What a squalid, contemptible little racket the Conservative Party has become. They have destroyed a good and decent man who was making this country a kinder, gentler and more tolerant place to live. Who had detoxified the brand. Who won elections. Who made us prosperous again. Who made us look and feel like decent human beings. I wonder how long it will be before they realise what a great man they have lost. Oh, I know. Never. The rotting smoking corpse of the disunited kingdom will be picked over by the vultures and hyenas of the dangerous right. I pity any Tory MP who campaigned for Remain. Their life is going to be made a living hell. The likes of Nadine Dorries and Andrew Brigden will be swaggering through the tea room. And the great Augustus will become emperor. What a horrible thought. Will anyone believe a word he says? And how the hell does he get us out of this mess? It won’t be a doddle. Brussels won’t want to give us concessions for fear that the whole project will unravel. They will pretend that we no longer exist. We will be ghostly foot prints of a bygone age.
Yesterday, numbed and shocked I had lunch with a former permanent secretary. What he told me was very troubling. There is no plan. There is no blue print in Whitehall for withdrawal. The Foreign Office was so terrified of preparing for the unthinkable that any thoughts were put in manuscript form. There is no road map. There is no compass. We are flying blind.
So what went wrong? It became an election about fear and envy. Those who have lost out to globalisation. Those dispossessed in the council estates who genuinely believe that foreigners have taken their jobs and depressed their wages. They have punished the political classes, they have smacked the ambitious and have rogered the rich. The sad thing is when business flees across the channel it will these people who will suffer the most. And Scotland is on the March. Thank God for Ruth Davidson. She might just stop the final disintegration of the United Kingdom.
There will be much talk of healing the party. Of course, it’s total bollocks. The only way of holding it together is by electing Theresa May. That would be my choice. I am not optimistic because the Prime Minister is in office but not in power. The leadership process is run by the 1922 committee who are infested with Cameron haters. They are the king makers. Anything can happen.
And Jeremy Corbyn? Now there is a tricky one. Seriously holed below the waterline but will he sink? My instincts tell me he will survive; just. But my instincts told me that we would remain in the EU.
So prepare for the reign of Boris who is pretty well unstoppable. The civil service have another dilemma. Apart from himself what does he really believe in? Well, that’s that one answered.
And what of the EU? Merkel is running the show. Somehow the commission has got to be told to listen to what angry voices in Europe are screaming. They won’t. If the European Parliament had any sense they would sack them and appoint afresh.
The EU has devoured three great Prime Ministers. My heart goes out to David Cameron and his family. He has served this country well. He deserves better than this. But politics was always nasty game and has now become repellant. And the Conservative Party? It will be become a nasty, narrow minded clique. Tolerance and decency will be a thing of the past. Welcome to a land fit for Neroes.
