Boerenprotest

Something like ‘Brexit Fatigue’ seems to have afflicted our esteemed MSM today. Their reports on the latest Betrayal News are no longer breathlessly telling us about what could, might, ought to happen.

They seem to have accepted the EU verdict that the Johnson Proposal doesn’t provide a basis for negotiations and, just like the EU, they have decided to take a break. After all, there’s that Rugby World Cup going on and England is playing today …

Two ‘events’ produced a sort of feeble flapping in the MSM. One was the Court in Scotland being told that yes, Johnson will comply with the Surrender Act. That lead to speculations about how he could or would do it. The other was that the EU negotiators have taken the weekend off, which strangely enough didn’t seem to worry our Brexit reporters overmuch.

Firstly then that Surrender Act Letter. In their newsmail the Spectator wrote yesterday afternoon:

“A government document disclosed to the Scottish Court of Session says Boris Johnson will, if necessary, comply with the Benn Act and seek a Brexit extension from the EU. The document says Boris ‘is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate its purpose… thus he cannot act so as to prevent the letter requesting the specified extension in the Act from being sent’.”

The Government spinners were out in force, see here and see this:

“A senior Number 10 source told the BBC the government remained of the view that a Brexit delay could be avoided even if Mr Johnson is forced to ask for one. For example, the government could ask for a delay to comply with the law while also making clear in public and private that it will not negotiate any further with the EU.” (link)

It’s all so very ‘business as usual’, another little Brexit storm in a teacup. Johnson will of course write that letter, complying with ‘The Law’ that is the Capitulation Act, but then what?

The way to do it, according to speculations by ‘sources’, is to send the letter while asking EU member states to veto an extension (link). Some reporters then went to speak to one of the Spartans, Steve Baker:

“However Steve Baker, chairman of the Eurosceptic European Research Group, on Friday said he was satisfied the documents submitted to the Scottish Court did not stop the UK from leaving the EU on Oct 31. He said: “All this means is that Government will obey the law. It does not mean we will extend. It does not mean we will stay in the EU beyond Oct 31. We will leave.” (paywalled link)

And how will this be accomplished? Apparently, Hungary could be the country to ask for a Veto: 

“However, on Friday night, EU sources said senior ministers had reached out to the Hungarian government for assurances it would veto any request for a delay. An Article 50 extension must be agreed by all 27 other EU leaders.” (paywalled link)

That is not a fact, it’s not even government spin, but based on “EU sources”. The MSM, flapping about, next homed in on their favourite enemy, Dominic Cummings, RemainCentral first and foremost:

“Dominic Cummings told government advisers that the prime minister would not repeat the mistakes of his predecessor and delay Brexit. “Next week we are going to know how things turn out,” he said. “If the EU says no then we are not going to do what the last lot did and change our negotiating position. If we don’t get anything next week, we are gone.” (link, paywalled)

That observation was then picked up in The Express which shamelessly copied the Cummings quote from The Times, where this intriguing little remark was hidden:

“A No 10 source told the BBC: “The government will comply with the Benn Act, which only imposes a very specific narrow duty concerning parliament’s letter requesting a delay — drafted by an unknown subset of MPs and pro-EU campaigners — and which can be interpreted in different ways. But the government is not prevented by the act from doing other things that cause no delay, including other communications, private and public. “The government is making its true position on delay known privately in Europe and this will become public soon.” (link, paywalled)

“Sources” telling the MSM to look out for other “sources” next week: that’s now an official Brexit policy? Secret Brexit negotiating items ‘revealed’ in ‘official leaks’? Blimey …

Meanwhile, what are our dear ‘friends and allies’ in the EU doing? Nothing, that’s what – or rather, nothing in regard to the Johnson proposal:

“Discussions between the UK and European Union will not take place this weekend as anticipated as Brussels dealt a heavy blow to Boris Johnson’s new Brexit proposals. […] A spokesman said discussions between the two sides would not take place this weekend and instead the UK would be given ‘another opportunity to present its proposals in detail’ on Monday. ‘Michel Barnier debriefed COREPER (The Permanent Representatives Committee) yesterday, where member states agreed that the UK proposals do not provide a basis for concluding an agreement,’ the spokesman added.” (link)

It would seem that the EU ‘diplomats’ are simply accepting M Barnier’s verdict that there’s nothing to talk about – and anyway, it’s the weekend, n’est-çe pas? Waiting a few more days is neither here nor there. Patience is a virtue, and according to an old Russian proverb, ‘when God made Time, he made lots of it’ … What a way to negotiate with a deadline looming.

Meanwhile, there’s the Backstop. Peter Oborne writes about the fear of loyalists of the ‘hard border’ – his article is not paywalled – and The Times (link, paywalled) has dedicated a long article on the possibility that a ‘hard border’ and ‘No deal’ Brexit might lead to Irish re-unification. 

On that issue, the last sentence in this quote from a DT article clarifies, for me at least, why the Republic is so keen not to compromise with the proposed arrangement:

“The Irish government has said that it cannot accept the proposal in its current form because the plan submitted to Brussels does not meet the stated objective of avoiding a border. Dublin has also cited the commitment by Theresa May’s government to protect the all-Ireland economy.” (paywalled link)

Again, it comes down to money – money which we, the British taxpayers, are expected to cough up: for the Irish, for NI, for the EU, and of course for the fabulous policies proposed by Tories and Labour.

Meanwhile, according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing two days ago in the DT

“The global manufacturing downturn is spreading to the once-resilient service sector in a string of countries, threatening to tip the world economy into a broad recession …” (paywalled link)

 And still our political peacocks posture and screech. Still we hear about lofty ideals like ‘no hard border’ or ‘dying in a ditch’, still we get spin and obfuscation. Still our Remain harlots prefer to have unelected judges tell them what to do next. 

The Brexit Betrayal is only a part of the much bigger Betrayal. Both Leave and Remain politicians, government and the EU officials, still waste time on Brexit posturing with no real will to compromise in the face of the global economic downturn.

Our MSM, belly-aching about ‘the return of the IRA’, have spread their cloak of silence over the ongoing protests of the Gilets Jaunes – protests fuelled not least by EU policies implemented by a centralist French government.

The protest by Dutch farmers who brought the traffic across the Netherlands to a standstill a few days ago: silence! If it’s not in our MSM it didn’t happen. Protests in EU countries about EU policies? Forget it!

And that’s the EU to which our Remainers want to keep us chained.  Ask them how they like those EU policies which the French and Dutch are protesting against. Ask them where they think all that money is coming from and 

KBO!

Photo by kees torn