“The Hospital of Bethlem (Bedlam) at Moorfields, London”
It’s Monday morning and we’re back in the political madhouse. Yesterday, as customary, the political Z-list ‘celebrities’ were invited to take to the airwaves and tell us about ‘their Brexit’. Yawn – we’ve heard it all before: it was about themselves, their personal position in their establishment Remain Parties, and scuppering Brexit.
To crown it all, the PM wrote an article published yesterday in RemainCentral, The Sunday Times (link, paywalled). It’s title is “Brexit: My Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be a bold new offer to MPs”. It’s nothing more than a last desperate attempt to make people vote for her derelict Party in the EP elections this coming Thursday.
Why she thinks that we voting plebs would now dutifully vote ‘Remain’ on Thursday and perhaps even tell her Remain MPs to support her because: “Ms May before Party before Country” – that is her secret.
The PM’s article serves to reinforce my suspicion mentioned in my Brexit-Betrayal column on Saturday, namely that her Mandarin handlers seem to have given up on her and have left her dangling. It’s a Party Political re-branding exercise, unworthy of a PM. The fine hand of the Remain Mandarins is absent.
Of course, she still has her Tory Party handlers who are now desperate to hold onto their own jobs … Thus the article in today’s (paywalled) DT, reporting that there’s nothing new in the PM’s ‘bold’ proposal is not a surprise:
“The Prime Minister announced on Sunday that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill – the legislation needed for Britain to leave the EU with a deal – would “represent a new, bold offer to MPs across the House of Commons, with an improved package of measures that I believe can win new support”. But a five-page summary of the Bill sent to Cabinet ministers last week contained no ideas on how to bridge the gap between the Tories and Labour on a possible customs union with the EU, and no fresh thinking on the Northern Irish backstop. (paywalled link)
The details as reported in the DT serve very well to illustrate the desperation now prevailing in the PM’s ‘inner circle’:
“Instead, it promises to incorporate an idea first proposed by the Tory MP Sir Hugo Swire in January that would give Parliament the final say on implementing the backstop, as well as an obligation for the Government to “seek” alternative arrangements to the backstop by the end of 2020. It would also incorporate an amendment first proposed to the third “meaningful vote” in March by the Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Gareth Snell, which would give Parliament a say in what the objectives of future trade negotiations should be.” (paywalled link)
Articles in this morning’s MSM (here, here, and here) simply have copied the DT’s report.
Some Tory MPs seemed to have been aware already that the PM’s article yesterday was hogwash, as their reactions indicate:
“Sir Bill Cash, the Brexiteer Tory MP who has consistently voted against Mrs May’s deal, said: “This is pretty cosmetic stuff. It will not have any effect on Leave-supporting MPs and in fact there are votes coming back to our side from people who backed the deal last time.” David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, told LBC radio that he would be voting against the Bill at the first opportunity to prevent MPs trying to pass amendments that would tie Britain into a customs union or a second referendum. Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP chief whip whose party has said it will vote against the Bill, said: “The difficulty remains for us that the backstop is still incorporated into the legislation. As things stand our position remains unchanged.” A Whitehall source who has read the summary given to ministers said: “There is nothing new in this at all. It is simply a retread of old ideas.” (paywalled link)
Sir John Redwood had this rather prophetic entry in his Diary on Saturday:
“Will Mrs May really ask us to vote for a fourth time on this unpopular Treaty by bringing forward the Bill to ratify it? She says they will. Why then does she not publish it so we can talk about it properly? Is it so bad it must be kept secret?” (link)
I’m sure he and all of us will be astonished (not!) to read this morning:
“Downing Street said the details of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill had not yet been finalised.” (paywalled link)
The PM, in ‘bold’ words, has thus asked the Nation to get their MPs to vote for her “Brexit” which hasn’t even been ’finalised’, whatever that means. We’re in tinpot dictatorship country!
The Irish Foreign Secretary reminded all the warring MPs, all the way up to the PM, that the EU will not renegotiate (link). It is surpassingly strange that this stark fact still seems to have escaped all our MPs, right up to the PM. He warned that we could get a No-Deal Brexit ‘by default’. His words certainly made my blood boil – read the whole thing, it’s not paywalled.
Stunningly, as if they all copy from each other, Remain politicians have taken to the MSM to screech these same warnings in today’s papers: a No Deal is of the devil and must be avoided – so say Dame Caroline Spelman, a Conservative MP and Jack Dromey, a Labour MP, in an article they wrote jointly in today’s (paywalled) Times.
The Labour MP Stephen Kinnock (son of Neil) gives the same warning here, while ChUK’s Anna Soubry wrote her own dire piece of warning in the (paywalled) Times:
“We are facing a national emergency. We have to stop a no-deal Brexit from doing irreparable harm to our country. We have to revoke Article 50” –
the reason being … Nigel Farage and the projected win of TBP on Thursday!
Why the choice, according to Ms Soubry’ s Leader Mr Umunna, and endorsed by her, is now between “No Deal” and “Revocation of Article 50”, that they don’t explain.
My diagnosis is that they have swallowed whole the cumulative “Project Fear” predictions. Nothing could illustrate better that they are unfit to hold office: they are blinded by their own blinkers, blinkers which they themselves have fitted to their eyes and minds.
Meanwhile the remaining Remain Tories in cabinet and the HoC are united – in trying to ‘stop Boris’, according to this report. Yes, this is the huge problem facing the Nation right now: the fate of the Remain Tory Party. Brexit and what we, the voters, are saying is irrelevant.
In this endeavour they’ve even lost sight of the fact that at least some Whitehall inmates are cracking on with preparing for a No-Deal-Brexit, according to the current DExEU minister, Stephen Barclay (paywalled source). No, for them it’s Boris all the way down. Interestingly, the DT reports that:
“Boris Johnson, the favourite to replace Mrs May, is being given daily advice by Conservative election guru Sir Lynton Crosby, who has been credited with helping Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to a “miracle” win at the weekend.” (paywalled link)
I’ve already mentioned in my previous columns that Brexit has become a plaything, just another tactical ploy for those Tories who’re planning to become the PM-replacement.
However, there’s one remarkable twist in this Tory Tale which shows that the political landscape has changed, perhaps irretrievably:
“In a sign of the dramatic demise of the Conservative Party under Theresa May, just 13 per cent of over-70s said they would vote Conservative in a recent YouGov poll. In the 2017 General Election 69 per cent of over-70s backed them.” (paywalled link)
It’s no accident that the combined commentariat of our MSM seem to have overlooked this astonishing fact. It must be too frightening for them to contemplate, so they indulge in this displacement activity to ‘stop Boris’, They’ve obviously abandoned any attempt to ‘stop Nigel Farage’.
if those true core voters are abandoning the Tories – where will they go? Answers on a postcard …!
What a surprise, the Electoral Commission at the behest of Gordon Brown is investigating funding of TBP just a couple of days before the EU elections. They must be getting really desperate now. The trend now seems to be that if your on the losing side of a democratic vote it’s acceptable to use any means possible to overturn it. Democracy is dead.
I think Mrs May has already signed off the treaty and now can’t get it ratified. That’s what this is all about in simple terms. She is in a hole and can’t stop digging!
Milkshakes seem to be the weapon du jour of low grade political attack dogs. I don’t believe Farage would have been attacked in this manner if the authorities (Police, Johnny Mercer etc.) had not condoned (more like cheered) the similar attacks on TR.
With the intransigence on both sides Brexit is beginning to take on a “civil war” appearance. There should be no gloating over the state the Conservative party finds itself in. Like a divorce where children and property have to be taken into account, a Hard Brexit sounds good but is unrealistic. So again I would suggest that Jacob Rees Mogg has been correct and Mrs Mays WA offers a compromise that the future can be built on. “Rome wasn’t built in day”.
Neither was it given away in a day.
The WA is not a comperomise at, show me where Bruddels has compromised. It is a surrender document that turns the UK into a vassal state, Why would the EU want to change that in future?
https://independencedaily.co.uk/mrs-mays-withdrawal-of-democracy-agreement-2/
Someone else who has not read the withdrawal treaty properly !!!!!!
do you work for tory central office
The Conservative Party is institutionally committed to the EU and always has been. Mrs Mays WA is simply a revolving door mechanism to take us back into the EU within a decade. Mogg puts his beloved Tory party before Brexit and cannot be trusted anymore.
Let us pray that the Brexit Party makes an impressive win at the European elections and then pledges to move forward into national elections which will concentrate the minds of the Labour Party and Conservative Party. We should also be hoping for massive gains of the anti-EU parties across Europe to reinforce the morale of the British people that they are not alone in their fight to restore the sanctity of the nation state.
My goal is Brexit not the presevation of the treacherous Tory party or the Labour Party for that matter too. This is not the time to seek compromise with these devious people, this is the time to go for the jugular – it is the only thing they fear.
Yes indeed Rome was not built in a day but it collapsed because of the treachery, avarice and corruption of the political class.
Drain the swamp!
Yet another great Brexit Betrayal report! Could I risk being impertinent and suggest all the reports are put together and published in a book. I would certainly buy a copy and I am very miserly with my wee pennies.
We know that the pointer on ‘The Wheel of Fortune’ has hovered a little between ‘Genius’ and ‘Mad’. Many have suggested ‘Mad Genius’. It now appears to be moving towards line between ‘Mad’ and ‘Desperate’ as it gradually slows to a stop (at a time to be decided at a meeting, the time of which is to be decided, probably at another meeting). May is keeping all the punters guessing.
When Bill Cash said “in fact there are votes coming back to our side” I found that believable for the pathetic MPs we have working for us.
There are two MPs, Derek Thomas and George Eustace in Cornwall who voted for the WA on the third vote, as trusted Brexiteers you understand.
They no doubt they will now have to get back to the ship they just jumped off. Perhaps they will all need counselling when this is over, their nerves must be shot.
Letters will be going to them both. One more chance? No, just a way of mitigating their shame.
Funny you should ask about turning this series into a book … It would certainly offer a sort-of ‘historical diary’ of the ongoing Brexit Betrayal …
I’ll think about it … seriously.
I have been printing your 120 Betrayals to keep as a historical record.
Outstanding!
Thanks.
Great idea Viv. Perhaps you should file all your comments, just in case you need them later.
A lengthy quote from a paywalled DT article – link – which is of interest for the Tory-Party/BoJo/Farage watchers:
“On a campaign tour of Essex, asked if the next leader would have to drop support for the Withdrawal Agreement to win the Brexit Party’s backing Mr Farage told The Daily Telegraph: “Of course. Absolutely.
“If a new Conservative leader said ‘we are leaving on WTO terms on Hallowe’en Day’ then that would be a great step in the right direction but would they actually stick to it? How could we trust them? That is the problem.
“Everyone keeps shouting Boris’s name at me – Boris voted for the Withdrawal Agreement despite everything he had written in your newspaper. I have got a real problem with that. A real problem with that. So we will see.”
He added: “Boris talked about vassalage, talked about slave state, talked about May’s treaty in more colourful language than I would use and then votes for it. So what does he really believe?”
I’d pay good money to see a head-to-head televised debate between Boris and Nigel. Wow!
So, in Yes, Prime Minster terms, will her latest proposal be accompanied by Bach or Stravinsky?
I’d guess more by loud raspberries blown across the whole HoC …
While all that twaddle was going on in ‘the bubble’ what ever happened to Gavin ( he knows where the dirt is buried ) and he will bring down May, We are still waiting Gavin. As presumably he knows full well what has been agreed and signed up to by May without any discussion in the H.O.C regarding military unification , I did expect at least a mention of the subject.
It looks to me as if dear Gavin W., formerly of the MoD, is keeping his powder very dry. And why should he raise his head above the parapet to demolish the PM when she’s doing it so well all by herself …
He’s likely to do well in the (inevitable) Johnson cabinet reshuffle . He would be daft to do anything now except be silent.
True. He’s too career-orientated not to listen to advice to keep shtumm.
Btw – I am ever more puzzled about the silence around the one Brexiteer MP who I think would walk the Leadership contest, and that’s Owen Paterson. It’s as if he doesn’t exist …
I too believe Owen Paterson would make a good Tory Party leader!
I agree. I really like Paterson.
As far as Theresa May is concerned I think there will be fireworks soon, see this in The Telegraph.
“Theresa May’s spy chiefs were briefed on explosive Christopher Steele dossier before Donald Trump”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/19/theresa-mays-spy-chiefs-briefed-explosive-chistopher-steele/
It seems that MI5/6 and ultimately Theresa May and David Cameron were involved in the plot to undermine and overthrow Donald Trump a sitting US president.
Things are heating up and coming to a head in the US and my prediction is that after the EUP elections and the success of TBP, things are going to heat up and come to a head in the UK and Europe generally, let’s hope it doesn’t get too nasty but it probably will.
Certainly it could be about to get very hot for Mrs May and many others too. Things have been getting crazy but may be about to get even more wild and unpredictable. I’ve got a feeling that President Trump will know how to deal with the evil and revolting Theresa May, let’s hope so.
I did see and have bookmarked these articles – I’m sure there’s more being done ‘in secret’, which nobody has yet leaked.
Pres Trump’s visit next month should be … illuminating …
A genuine, honest, strong UK PM would have told Brussels that No Deal it is and made serious preparations to mitigate the short term disruptions this would have caused.
May lead us to believe that ‘No Deal was better than a bad deal’ but does not have the courage to deliver such an outcome, but why is that?
I have been trying to understand why Treason May is so determined to force through her ‘surrender; deal. Who is she beholden too, what has she promised.been promised and to/by whom?
That she is prepared to destroy the Conservative Party speaks volumes for the fact that there is something decidedly untoward in all this.
This has been puzzling me for months now.
She reminds me of the character on Line of Duty, the AC12 agent Dot Cottan, dementedly fixated on a course of action even to the death.
Don’t watch Line of Duty, Rob, but there’s a Dot Cotton on EastEnders. Don’t watch that either.