he failed to deliver on his vow that Britain would leave the EU on October 31 "come what may". He'll campaign as a leader who has been stymied by an obstructive parliament in his mission to deliver Brexit.
Johnson struck a divorce deal laying out the terms of Britain's orderly departure from the EU, which was approved in principle by MPs. But he withdrew it after parliament demanded more time to scrutinise it.
Johnson said on Wednesday that his top priority was "getting Brexit done and ending the dither and delay".
Labour is seeking to project unity despite divisions over whether to go through with Brexit. After much internal wrangling, the party backs a new referendum on whether to stay in the EU or leave - but has not said which side it would support.
The left-of-centre party is calculating that voters want to talk about issues such as health care, the environment and social welfare - all of which saw years of funding cuts by Conservative governments - instead of more Brexit debates.
Australian Associated Press
