People like me never thought that Donald Trump had a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected President of the United States. Why? Because we thought that the American people were better than that. People like me thought that Brexiteers had as much chance of winning the referendum has Boris had of keeping his fly tightly zipped. And people like me though that a second referendum would prove beyond reasonable doubt that the voters finally realised that they had got it all so horribly wrong.
So what does this prove? That people like me, the liberal elites, those whose political wisdom spans decades, are masters of self rather than mass deception. Sometimes we get so wound up in our woolly belief that the electorate by and large ‘gets its right’ that we forget the pathetically obvious truth that sometimes they don’t.
We have reached the point of no return on Brexit. A referendum is a foolish pipe dream which would do more harm than good. What happens if the Commons rejects whatever deal we are offered? Do we go to the people? And what do we ask them? That we go back to the drawing board and demand for more time? How would the question be framed? And what would be the collective policy of the government? We have to come to terms with the unpleasant reality that a second referendum is a dangerous nonsense and should be abandoned.
The Chequers proposal is not perfect, but it is the basis for squaring the circle of retaining control of our borders (as much as we ever could), keeping the pretence of Parliamentary sovereignty (it has always been Cnutian), doing trade deals and keeping the lights on.
It is a sad fact that nothing will be better than the deal we have now. But that argument is dead and buried. The time has become to cast off our widows weeds, end the mourning and get a deal that doesn’t cripple us. Let the light at the end of the tunnel not be the train.
Many of the ERGs are a really weird. Though not all of them. It’s a bit like Scientology. To be a Thetan is to believe unreservedly in the strange outpourings of that terrible old fraud and failed science fiction writer Hubbard. To be in the inner circle of ERG you have to believe unreservedly that the EU is a menace, hell bent on making us a vassal state. Nothing other than crashing out will do. It’s not so much enough is enough rather nothing will be enough. The real and present danger of the inner circle ERGS is that to them crashing out of the EU is more important than anything. Well it isn’t. The thought of a Momentum government is a far worse threat than the EU will ever be. Notice that I didn’t say a Corbyn government. I doubt that he will still be in place by the next planned election. The trouble is that we have all cried wolf so many times that once the slathering, razor toothed monster pounces it is too late. And he is approaching the village gates.
Momentum now sees its chance to force an election and some Tories are stupid enough to allow it. Justine Greening’s bare faced lie that Chequers is more unpopular than the poll tax is so dim and out of touch that it could have come from Loathsome. Some of us were in Parliament when the poll tax riots swept the country. Grow up.
So now we have entered the dream world of the nightmare scenario. Cultist ERGs will vote against anything that May comes back with. Labour, for cynical political reasons, will probably do the same. Some cult remainers like Greening might also do the same. The result? The government is defeated and there would have to be an election. But people like me think that the electorate could never vote for a Momentum government……..
But there is another dangerous delusion. Let’s have a leadership election! Let’s get rid of Madame and replace her with a true believer. Guys it’s too late. And you would lose. OK then let’s force her out after March and we start all over again with a believer. Delusional. Backbenchers don’t want to lose their seats.
So let’s go back to the run of the mill ERGS. The camp followers.Those who wanted Brexit but don’t want to crash and burn. The Andrew Percys of the back benches. Solid, pragmatic, reliable. Remember that there are far more Percys than there are Moggs.
So what do we do about Mogg and his barmy army? It is time for for the party power brokers to talk tough. Support Madame or destroy the party and let in the most dangerous and anti democratic government that this country has ever seen. Graham Brady is the most influential and powerful Chairman of the 1922 in living memory. He and Brandon Lewis must not allow there to be two party conferences. They must not allow Madame to be undermined and humiliated. There has to be tough talk. Face them down. And they must finally politically bury the overweening, self indulgent fraud which is Boris. They must thrust a wooden stake through his heart, fire a volley of silver bullets at his body, adorn his coffin with garlic and fill his grave with reinforced concrete. And that’s just a start. Because you can never tell……..
How ironic that the ERGs plan their conference within a conference at the Birmingham Institute. Birmingham has resonances of Joesph Chamberlain who split and destroyed his party. And an Institute is a place where most of the cultists belong. Strangely, way back in 2005 it was the venue of the notorious postal ballot fraud election commission where councillors were successfully accused of trying to rig an election. I was defence counsel.
