Our ‘betters’, a.k.a. ‘Elected Representatives’ or ‘MPs’, are on holidays, a.k.a. “Easter Recess”, until April 23rd.

The good news for us is that we’re spared their unspeakable ‘performances’ in Parliament. The bad news for them is that they’re now having to face the anger of us lowly voters in their constituencies, provided they’ve not fled the country to chillax – a favourite occupation of that former PM David Cameron – in some foreign holiday resort.

Moreover, the really bad news for them is that we now have the time to look in detail at what they’ve also been up to since we no longer have to follow breathlessly their screechy ‘debates’ and ensuing meaningless ‘indicative’ votes.

That doesn’t mean that Brexit is now dormant and that we can go and enjoy scoffing chocolate easter eggs and watching ‘Game of Thrones’. No, nefarious deeds are afoot.

While we leave the Tory Party to smoulder until extinct since there’s obviously no appetite to replace the PM, here are some items which deserve our attention.

Firstly, there’s this piece of Government skulduggery, as reported yesterday afternoon by Sir John Redwood in his diary:

“The government is seeking to delay our exit until October 31 by a negative resolution Statutory Instrument. This is a law which they can make without needing Parliamentary approval first, subject only to a vote in Parliament after the event if Parliament insists on one. I have put my name to the list of those wanting this to be debated and voted on.”

I’ve not seen this mentioned in our MSM – they had something else with which to fulfill their daily pixel production: the launch of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. More on that below.

Here’s a second piece of skulduggery perpetrated as usual by Mr Phil Hammond and the Treasury. It’s about the announcement that the Civil Service cease forthwith with preparations for a No Deal Brexit. Mr Hammond reportedly said:

“It would have been irresponsible not to prepare for no deal so long as it was a real, possible outcome. Just to be clear about this, we’ve spent £4 billion so far on preparing for Brexit, but that is not just for a no-deal Brexit. Much of that money would be needed to be spent anyway in preparing us for Brexit, putting in place new systems to replace EU systems we’ve been using up to now.” (paywalled link)

See how he deploys the shiny round object of ‘we only did what we always do’? No mention that in fact this means No Deal has finally been killed, as far as he is concerned! And no mention of the Treasury’s consistent blocking of any Brexit measures.

On this issue, Mr Owen Paterson MP has replied in the DT – I’ll report on his fine albeit paywalled article in detail later.

The next piece of skulduggery refers to the infamous Backstop. We read that Mr Sajid Javid’s department had actually made proposals which were sabotaged:

“Sajid Javid has drawn up a detailed technological plan to do away with the Irish backstop but it has been suspended by the Treasury to the fury of Brexiteers. […] The work was submitted to HMRC but allies of Mr Javid claimed officials were “incredibly dismissive of it and were not interested”. (paywalled link)

Ah – the Treasury was at it again, killing off Brexit! As outside observer, I think to myself: the lowly civil servants have been doing their job preparing for Brexit – but their ‘superiors’, the Mandarins, have thwarted their work and scuppered their attempts at every step.

If even an actual government minister provides evidence it’s hard to deny that Whitehell is the huge Brexit Killer, as we’ve pointed out time and time again. They kept telling the Nation that ‘nothing can be done’ and that ‘the EU won’t like it’ while killing Brexit by a thousand cuts by ensuring that nothing was actually done. Keep that mind!

Next, as the talks with Labour are still ongoing, here’s a perfect pointer to Labour’s ‘negotiating’ attitude – an attitude which reminds me forcefully of the ancient Soviet negotiators, a.k.a. Blockheads:

“Labour is demanding that Theresa May return to Brussels and renegotiate Britain’s future relationship with the EU before it agrees to a cross-party compromise. Downing Street had hoped that as a gesture of goodwill Labour would support the introduction of legislation needed to implement Brexit soon after MPs return from their ten-day Easter break. This would let the government demonstrate progress to Brussels and establish a timetable for a deal to be ratified by the Commons in time to avoid taking part in EU elections on May 23. It is understood that Labour has rejected such a parallel process and called instead for changes to the political declaration with the EU first.” (link, paywalled)

Labour, after all this time, still doesn’t understand that when the EU says ‘njet’ it means ‘no’ and that Labour’s electioneering charades mean nothing to the EU.

Of course, our hard-working MPs had another issue beside Brexit on their minds – the ‘harassment’ of their own good selves:

“MPs are considering advising judges to hand out stiffer penalties to those who threaten or abuse politicians. Members of parliament’s joint committee on human rights are investigating the extent of abuse suffered by MPs. They are looking at proposals to designate harassment of politicians as an “aggravated” factor in offences. Crimes can carry higher sentences if they are designated as “aggravated”. (link, paywalled)

You really need to savour their arguments for such legislation:

“Politicians were warned recently to travel in groups to avoid abuse over Brexit. Some say they get death threats almost daily. A similar measure (as for emergency services, ed.) for politicians could be controversial amid claims that MPs were being singled out for special treatment while other public servants were also victims of abuse. A source close to the committee said, however, that there was growing concern about the effect on democracy of the harassment.” (link, paywalled)

‘Controversial’ – oh really? There’s more:

“They said that interviews with MPs as part of the inquiry showed that the public knew only the “tip of the iceberg” concerning threats against politicians. […] The atmosphere in Westminster has worsened in recent weeks after a spate of Brexit votes. […]. A politician said: “We are terrified. We are in fear of our lives. The widespread perception is that we are waiting for an attack. This is not paranoia.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear, the poor dears … did they think that being an MP means they’ll never have to face the consequences of their actions, i.e. their votes in the HoC? Of course death threats are not to be countenanced – but how do we know they were actually made? Take the word of those MPs as ‘truth’? Really?

It’s nearly 75 years after Orwell wrote: ‘all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’ – now we finally have irrefutable evidence that they regard us, the people, the sovereign, as less equal than themselves …

Finally – the launch of the Brexit Party yesterday. The MSM are full of it, and the ‘bombshell news’ was of course that Jacob Rees-Mogg’s sister Annunziata had joined Nigel. You can watch her speech here. Well, that’ll make for some lively debates across the Rees-Mogg’s family reunion dinner table …

As far as the MSM are concerned, there are no Brexit News right now so they indulge in one of their favourite games: playing politics by polls. We however shall refrain – the shenanigans and skulduggery the Mandarins are inflicting on Brexit are more important.

We must now concentrate our efforts on holding our constituency MPs to account, face-to-face where possible. Ask them why they deem themselves to be more equal than us – and keep

 

KBO

 

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