Two Brexit Betrayal ‘themes’ caught my eyes today. One is about the Civil Service, the other is about Labour. Yesterday we also had the much vaunted ‘mano-a-mano’ TV debate between Hunt and Johnson. I didn’t watch it – after all, I have no vote so why waste time – but this headline for a review said it all: “It felt like seeing the Head Boy debate the class clown …” It’s not paywalled so you can read it if you like.
The whole BoJo-Hunt campaign has been like a red rag to the MSM bulls, the reporters and writers of opinion pieces. No, the whole country is not feverishly betting on the outcome, and yes, most of us know what to expect from Boris, Hunt not being such a well-known personality.
Even though the NHS is never out of our headlines, with the increasing waiting lists now being blamed on the greedy consultants who simply do not want to pay 95% taxes on extra income, it’s strange that none of the Hunt supporters in the MSM mention that their preferred Remain candidate was appointed to the Foreign Office only a year ago but was responsible for the NHS in all the preceding years. In case you forgot: Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary in 2018 because of Chequers and Ms May’s ‘leave in name only’ WA. How time flies …
Now then – let’s look at Labour and Jeremy Corbyn. He has now committed Labour to a 2nd Referendum, but the rest is confusion. Here’s a report that is not paywalled. More important are two comments, one by Austin Mitchell MP, a Leaver, who writes in the DM:
“My party is so busy trying to shed its working-class supporters and become a metropolitan team of amateur Liberal Democrats that it’s no longer recognisable. […] Today, it has become a mob of cosmopolitan meritocrats who love the European Union more than those at the bottom of society’s top-heavy heap. Jean-Claude Juncker’s federalism now means more to Labour than socialism. Nothing demonstrates this better than its clamour for a second referendum. As made clear in Jeremy Corbyn’s announcement yesterday that he will support a referendum on a Conservative deal and back Remain, Labour seems intent on prioritising the champagne-drinking population of chi-chi Islington above those it should be helping. That our once-great trade unions cheered him on makes Labour’s betrayal of working-class Leave voters all the more depressing.” (source)
Just so! Nigel Farage, Leader of the Brexit Party, comes to the same conclusion as Mr Mitchell. He writes in the Express:
“Corbyn has not only demanded that the new Tory prime minister must hold a second referendum on any deal or no-deal Brexit. He has also signed Labour up in advance to campaign for Remain. […] Corbyn has shamelessly abandoned his principles and given in to the political pygmies of Labour’s Remainer front bench. They have broken every promise that they made to millions of Labour voters – most notably, the 2017 Labour manifesto commitment to ‘respect the referendum result’. While they celebrate at their north London supper parties tonight, the party that claims to represent Leave-voting working-class areas like the North of England and South Wales will be met with more anger than they can possibly understand. Labour has effectively announced that it cares more about the opinion of the new metropolitan middle classes than about its traditional base of support.” (link)
This ought to dispel any doubt about the state of our establishment party system where rosette colour used to trump all. In a coming GE we’ll see ‘Remain’, represented by the Yellow of the Libdems, with splashes of Red, Blue and Green, and there will be ‘Leave’, with the turquoise of TBP to the fore, with splashes of Red, Blue, some Yellow and even some Green added.
The metropolitan establishment, the bubble dwellers inside the M25, Westminster and the MSM, have missed the train. It’s not about BoJo-Hunt, it’s not about the HoC peacocks and their desperate games trying to finagle something to stop Brexit. It’s about Leave or Remain, and thanks to the betrayal of their voters, LabCon are now in dire straits indeed.
And now: my favourite Brexit Betrayal subject – the Whitehall Mandarins! RemainCentral, a.k.a. The Times has this wonderful headline: “Wave of Brexit mandarins leave” (link, paywalled). Ah, I thought to myself – they are giving up! Before I started a little happy dance though I kept reading and two things became obvious.
The first one was that in good old MSM manner to exaggerate, The Times has now elevated all civil servants to ‘Mandarins’. No Sir, it’s only the top lot to which that label applies, the rest are ordinary working bods like ourselves.
Next, it turns out that this ‘Leave en masse’ is not precisely due to Brexit. That report is a nice study in MSM manipulation by putting relevant information right at the end of the article while starting of with the scary numbers – see for yourselves:
“The number of senior officials leaving the Brexit department has risen by more than 70 per cent in a year. More than 100 of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Exiting the European Union (Dexeu) left in the 2018-19 financial year, government figures released to the Commons show. The departures of 115 officials of grade seven and above, including 15 staff of the most senior grades, represent a rise of 72 per cent on the 2017-18 financial year, during which 67 left.” (link, paywalled)
Having been suitably shocked by those numbers – a rise of 72%, goodness me! – it turns out that’s only 115 civil servants altogether. We’re not told if they left Whitehall forever or went to other departments. That wouldn’t make a good story. The explanation from a current Government minister is relegated right to the bottom:
“Answering the parliamentary question from Mr Blomfield that yielded the figures, Kwasi Kwarteng, a junior Brexit minister, said that Dexeu was set up by Mrs May in July 2016 as a “time-limited department . . . The increase in numbers of leavers . . . is mainly due to planned leavers moving to other government departments following the end of their pre-set loan agreement or job rotation, or have left the civil service following the end of their two-year fixed-term appointment”. Dexeu undertook “succession planning” to maintain “high standards of delivery”, Mr Kwarteng added. A departmental source said that headcount in Dexeu had more than doubled between 2016 and 2018, affecting the number of staff leaving.” (link, paywalled)
That, you might agree, puts a somewhat different light on the story about the leaving Mandarins. While I am extremely relaxed about the fate of Olly Robbins and Sir Mark Sedwill whose name is now bandied about as replacement for the unspeakable current Ambassador to the USA, there is one other paragraph in this report which deserves our attention:
“Paul Blomfield, the shadow Brexit minister, told The Times: “It’s not so much ‘yes, minister’ as ‘I quit, minister.’ Essential legislation has not passed, customs and security arrangements are not in place and the negotiations are in paralysis. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt should drop the ridiculous rhetoric and put forward a credible plan.”(link, paywalled)
There’s the obligatory wail of “we’re not prepared for a No Deal, we’re all going to die crashing over that cliff”, but this is actually dissing the various reports by anonymous civil servants that they have been preparing for that No Deal Brexit.
It is however true that ‘essential legislation has not passed’. The MP for North Wiltshire, Mr James Gray, gives the reason for that in an article in ConHome where he puts the blame firmly on the now two-year-long session of this Parliament. It’s worth reading, and his conclusion is especially important given the attempts of the Grieves to stop the next PM from proroguing Parliament:
“Prorogation is not some kind of devilish plot to allow Brexit through (or scupper it.) It is an essential part of the Parliamentary drum-beat, without which we who are sent to Westminster to carry out our important job of scrutinising legislation simply cannot do it, not least because there isn’t any.”
The Remainers in their pigheadedness have not only kicked off the now inevitable change in our political landscape, they have and still are busy undermining and destroying our Parliamentary customs and conventions.
That is why we need a GE – not just to save Brexit but to save our democracy and indeed our Parliament.
KBO!
So BoJo is not ruling out the shut down of Parliament with a ‘NO DEAL’ enforcement ! WELL DONE BOJO !
Right on que, 38Degrees whips up a petition against this LEGAL, but UNDEMOCRATIC ACTION !
JUST HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. Just a cotton-picking minute ! ….. Undemocratic action ? ! – What about Parliament’s undemocratic activity, against 17.4 million voters over the last three years, but of course if you voted to Remain, then it’s perfectly OK to screw AGAINST DEMOCRACY ! No, no, no. – Either you have Democracy or you don’t. – It does not work for only one part of the country, but not for the rest !
Now although we are into the world of ‘PIGS FLYING’ here, we have to give the EU the chance to make a deal. (Yes, I know. – It is more likely for those pigs to sprout wings, than for the EU to come to their senses) ! When no deal, or in fact Leaving the EU upon WTO terms is the way to go, then it has to be done, and the only way is for a Cromwell type close down of Parliament. – MPs have shown that they will not do what the people have told them to do, and that has made our Parliament not fit for purpose. – We even have Corbyn’s Labour, now being against the very idea of Democracy !
It is just possible that I may have misjudged BoJo the Clown ! He could just be bold enough and strong enough to make this work. – It will certainly not be before time ! ….. Mrs May’s ridiculous performance, with such time wasting, has only served to embolden certain people to kick against Democracy. ….. BoJo as Cromwell ! ? ! – It takes a bit of believing, but I wish him well in this, and the original people’s decision will be honoured. GOOD FOR HIM !
There will be purple. Keep the faith!
Oh and just a thought about the intemperate “judicial review see you in court” Major, what does he think he is saying that here are we progressing Brexit on the basis that we are regaining “Sovereignty of Parliament” and then by not clearing off the prospect of proroguing parliament thereby offending democracy or involving the queen to the disrespect by her of parliament.
Hasn`t he heard that in this case of Brexit and always it is “The People” in which sovereignty resides and MPs and pants down irks like him are there to do our bidding and in this case Boris or whoever is acting on an instruction from us (agreed to by Parliament) to get us out of the EU by any means possible, there was never an instruction to remain “under any circumstances possible” and at this juncture in view of the delay conspiracy I believe Boris has full authority of the people to go for his “Do or Die” Halloween Brexit.
Of course a deal would be the best outcome, but the present WA is dead and under no circumstances should be revived, the backstop is not the only thing wrong with that document.
Well said Roger and completely spot on !
“the rest are working bods like ourselves” – Bo Viv you are a “super” working bod, laboring on our behalves often to a standstill, far beyond the calls of duty!.
that said, you write ” the unspeakable current ambassador to the USA”.
I am glad somebody has had the public spirit to expose the devious nature of the gathering of opinions that form the basis of our body politic forming their policies when dealing with overseas countries and their leaders.
In my opinion our ambassador has probably not taken a measured view but given way to MSM and others malicious Tittle-tattle, particularly from sources like the Mayor of the City of London and his co insulting and insolent blabber the Speaker of the HOC, is it little wonder that an ambassador who is an ardent remainer (I understand from an interview on Sky with Sir Bill Cash that he had a record of service (servile no doubt) to the EU and in fact delivered a remain lecture before the referendum)..
It apparently, is generally understood amongst diplomats of most nations that it is part of an ambassador`s duties to give their masters full and frank information, knowing this Trump was renowned for wanting to “clear the swamp”, I wonder which member of the US swamp “marked our ambassador`s card” and he poor fool passed on well known public information that he knew his masters really wanted to hear. My reason for suspecting this is that Trump referred to Mrs May making a mess of Brexit by apparently not heeding his advice stated at Davos “to go in harder”.
Oh err………….whilst typing this comment have heard the poor fellows gone!, I wonder which other members of our swamp will be cleared when Boris gets the reins of PM (I have already heard a name dear to Viv`s heart mentioned, she suggested he might take over ambassador job, can`t see it, I think he`ll have to go as well)
Personally if I were Boris and just to upset the swamp and kill two other birds with the same stone. I’ld give it to Nigel and Make him a knight as a first step to a proper peerage. This would also …. Well work it out yourselves its fun.
Whilst Radio 4 wheeled out the dreadfrul ex PM Major to tell us of the constitutional crisis Boris would create if Parlliament were to be prorogued it appears that proroguing parliament has taken place several times in Australia to, amongst other reasons, “expedite the despatch of urgent public business”. Mmmmm!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/21/how-the-pm-used-an-obscure-part-of-the-constitution-to-recall-parliament
The Western “democratic process” has become the law of the Jungle where we have the predator which will devour any prey it can get its jaws into, the prey that will run at the slightest hint of danger, and the prey that will stand its ground.
In human terms, the predator is the liberal EU globalist elite, the prey who run at the hint of danger are those who are susceptible to intimidation, and the prey who stand their ground are those who are willing to take on the liberal EU globalist elite.
It is now time for the “prey” who will stand its ground to go into attack?
Trouble is the prey are standing around in small groups of various size, some ignoring each other, some criticising each other, some in their pack just wanting to be the leader regardless, some just hoping that the predator will attack the others first and leave them alone, but all saving the predator from having to cut out the prey into smaller and weaker and easily dealt with groups. To go on an effective attack requires co-ordination. It is after all how the predator got to where he is.
“To go on effective attack requires co-ordination”. Did you, JimR, see the fun and substance jamboree on Sunday 30 June. 5,500 attendees with enthusiasm to change politics for good and make things happen. Whether or not Boris gets us out on 31 Oct, we still cannot leave government in the hands of our current palsied rulers. Why should anyone vote for any party that has faltered in the defence of our freedom and democracy. With or without Boris, the cowardly Conservatives are split and at war with each other. Time to vote differently, but with EFFECT.
I have an image of the Lord Protector’s statue in Huntingdon where some wag has placed a broom in his outstretched hand. The symbolism is obvious.
If only…
JF
“…there will be ‘Leave’, with the turquoise of TBP to the fore, with splashes of Red, Blue, some Yellow and even some Green added. ”
Hopefully some purple too you never know 😉