BREXIT MAYHEM - Time for the People to Speak
Hoist by her own Petard
By Jon James
Prime Minister May planted the seeds of her own destruction in July at Chequers.The 'collective agreement' was soon in trouble when two of her Brexiteer cabinet members walked to minimise the damage to their future political careers, cheered on by the very same group of right wing backbenchers who have snapped at the heels of successive Tory leaders and prime ministers for decades over Europe and eventually drove former Prime Minister Cameron to agree to the divisive, binary choice Referendum in 2016.
So move forward to the current crisis and the cabinet reaches another 'collective agreement' on the UK's future relationship with the EU after Brexit.
With a Brexit deal that is doomed to fall at the first parliamentary hurdle, hated by Brexiteers and her 'confidence and supply arrangement' partners, the DUP, Ministers including yet another 'so called' Brexit Secretary. supposedly responsible for negotiating the very same deal, start resigning on the hour, every hour. In what appears to be a pre-planned manoeuvre to achieve their favoured No Deal, Tory Brexiteers ready themselves to undermine not only the Deal but launch their attack on their besieged leader on two fronts. First a leadership challenge through the good offices of the 1922 Committee, which is unlikely to succeed but lays down a clear marker and will weaken a Prime Minister in crisis. Meanwhile arch Brexiteers, Gove and Fox together with fellow supporters remain within and await their opportunities to hijack the Deal, further weaken the PM with resignations and hope to influence the future succession.
Prime Minister May, having drawn her red lines for the negotiation with the EU, backed herself and her ministers into a corner and having repeatedly stated that Brexit means Brexit raised the expectations of the Brexiteers and at the same time reduced any hopes of reuniting a divided country.
Having claimed that a NO DEAL is preferable to a BAD DEAL she has significantly weakened her hopes of forcing the current BAD DEAL on MPs and a very weary and wary public through a NO DEAL fear campaign. Theresa May has wasted over two years trying to square a circle. The Irish border issue was always going to be unsolvable. The Irish border "backstop" will almost certainly prove to be a 'long stop' of an indeterminable duration played out against a ongoing background of the Tory Party tearing itself to pieces whilst the rest of us wait for a government able to address the real issues including building houses, resourcing our NHS and Social Care, investing in our young people, securing our industry and getting investment flowing back.
The Prime Minister has intentionally or inadvertently opened up the prospect of NO BREXIT. The art of statesmanship includes knowing when you are wrong. The current situation is heading for a cul-de-sac and the clock is approaching the 11 hour so the Prime Minister can state clearly that the negotiations have met an unresolvable impasse and therefore there only two options remaining:
Either draw a line under BREXIT and remain in the EU or
Hand the decisions on the current DEAL back to the People with a clear option to remain in the EU.
The current Deal can be summed up in the following short statement:
'For 45 years we have sat in a room with our most important political and economic partners, and occupied one of the prized seats; now all we can do is wait outside and beg to be heard'.
We don't know what will happen in the next week, day, or even the next hour but we do know that we face a growing crisis.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable suggested the prime minister was "in denial": "The facts haven't changed. There is no majority in Parliament for her deal, and she has rightly conceded that "No Brexit" is the real alternative to it."
This is the best chance we have had yet to force the Government to grant the people the final say.
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