The Brexiteers Must Prepare for the Battles to Come

Today, Saturday 30th March 2019, should be the first day of our freedom from the EU and as you all know, it isn't. I don't know what is going to happen next so I see no need to speculate at length. All I will say is that the road to independence is still a long and hard one and we must prepare ourselves for the many battles to come as these demonstrators did yesterday.

I have little desire to play the blame game, but it has to be admitted that the Tory European Research Group and its seventy or so members in the Commons are the main culprits for this. The withdrawal agreement that Theresa May signed was not perfect, but at least it got us out of the Treaty of Rome. The fact that we are not out of the treaty is due to their stupidity coupled with a willful misreading of the political situation.

In a nutshell, they thought that because Brexit Day was enshrined in law that nothing could happen to alter that. What they failed to grasp is that the Commons has a majority for Brussels and that majority was just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. As soon as the headbangers helped to vote down the withdrawal agreement, the Federasts took their chance and hey presto the Commons voted to alter Brexit Day to 12th April.

The ERG headbangers have been aided and abetted by the Democratic Unionist Party and its ten inbred members. That particular party had been bought and paid for by good British gold and having been bought, they should have stayed bought, and not tried to gain further advantage from the situation.

Yet, in spite of those two groups, the real culprits in all of this are to be found in the Labour ranks. People who had spent long decades opposing the EU voted against the government yesterday or, like Dennis Skinner, abstained. Just five Labour MPs rallied to their constituents.

It is obvious to my mind that Labour really now is the party that Tony Blair wanted to create, a party of the lower reaches of the middle class, that exists to reflect their values, rather than the rough and ready, collectivist, drink beer and shag women values of the council estates that are where Labour's people live and where those values are bred.

What happens next is anyone's guess. There is a by-election on 4th April in Newport West, a safe Labour seat that voted for Brexit in 2016. We will know more when the good people of that South Wales seat have had their say.

Leave Means Leave Starts Its Leith Campaign

On Saturday I took myself off to the centre of Leith as Leave Means Leave had announced a street stall to campaign for Brexit. Just writing those words is depressing enough, but that is the situation that we are in.

I had never met any of this group before, but they were as enthusiastic as it is possible to be when it looks as if you may have to do everything again in a Groundhog Day sort of way. I must say I was pleased to see that the organiser - the man in the woolly hat - is all of 27 years old. God knows we need to pass the torch on to the next generation as soon as possible so let's hope he has more luck than we did in 2016 at getting our rulers to listen to the people.

Attitudes on the street mainly consisted of eye-rolling weariness, coupled with a belief that the 2016 result has been subverted. Unfortunately, that belief did not seem to be translating into the anger needed to ensure that the comfortable classes undergo a sphincter-loosening moment that is sufficient enough to force them to come to heel.

That said, if anyone can pursuade them it is Leave Means Leave, headed by Nigel Farage, otherwise known as Mr Brexit, and his teams. So please get in touch with the outfit and volunteer your time and energy to the Good Old Cause.

Have the ERG Loons Really Taken Over The Asylum?

I planned to retire from anything other than gardening following the 2016 Brexit vote, but since the lunatics of the ERG really do seem to have taken over the asylum, it looks as if I will have to drag my aching carcass back into the line. Restarting this blog is the first step on that sorry progress, in case you were wondering.

Let's look at where we can go from here. Yesterday, seventy-five Tories, mainly from the ERG, voted with Labour to derail our country's withdrawal agreement with the EU. Ostensibly, they claimed that this would lead to a no-deal Brexit, but today a motion will go before the House of Commons to rule that out. If the no-dealers get a hundred votes they will be very lucky indeed.

A motion cannot override legislation, so the next step will probably be to delay Brexit by legislation. The EU has said that the UK can have such an extension provided it does not go beyond the end of May. If we want a longer period then we have to show cause why it should be granted; so a general election or second referendum would be needed as an inducement.

Rationally, what this means is that the Withdrawal Agreement can be brought back in the hope that eventually a measure of sanity will prevail in Tory ranks, but I have my doubts about that; or rather, I suspect that more than a few ERG wallahs are actually closet Federasts.

I am old enough to remember when Tory MPs banged the drum for capital punishment and promised that if there was ever a vote on the matter, they would restore the rope. After the 1983 elections, such a bill went before the Commons and was defeated easily. Most of the Tories had just been mouthing off to keep their voters happy but when push came to shove they rejected the death penalty.

So they have form at those games and in the case of  Sarah Wollaston MP is one to keep in mind. She was a committed Brexiteer until about five minutes before the referendum and then she jumped ship to the other side. Finally, she abandoned the Tories completely and went over to the newly formed Independent Group. An extreme case, perhaps, but I wonder how many other Tories are quieter versions of her?

Extending the period for our withdrawal to May gives plenty of time for the loonies to be brought face to face with the reality of the situation that they have caused. If more of them can be brought onside then those Labour MPs who represent Leave constituencies and who want to keep their seats can be expected to vote with the government. However, they will not use up their political capital doing that unless they think that the agreement will pass with their help. 

It isn't over yet by a long stretch, but everything hinges on enough Tory MPs leaving the lunatic asylum and going to the Commons to vote for an end to this torture.