This is extraordinary. This morning, “Brexit” has vanished from the top page of the Brexit-supporting Telegraph, and in RemainCentral, a.k.a The Times, all we find is an article on Ms Rudd’s attitude to Johnson’s leadership bid.
Yesterday, Ms May bypassed the MSM by tweeting her own home-made video – watch it here if you haven’t seen it yet. It was duly reported in articles yesterday afternoon in the MSM (e.g. here, or here, paywalled) and commented on. Today – there’s no punditry.
This is the more extraordinary because today, Oliver Letwin will again ‘take over’ the business of the HoC and the HoL will debate ‘in committee’ the Cooper/Letwin Bill rammed through the HoC last week.
And it is even more extraordinary when we recall that Ms May has to go and grovel before Tusk et al on Wednesday and that her Remain Delegation is still, apparently, in talks with Corbyn, no matter the increasing uproar from Tory grassroots all the way up to MPs not to do it.
So what is going on? Has Ms May issued a D-Notice? Not that that sort of thing still exists, but the MSM can easily decide to drop an issue – a few phone calls amongst editors is all that’s needed …
And what about her video? In it, Ms May defended her talks with Corbyn ‘because people want politicians to work together’. No, dear – that was not a demand for an all-party ‘government’, it was a demand that the politicians who were elected to form the government should work together, without constant backstabbing and blackmail!
The take-home message from that video is this: Ms May will not put her WA to another vote the HoC. She must therefore know it would be defeated again – and therefore she told the incredulous viewers that it’s her deal or No Brexit.
We’re not stupid – we know full well that ‘her deal’ now means whatever the EU is going to gracefully offer her on Wednesday at her grovel-visit.
Moreover – it is clear to me, having watched that video, that she is actually very pleased that the HoC voted to take No Deal off the table: the one way of actually ‘delivering’ Brexit! She no longer needs to even think about that: Parliament said no – well, the HoL surely will agree today to it as well – and that’s that. Unconstitutional? She doesn’t care.
This raises a few interesting questions, such as why did she make the video? Was it to pre-empt the criticism of her cabinet? Or did she want to address the Tory grassroots to get them back in line?
Perhaps she thought this would make all us Brexiteers nod our heads and offer her our support? Or is this now Peak Project Fear: telling us there won’t be any Brexit unless it’s on her detestable terms?
And what of the Tory Party? The MPs? The ERG? Were they totally taken by surprise as the rest of us were? After all, this video went out – as tweet! – in the afternoon, well after all the usual suspects had been punditing in their usual way on the various Sunday TV shows, and just in time for the Boat Race …
Given the dearth of MPs’ articles this morning – usually one or two of either faction have penned something over the weekend – one wonders if they have used last evening and night for some serious plotting, especially as they must have seen the anger from the grassroots they met in their constituencies over the weekend …
Given the experience of the past weeks I doubt however that the particular mountain that is the Tory Party will give birth to something bigger than a cockroach. If I’m wrong I’ll be very pleasantly surprised.
Boris Johnson in his usual Monday column (paywalled, here) goes on about how bad it is to have talks with Corbyn. He bemoans the possibility that May will ‘give’ Corbyn his pound of flesh, the Customs Union, describing how bad staying in the Customs Union would be.
It’s all very emollient – but hey, BoJo: we knew this already! That’s why we want out, with no deal, this Friday. Why didn’t you attack Ms May’s video? Or was your article penned sometime before Sunday?
Meanwhile the redoubtable Martin Howe QC has published an article on that Customs Union where he, unlike BoJo, does not mince words. Writing for ‘Lawyers for Britain’, he respectfully starts with the title “Theresa May caught facing both ways on the customs union” and then goes on the attack:
“Theresa May has been making a habit of saying different things – sometimes diametrically opposite things – to different people in her increasingly strident attempts to bludgeon down resistance against her toxic Withdrawal Agreement. To Remainers she has been saying that voting against her deal will lead to a no-deal exit; while at the same time telling Brexit supporters that voting against her deal will lead to no Brexit, or at least to a long extension.”
He continues:
“It is this persistent but transparent duplicity – transparent in the sense that a 2-year old child could see through it – which has destroyed the credibility of the Prime Minister and eliminated any trust in her on the part of her country, her Party, or for that matter the EU leaders which whom she tries to negotiate.”
His conclusion is trenchant:
“The real poison in the deal which Theresa May has negotiated with the EU is the legally binding WA and its backstop Protocol with no unilateral exit clause. It makes a deal which is pretty rotten end to end totally unacceptable because we cannot escape from it. For inexplicable reasons, she seems determined to persist in inflicting this unprecedented treaty on the United Kingdom, regardless of the form of the future relationship with the EU.”
I wonder if Ms May was aware of this article when she produced her private video for Twitter … BoJo obviously wasn’t …
The inescapable Sir John Redwood is also close to boiling point in his Diary entry today:
“The government needs to keep its word. From day to day now we do not know what the government is going to say next, nor who in the government is going to push a different line from the Prime Minister. We wait to see what more of our election promises are discarded by the Cabinet. We are on running 3 line whips all this week including Friday in case the government wants to do something. It is clearly making it up as it goes along, and failing to tell the MPs who are meant to support it what the government wants or why.”
It looks to me as if not just Parliament has ‘gone rogue’, but so has the cabinet and so has the PM. So what are you, Sir John Redwood, what are the Brexiteers in the ERG now going to do about it? Dither in the hope some ‘EU deus ex machina’ will come to the rescue? Or hope that somehow the clock will be run down? The Brexiteers in the Tory Party have today and tomorrow to get something done. We’re watching …
Brexit Betrayal + 4
or No Brexit after all?
KBO!
Boris Johnson had his opportunity to make a difference, but he bottled out by failing to take part in the Tory leadership ‘challenge’ after Cameron stepped down.
The ERG, and anyone else in the Tory party who was annoyed with Mrs May’s handling of Brexit and Government, had their opportunity to ‘do something about it’, but bottled out by failing to topple her in the ‘no-confidence’ challenge.
The Tory party as a whole has absolutely no intention of stopping Mrs May in her tracks and leading them to oblivion. They have no spine, no cajones, no desire, they would rather meekly ‘go-with-the-flow’ and are happy to just snipe from the sidelines.
As much as I enjoy reading Sir John Redwood’s diary entries, I have to question exactly what doe he intend to do about this? I notice the lack of his name in any potential leadership challenge. For all his wise rhetoric, is he merely just another Tory armed with a water pistol on the sidelines?
As far as I am concerned, do not in anyway expect the Tories to salvage Brexit and restore any kind of dignity to this country. They are all a bunch of self-serving toffs only interested in enriching their own lifestyles.
Just to finish this on a lighter note, I’m reminded of this clip from Doctor Who, where the Master manages to mesmerise himself into the Prime Minister as ‘Harold Saxon’. While he is essentially the ‘bad guy’, what he says here is not far from the actual truth…
A must-read: Mark Francois’ letter to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee:
https://brexitcentral.com/time-tory-mps-indicative-vote-theresa-mays-leadership-destroys-party/
I could not stop laughing when I saw:-
‘Indicative Vote’ of confidence in the Prime Minister
Beauty!
Oh bummer. Look who’s popped over from across the pond. Here to meet his favourite old ex-East German comrade. Interesting timing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzpvmKs5aEQ
You’ve hit the nail on the ahead – again – Viv, with the comment ‘Peak Project Fear: telling us there won’t be any Brexit unless it’s on her detestable terms?’. More bullying, more threats, more lies – if only the ERG had the cojones to stand up to her. I wish …
Opportunity for UKIP. Offer a solution. They abound. Dive in sideways. Attack from the flanks
If only …
It’s perfectly possible
I can think of several bombshell type flank attacks .
All that’s needed is to explain then say ‘go’.
If you haven’t watched May’s home-made video yet, don’t bother. It’ll only annoy you. Instead, mute your sound and watch this honest version from Leave EU with helpful subtitles:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1114943097815879681
Sadly the subtitles tell the truth; May must be made to answer for her evil deeds but how?
The best bit of editing I have seen in a long time. A real laugh out loud moment. Brilliant. My blood pressure has been at bursting point recently.
Looks as if the monarchy will have to stop pontificating about Charles Will and Hal along with the Meg’s baby and make a few calls of their own. May has clearly lost it and the ‘party’ apart from the pay roll vote can see the writing on the wall. Caretaker PM and a new Leader and if the idiots can’t agree or will not agree to that parliament must surely be prorogued and new election called . After or before the next election the whole edifice Commons, Lords and the Civil Service needs to be reviewed. Drain the swamp indeed.
Agreed Norman’. Government and Parliament are both dysfunctional. Abject failure to negotiate a decent WA, No Deal off the table, a compromise between Remainers, possibly followed by a Second Referendum. How soft can we go? This is where the slow, inexorable process to overturn the Leave vote is heading….Revocation. It doesn’t look like Brexit to me. It’s not a “Peoples Vote” we need, it’s a Peoples Parliament. Prorogue and GE needed.
Yes we need a people’s parliament. I suggest interested parties should announce a date and location. Afterall, the present one is not working.
Look before you leap.
Portillo debunked people’s parliament as another cloaked second referendum ploy on the late night Thursday politics show. It was a month or two ago.
The woman who put it forward was chewed and spat out as ‘another losers’ vote’. She had no reply.
I meant as a replacement for the present one. Not in conjunction with.
Viv. What a brilliant article. I go to you first thing every morning to get the real perspective. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your kind words – they’re very much appreciated and fuel my determination to keep this article series going until we have Brexit.
Hear Hear