Mayhem!!

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18/11/2018 9 Comments

Mayhem!!

Tory Boys.

I’ve been trying to draft this blog all weekend. Things are moving so fast it’s out of date ten minutes after I settle on it. I hack my way through the thicket of detail, then something else pops up. With such a febrile atmosphere, I can't keep up. What a cluster!!

The title of this piece has changed several times. I was going with ‘The longest suicide note in history’ or ‘Hotel California - you can check out, but you’ll never leave.’ I guess ‘Mayhem’ sums it up.

Do I have to ask - was it worth it? Is that the best that she could get after all this back and forth? Let’s be honest; the Brexit deal is no deal. It’s not even a fudge. Instead, it's a mix of half-measures and kicking 'the-can-down-the-road'. While Mrs May has gained grudging respect for her tenacity, an enormous challenge lies ahead.

The European Research Group, a pro-Brexit entity, gives its assessment here. It’s a neat summary that makes the point why the deal won’t go through.

The EU won’t budge either, and they smell blood. After all, the UK started this nonsense, so why should they give in? If I were them, I’d sit tight to watch the UK implode. All the bile and rhetoric thrown their way counts for nothing because Britain is a deeply divided nation. Soon it may be asking to hold everything in abeyance.

All these shenanigans have exposed the complete ineptitude and weakness of the current crop of politicians. The Tory boys are not prepared to bite the bullet and dethrone Mrs May. Instead, they snipe from the sidelines, play petty games while refusing to join the race. Anyway, millionaires Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson will not suffer too much if the economy collapses. Their behaviour is nothing short of deceitful.

On the other side of the house, I have no idea what is the Labour Party’s position on Brexit. Of course, Jeremy Corbyn is taking the opportunity to attack Mrs May from every angle. And yet, we do not know what he would do differently. It's fair that he will seek the advantage and you can't fault him for that. Yet, at some point, he must tell the country what he would do. We wait with bated breath.

So where do we go from here? I suspect the endless round of debating and political infighting will continue. There’s no end in sight.

I’m not going to predict Mrs May’s future. She’s confounded all the pundits. She's fighting her corner with a tenacity that is beyond my expectations. Let us remember she's a diabetic with a punishing workload. Place stress atop that, and you've got to admire her fortitude.

The great British public can complain all they like. As they look around for a culprit to blame, then turn to the mirror. The failure to engage and understand the ramifications of the Brexit decision is shocking. At times it seems for the majority of the public, soap operas or the life of some minor celebrity is all that matters. Everyone knows the winner of the Great British Bake Off. How many understand the details of Brexit? They can tell you who is leading on Britain's Got Talent, but how many can name the leader of the Liberal party? The politicians thrive on this ignorance.

It's often said that Britain lost its way after the Suez crisis. That may be. Yet, it's possible to make an argument the nation lost its mind in the trivialities of celebrity culture and social media. Can the British people continue to dodge the consequences of their actions?

At breakfast this morning in Shanghai, a Chinese student offered his insights. I summarise his thoughts ... “The UK economy will stall, social-order will erode, and you gain nothing from this endless polarisation of your society. Taking charge of a decaying edifice is no prize. How desirable is your democracy now?” He has a point. As the knife-crime cull of youth continues on the streets of London and lines lengthen at food banks, how is it looking? Pretty grim.

Have we reached peak stupid yet? Probably not. If Mrs May falls, the UK is heading for the cliff. A delay in Brexit will be necessary, if the EU agrees. If not, the UK may crash out. That will be interesting to watch.

One positive effect of Trump is that he’s energised the electors to come out to vote. The recent mid-terms saw the most massive turnout in 50 years. That’s a positive. Perhaps the British public can wake up instead of wallowing in TV tripe.

This week is going to be make or break. It takes a brave soul to predict an outcome. I'm not even going there.

9 Comments

Chris Emmett

19/11/2018 12:06:40 am

Self-serving politicians and EU fifth columnists posing as patriots. To quote those denizens of British folk-rock, Steeleye Span: ‘Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.’

Gloria Bing

19/11/2018 04:56:49 pm

Although a Steeleye Span fan myself, it was actually Robbie Burns that said it first.

Ron

19/11/2018 05:38:36 am

Similar to the 500+ page report of May, your thoughts above make absolutely no mention whatsoever of Scotland or its people. Even Gibralter and Cyprus get mentions in May's diatribe along with around 100 mentions of Northern Ireland but the Scottish electorate get shat upon as usual. 62% of the Scottish electorate voted to remain in the EU. So much for the so called union of equals. Clearly whatever England wants, England gets, even if the people were either too stupid to realise what they were voting for, or actually think the UK is a world could be a world player. It's time for the Butcher's Apron to be hauled down in Scotland and for the Saltire to fly high alongside the European flag.

Gloria Bing

19/11/2018 12:39:46 pm

“Even Gibralter and Cyprus get mentions in May's diatribe along with around 100 mentions of Northern Ireland but the Scottish electorate get shat upon as usual.”

Scotland, unlike Northern Ireland and Gibraltar, does not have any contiguous borders with the EU. Cyprus will be an EU country within which exists British sovereign territory, therefore there will also be borders. These are issues Scotland doesn’t have. So nobody is shitting on anybody, unless as a nation you are so self-absorbed that you feel you should get a mention every time somewhere else – even Timbuktu – does.

“62% of the Scottish electorate voted to remain in the EU. So much for the so called union of equals.”

The Scottish electorate was not asked to vote in the referendum, the UK electorate was.

Scots may have got used to having the privilege of a referendum deciding the fate of an entire nation of 60 million people reserved exclusively for them – all 4 million of them – but this was actually a referendum about the future of an entire state (as was the 2014 referendum, although 96% of the population of this “unfair-to-Scotland” Union were not among the privileged few) in which the entire population was asked to vote. So for once the terms of the Union (for which 55.3% of the Scottish electorate voted in 2014, BTW) were actually being strictly adhered to…and you still want to complain about it! And after all these years of being over-represented in Westminster and having had two Prime Ministers (or three if you include "There's Scottish Blood in These Veins" Cameron) out of four in the last 20 years as well! Some people! Sheesh!

“Clearly whatever England wants, England gets”

Clearly the majority gets what the majority votes for. 38% of Scots (just over 1 million or a quarter of Scotland's population) voted to leave the EU along with the rest of the UK (for which 55.3% of the Scottish electorate voted in 2014. Did I mention that already?). Can these Little Scotlanders now split off from Scotland and go for Brexit? Can the 38% tail wag the 62% dog? Yes, you say, because the 8% Scottish terrier tail should be allowed to wag the 84% English sheepdog.

“even if the people were either too stupid to realise what they were voting for, or actually think the UK is a world could be a world player”.

Two scurrilous Remainer tropes in one sentence! The irony is, of course, that the UK IS a world player, certainly more so than the EU. But more than that, I never thought I would see the old-socialist statists of SNP kicking the ordinary people in the teeth and then jumping into bed with the trendy, well-heeled Euro-elite. But maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised: Old-socialist statists are pretty good at spending other peoples’ money but aren’t too down on democracy, so the EU should suit the SNP down to the ground. BTW, Scotland’s new boss-in-waiting now that Mutti is going, Macron, says “nationalism is dead” so the SNP might want to drop the “N” before the EU starts threatening it with fines…or sending in its new army to sort it out.

“It's time for the Butcher's Apron [designed by a Scotsman, BTW] to be hauled down in Scotland and for the Saltire to fly high alongside the European flag.”

Good luck with that S*P.

[* N removed on the instructions of Brussels]

Did I mention that 55.3% of Scots voted for the Union? Maybe I didn’t, so let me just state that 55.3% of Scots voted for the Union. That’s 55.3%, by the way. Just in case you weren’t sure what 55.3% was.

Gloria Bing

19/11/2018 11:02:51 am

I think Walter has bought into Project Fear despite speaking the truth when he says “Let’s be honest; the Brexit deal is no deal. It’s not even a fudge”. But there is more to all this than apparently Walter is aware of.

“The EU won’t budge either, and they smell blood. After all, the UK started this nonsense, so why should they give in? If I were them, I’d sit tight to watch the UK implode”.

I think this is a misinterpretation of what’s going on in the EU right now. The EU was probably expecting a tough fight back in 2016, so imagine its surprise when its opponents came out of his corner with his shorts around his ankles and his hands in the air. No wonder they smelled blood. That said, I think they will be waiting a long time for the UK to implode. It will get hairy: it might even get nasty, but it won’t implode. In the meantime it is possible the EU will implode or at least become increasingly shambolic. Merkel is going; Macron isn’t half the man Mutti is. He is so crass that just as the Brits are about to leave, the Eastern countries are wondering what they bought into, the Italians are being told by the EU to fix their economy or else, and the Greeks are once again demanding reparations from Germany, he decides to call for an EU Army.

“The great British public can complain all they like. As they look around for a culprit to blame, then turn to the mirror. The failure to engage and understand the ramifications of the Brexit decision is shocking”.

The British public was asked to make a momentous but straightforward decision. They made it and they had every right to expect their government and civil servants would do their duty and fulfill their obligations. Their expectations were at the very least that the UK Government would adopt a tough-but-reasonable negotiating position and have a plan ready if an equitable deal could not be reached. They got neither of those things. Perhaps where they really failed to understand was in the likely outcome of putting a Remainer in charge…

“How many understand the details of Brexit?”

How many people know all the details and implications of a party’s manifesto before they vote for it? People do not vote for technicalities or details, they vote for an expected outcome.

“They can tell you who is leading on Britain's Got Talent, but how many can name the leader of the Liberal party?”

None, because there isn’t a Liberal Party and hasn’t been since 1988.

“Can the British people continue to dodge the consequences of their actions?”

No, of course they can’t. That’s one of the prices paid for democracy. A price everyone has to pay, even those who disagreed with the majority decision…unless you are a ScotsNat of course, who feels, as always, that special privileges should be extended to them on the grounds that…well, they live in Scotland. It has been ever thus, since 1707.

‘At breakfast this morning in Shanghai, a Chinese student offered his insights. I summarise his thoughts ... “The UK economy will stall, social-order will erode, and you gain nothing from this endless polarisation of your society. Taking charge of a decaying edifice is no prize. How desirable is your democracy now?”’

I think your student is wrong. He is, inevitably, looking at it from the perspective of a citizen of a highly centralized command society with no real democratic institutions (remind you of anywhere?) and with no experience of a pluralistic society. Mainlanders drop a brick at the very thought of social disorder because in their history the only response to it has been massive repression or civil war. And why would the economy stall? Leaving a tariff-protected zone whose share of the world market is continually shrinking and resuming membership of the WTO (of which UK is still a member) sounds like just the filip needed to boost an economy which, no doubt, will suffer some trauma severing itself from the tentacles of EU bureaucracy. Already half of the UK’s trade is outside the EU, and that can only increase once the shackles of EU tariffs are removed. The real cause of the polarization that has already occurred in UK society is largely the result of Remainers refusing to accept a legitimately arrived at democratic decision (and despite loading the dice with 500,000 EU citizens in the referendum. Didn’t realise? Oh, yes…Irish citizens). Instead of acquiescing to the democratic will and “just getting on with it” Remain started almost immediately by impugning the motives and intelligence of the voters; were particularly malicious towards the elderly, then tried to overturn the democratic vote using the courts and the House of Lords. Go on YouTube and look at all those compilation videos of leading Remainers promising to abide by the people’s will, and then s

Gloria Bing

19/11/2018 04:50:04 pm

[I got cut off!] ...see what they are up to now. Every decent Remainer should be embarrassed by these curs. And better to be a decaying edifice than see the UK slowly desiccated by the EU. [And then some other stuff, which I have now forgotten!]

David B

20/11/2018 08:09:32 am

It’s Tory remainers which need to be forced into sacking Theresa May, and I for-see a joint approach from the ERG and DUP which could be the solution.

The DUP needs to write an open letter to Theresa May stating that Confidence and Supply under *HER* leadership will end on the 19th December. (Day before Christmas recess)

After that DUP letter is sent, a few days later the ERG 48 goes in.

The Tory Remainers now know that after Christmas, they have no majority, and therefore no government.
The result of this, is that if the Tory Remainers want to stay in government beyond Christmas, the only way is to ditch May for a new PM [hopefully more Brexit minded!], at which point the DUP can then formally reinstate their Confidence & Supply support, to give the Tories a working majority and able to govern.

Arni Highfield

20/11/2018 10:55:17 am

Gloria Bing, magnificent!
There is one thread running through this shambles, and it is Theresa May, who has sidelined two Brexit Sectetaries and most of her party to lead us to total surrender.
The only thing I agree with in the article is that nobody tried hard enough to remove her before it was too late.

Shropshire Lad

20/11/2018 03:31:54 pm

There is an obvious and necessary solution to the "Scottish Question". The 1,617,989 Scots persons who voted to leave the United Kingdom, were sincere and clear in their intentions. Oddly, that number is pretty close to the population of Manila. A population that lives free, and happily in the 620 KM2 allocated to it by their loving leadership. Interestingly, the Isle of Mull has a very healthy 875 KM2 of space available, job done ! Ron and all his friends should be moved to Mull as soon as possible. There, they can fry Mars bars to their hearts content, and headbutt each other with impunity.

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