Britain on Tuesday was heading toward its first December election in almost a century after Prime Minister Boris Johnson won preliminary approval from Parliament for an early ballot aimed at breaking the Brexit deadlock.
As the European Union granted a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place on March 29, the United Kingdom, its Parliament and its electorate remain divided on how, or indeed whether, to go ahead with Brexit.
Johnson, who had promised to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31 "do or die," demanded an election after Parliament — where he has no majority — frustrated his attempts to ratify the last-minute divorce deal he struck with the EU earlier this month.