And so the ‘Game of WAB’ continues … The Nation had just digested the latest twist in the PM’s admirable attempts to cling to her occupation of 10 Downing Street, looking with astonishment and derision at the communique from 1922 Committee, when Mr Corbyn, leader of the Opposition, detonated his bomb.
Yesterday he sent a letter to the PM cancelling any further talks – see here for the full text. I do like this sentence:
“the increasing weakness and instability of your government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us.”
The reference to the PM’s promise of being ‘strong and stable’ is, you will agree, rather delicious.
Senior Labour politicians meanwhile promote a 2nd Referendum disguised by clamouring for a ‘people’s vote’. Their battle cry of rejecting a “Tory Brexit” is hollow and aimed at the traditional tribal Labour voters who usually vote even for a donkey as long as it wore the red rosette. It’s interesting though that the Remain MSM are not asking why the PM’s vassalage treaty is unacceptable to Labour.
Instead, all politicians and the MSM are fluttering about like hens in a farmyard when they see a buzzard hovering above, with Party Politics rather than actual politics being the preferred displacement activity.
I won’t go so far and accuse the PM of duplicity when telling the 1922 Committee that she would get her WAB through Parliament – a feat only achievable with the help of Labour. She surely must have had an inkling however that, given the intransigence of Labour, the possibility of achieving her aim was minuscule. She either is delusional, or she has no political nous whatsoever, nor, it would seem, does the mischief of mice, the 1922 Committee.
Moreover, there’s simply no indication that either Party has actually grasped that we can all see how they’re fiddling while Brexit burns. See for example this:
“Theresa May is considering trying to persuade MPs to back her Brexit bill next month by offering them a free vote on the type of long-term relationship Britain should have with the EU. Downing Street has drawn up plans to use a preferential vote system to allow MPs to rank different options for a customs deal with the EU in order of preference. The proposal comes after formal talks on a cross-party deal with Labour collapsed yesterday. […] Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour would be prepared to look at any proposal from the government. “This is a novel process which we will obviously look at whenever it comes to parliament” (link, paywalled)
Politics by multiple-choice questions: you couldn’t make it up! That’s the level to which both Parties have dragged our formerly proud Parliament.
Oh – and there’s begging by offering ‘concessions’: “Theresa May to put concessions to DUP in desperate bid to win support for her deal” (link). These concessions are cosmetic alterations to the WAB which, as we all know is cast in stone and can’t be altered. Arlene Foster has of course rejected them, saying the 2016 result must be implemented.
We’ll certainly be treated to more flutterings and useless attempts to tweak the vassalage treaty, and an outcome is now utterly unpredictable. This describes the situation nicely:
“Mrs May’s failure to agree a deal with Labour means that she approaches the prospect of putting her WAB to MPs next month in the worst state possible: having failed to secure Opposition support and leaving her Tory colleagues even more irritated and less sympathetic towards her in the process.” (paywalled link),
I was however intrigued when I read this: A senior Tory said they believed a no deal was a “racing certainty”. (link) We don’t know who that ‘senior Tory’ was, nor has this remark crept up anywhere else, as far as I can see. I don’t discard it because there’s this new player whose presence has mixed up the Brexit game: TBP and Nigel Farage. Was this what led that ‘senior Tory’ to make this remark?
Having noted yesterday that the WAB is only a plaything for the establishment parties we observe that the Tories have now given up on their PM, the launch of their manifesto for the EP elections showing clearly that they know the game is over.
To general derision, the PM introduced the Tory Party manifesto for the EP Elections yesterday afternoon. Reports with video clips are here and here, where the comments by Tory grassroots are, well, illuminating. So is this report in the DT:
“With the Brexit Party riding high in the polls and Mrs May under growing pressure to set a timetable for her departure, the glum look on the candidates’ faces appeared to suggest that they would rather the Prime Minister was anywhere else but in their constituency on Friday. Six days out from the European Parliament elections and the scene was more akin to a wake than a political rally as Mrs May scarcely managed a smile herself as she gave her first – and one suspects only – speech to promote the Tories’ campaign.” (paywalled link)
Let’s spread the cloak of compassion over that sad spectacle and look at what the Tories who weren’t there had been getting up to: determining who their May-replacement will be. They are aided and abetted by the MSM who have suddenly rediscovered their predilection for Boris Johnson as the only ‘saviour’ who can beat Corbyn or slay Nigel Farage or both, see here and here.
However, the PM’s delusions seem to have gripped her supporters as well:
“Boris Johnson’s Tory opponents began cranking up a campaign to stop him becoming Prime Minister within 24 hours of his announcement he would stand for the party leadership, it can be revealed today. The ‘Stop Boris’ campaign swung into action in Westminster last night – amid warnings that some Tories could force a general election rather than give him the keys to Number 10.” (link)
How deluded must one be, as Tory MP, to rather have Corbyn in No 10 than support BoJo? Well, given that these anti-BoJo Tories are all Remainers you can surely identify the cause of that delusion:
“Among Tory members who voted to remain in the EU, Mr Johnson was fifth choice for the leadership, behind Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Rory Stewart.” (link, paywalled)
These are the people we should trust to implement our vote to Leave? Really?
Meanwhile TBP keeps on surging ahead (see here, for example) while the Tories give the impression of a bedraggled bunch of players trudging off the pitch: beaten, muddied and bloodied, their peacock feathers torn, confounded about what actually happened. Labour meanwhile is wisely keeping quiet – but will that help them? Here’s a rousing introduction to a remarkable analysis:
“As the Tory party rots in its own narcissistic juices, bogged down in the vanities of a leadership contest and imperiously complacent about the Farage threat, one would be forgiven for wondering whether the party that wrecked Brexit is approaching certain death. But are we overlooking something obvious here? This week, a bombshell ComRes poll suggested the Brexit Party could rob the Tories of power in the next general election, seizing 49 seats. But the “natural” party of government may not, for all its disgraceful inadequacies, turn out to be Nigel Farage’s first victim. That would be the Labour Party, instead.” (paywalled link)
But – what about Brexit? There are two things which makes me hopeful: the deep silence of Brussels in regard to this latest instalment of the ‘Game of WAB’, and the evident disarray of the PM and her government.
It looks as if the Mandarins, her handlers, have now abandoned her. I can’t help but wonder if the second level of Mandarins are secretly working on a palace revolution to get rid of the Sedwills.
Is it too much to hope that we the people, some of whom are civil servants, are going to remove the cold hand of Remain from the levers of power?
KBO!
Viv – excellent, as always. One thought occurred to me : “Politics by multiple-choice questions”. Perhaps my memory is deceiving me, but didn’t we have a multiple-choice question, of sorts, in 2016?
No. We had a simple binary choice question: Leave or Remain.
The Remainers have been trying ever since to have that result invalidated because there were no choices of what sort of Leave we wanted, what sort of Brexit was on offer.
So they are quite comfortable with multiple choice questions.
Wouldn’t a simpler way of leaving immediately, would be for the government to abandon its defence in the case presently brought before the high court by the EDF?
Surely the court would then have to find the axe “proven” and the only course then would be to affirm to the EU that we had indeed quit their disastrous organisation on March 29th 2019, y accident if you like and from the date of this letter on WTO terms would operate
Wars begin when two opposing sides are forced into opposite corners. And in a war there are no winners. That is what has happened with Brexit and the Conservative party. The party is destroying itself by forcing two wings of the party into opposing corners – hard Brexit and Remain.
Politics is the art of the possible and the vote for Brexit put the EU and remain MPs on the defensive. Therefore, once A50 was triggered and Britain left the EU, the EU stranglehold was gone and any deal Mrs May’s deal would make was nothing more than window dressing. But unfortunately both sides wanted the knock-out punch and positions hardened to the deadlock we now are witness to.
Maybe it is time to get back to the Parliament that legally triggered A50 and accept Mrs May’s deal for what it is – window dressing for the Remain side.
Wars are also caused by one party believing for ideological reasons or just purely material ones disguised as the former, initiating hostilities, and escalating as the other party resists. No one forced the remainers in the Tory party to abandon democracy and renage on promises made multiple times on many occasions.
“Britain left the EU”? No we have not and that is the real deadlock, not the internal squabbling within the Tory party, caused by the refusal of some to accept and action the democratic will of the people.
The EU doesn’t have a stranglehold on the UK and never did whilst democracy held sway. The only ones strangling the UK are those within who do not believe in democracy and the most obvious way of demonstrating this is to just leave on WTO or if you prefer “no deal”. Not just “the possible” but already written into law needing only for us to say, lets just do it.
Accept Mrs May’s window dressing? A ridiculous statement but why would you accept anyone’s window dressing if you already recognise it as such?
Exactly – Britains membership of the EU was spawned and nutured by the Conservative Party and its principle sponsors. Is there any wonder that the attitude to delivering Brexit was one of feeling they had to deliver rather than wanting to. This negativity may have emboldened the naysayers within the Party to pursue a fudged Brexit as well as opening up an opportunity for the Labour Party to exploit this division in their pursuit for power.
Wars are caused by failures in democracy. May’s ‘deal’ (treaty) only looks like window dressing. The reality is it will see us locked into the EU for as long as the EU exists. Then the only way out for us would be by military force.
And of those that think the UK staying in the EU would guarantee peace I ask this: With Brussels in charge?
Having just read ‘The EU Referendum Deception Plan’ I do believe we are seeing a dangerous game of musical chairs being played out in parliament.
I believe that all of them realise that if Parliament commits to signing us up to neverending EU vassalage something unexpected might happen and if that something does happen they don’t want to be among those taking the blame for making it happen and definitely don’t want to be among those having to accept the consequences that might ensue when the music stops. Traitors’ gate anyone?.
To right, it will interesting to say the least when the e.u cause problems in the Ukraine or they unelected decide to interfere in North Africa or for that matter Central Africa, It’s all there in plain sight , see the remove themselves when push comes to shove and we have to supply personnel and material as part of the e.u military.
Norman. Don’t forget, Algeria is ( or was, or something ) part of France. A la Foreign Legion. France has serious ambitions. Its population has its pride and a different history. ( Ours – 180 degrees.).and a big Algerian minority.
Thank you another great Brexit Betrayal report. With regard to your comment about the ‘grassroots’ civil service.
It is a continuing faith in people, especially ‘the British’, that gives me an optimistic feeling that reason will prevail. The longer this fiasco continues the more people will be given an opportunity to look at the evidence.
Those who read, comment and contribute to this site are, generally, open and ‘red-pilled’. For that we take for granted the injustice and sheer stupidity of teaming up with an emerging super power, with all its crony capitalism and neglect for cultural differences that is the EU. We now see this entity as an emerging Fascist state with Imperialistic and Globalist ambitions.
Others have not informed themselves as well as us, or have started from a different place, or have been unduly influenced by peers, friends or family.
The clock ticks and as it does so, the mind works. The questions are posed and the seeds of doubt germinate. We are passing the most dangerous part of this whole process. The part where commitments can be made that we would regret for decades and that would ruin our country, culture and identity.
Possibly the worse moment was the third vote on the WA, but it will not be over until it is defeated a fourth time. While that plays out, people, I hope, are waking up. The rise in popularity of the Brexit Party is a manifestation of that. Let there be no doubt though, one alternative party is not enough to ensure a healthy democracy and give the electorate choice. There must be conflict and competition to maintain dynamic and productive politics.
My personal want is for the three parties of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats to be all but removed from power and influence. The only way for that to happen is to maintain the momentum through information and exposure. The electorate must be able to make informed decisions and apathy must be defeated.
Excellently put Kim.
Remove the ‘cold hand of remain’ , there is also a need to remove the dead p.c. hand of ‘common purpose’ from all public levers of power. Won’t happen though, older readers may well remember the ‘industry’ the grew out of ‘ Best Value’ in the public sector during the Blair years.
During the Wilson turmoil when he was supposedly being set up by various secret service people and about to be removed by a military coup ( where are these people now when we need them ? ) Labour sent out car bumper stickers , ‘Tired of the Tories’ perhaps we could resurrect something along the lines of ‘Tired of all of them vote Brexit’.
I’ve always had a very reliable method of predicting the future when it comes to politics and politicians: expect the worst and you won’t be far wrong.
The above method has never let me down and our current political situation illustrates this very well, although I must admit even I didn’t expect this level of farce, lies and deceit.
If we ever want things to change, we have to stop trusting career politicians.
“If we ever want things to change, we have to stop trusting career politicians.” I totally agree. Why do so many find that difficult to understand?
One wonders what will happen if, indeed, the worst does happen and we’re signed up to eternal vassalage, our servicemen and -women are sent to die in an EU war, our taxes are used to bail out another failed economy in the European Union – what those people who haven’t informed themselves, or who wanted to remain in the EU, what they will say then?
Sherelle Jacobs is by far my favourite MSM journalist. I hope she goes far.