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Thursday 14 March 2019

The Day the Political Class declared war on democracy

I really can't improve on Allister Heath in the Telegraph this morning.

He believes, as I do, that the Remainer political and patrician elites are ready to overturn democracy itself to get their own way. His opening and final paragraphs -
At moments like this, when democracy is being traduced, it is easy to be angry, to rage or to fulminate. I’ve been prone to such emotions myself over the past few years. Today, I’m merely grief-stricken: sad, but no longer furious....

Yet today, this wonderful political tradition is in jeopardy. Thanks to the sabotage of Brexit by the Remainers entrusted to deliver it, the majority of the political class is declaring war on all Brexiteers and all democrats. I can think of no greater tragedy.
It's all falling apart quite quickly now. May doesn't even enjoy control of her own cabinet any more - ministers, and Hammond, can simply defy her as they wish. I doubt the EU Council on the 21st will grant or require a long extension - they want to isolate the infection, not encourage an epidemic of democracy. Nor I think will they now grant even a short extension - 29th March will be the day.

So my view remains as yesterday's post - the anti-democrats can now only either revoke Article 50 altogether, which I give a 50/50 chance, or between the 22nd and 28th they swallow the Selmayr-Robbins treaty. 

20 comments:

Mark said...

Indeed.

This has gone far beyond leave vs stay. Even if you are a dedicated europhile and you want them to do something like this, surely you can see how it could bite you on the arse big time down the line.

jack ketch said...

Unfortunately there is no majority in the House for revoking Art.50 nor do I expect there will be by the 29th. Also I doubt very much, even if the ERG and the DUP do decide to back the WDA as some were saying last night, that Bercow can allow a MV3-bound as he is by Parliamentary law.

I can't see a way out of this mess, except May resign, revoke Art 50 by 'supernatural' means (there are ways of doing it without getting a bill through parliament) and calls a GE.

rapscallion said...

The Selmayr/Robbins deal is Versailles++ and its already been defeated by 230 votes and 149 votes respectively. Curiously the vote to stop No Deal only won by 43 votes, which suggests that No Deal may yet win.

If Article 50 were revoked (and that would have to be voted on) then democracy is well and truly dead in this country, and it will be Parliament that will have killed it by overriding the wishes of the people.

DeeDee99 said...

Well I'm still furious. There has been a concerted campaign of attrition against the 17.4 million who voted for Brexit for two years now. We have seen members of the Establishment line up to aid and advise the opposition in Brussels in order to deny the majority of Brits what they voted for and to overturn their vote. They are beneath contempt.

I hope the DUP withdraw their Confidence and Supply Agreement and bring her down.

DiscoveredJoys said...

Anything could happen in the next 15 days - except I rather expect some options to have run out of time. A fresh WA, a GE, a 'peoples vote' all impractical.

My best guess is that the rEU will not allow any extension, other than perhaps a technical extension of a few weeks to tidy up the paperwork. And even a technical extension might end up being an opportunity for another punishment beating. We'll remember that when it comes to writing our Christmas card lists.

The WA is dead; I can't see it gaining a majority in the house or being ratified by executive fiat.

So in the end the choice is about revoking the A50 process or leaving with 'no deal'. Revoking the A50 process is so politically damaging that I would expect an immediate General Election (although what the manifestos will say is a puzzle). That leave the default legal position, voted for by a majority of MPs, of leaving with 'no deal'.

In the end I think MPs are so afraid of the political consequences of enforcing Remain that they will allow (don't blame me guv!) an alleged economically damaging No Deal Leave, a clean Brexit, to go through. There's always a future trade deal with the rEU to argue about.

Of course it is difficult for people to see the world accurately through the lens of what they want, including me.

plantman said...

Who to vote for in an election is now my biggest problem. One I suspect that is shared by many of you.
The only solution I have arrived at is the "APAS" endorsement of the ballot paper (All Politicians Are S**t) Childish and amateurish but if at every count the number of spoiled votes announced is large it will send a message.

Anonymous said...

"Who to vote for in an election is now my biggest problem."

I don't see it as a problem. You should vote for an individual, not a party. Go through the leaflets and see which person best represents your area. It may well be an independent.

Look for a candidate with local roots and who has held a proper job. Better a bin man than someone with a PPE degree who has gone straight from college into politics.

Don't vote for a parachutist.

Don Cox

DiscoveredJoys said...

@plantman

Who to vote for is indeed a problem. The Conservatives have lost my vote, Labour and Lib Dems never had it.

But I think I'll lend my vote to UKIP, or the Brexit Party, or some other pro-Brexit party or individual. Failing that I'd vote for a joke party, like the Monster Raving Looney party, rather than spoiling my ballot. Who is going to be receptive to 'the message' of spolit votes? They have been ignoring the electorate for years - as long as they get voted in job done for 5 years and 5 years is a long time in politics. But UKIP popularity did send a message...

jim said...

Ah democracy, a lousy system but less lousy than all the rest. Democracy hands a little power to the people but complicates the business of Realpolitik, the illusion has to be maintained and managed. The referendum was a great mistake, 'the people' were badly managed. Cicero would have shown the way. Brexit turns out to have no usable substance to it, a fantasy land sold to children by posh handwavers.

Now push comes to shove and the uselessness of Brexit comes clear. The wrong answer to the wrong problem. But we are where we are - stuck. We can's go forward to a No Deal, economic lunacy, we can't go back and pull A50, political suicide and we already look the stupid kid on the block. So it is May's deal with endless wrangling for years and years while we continue to go nowhere. Mrs May has played a blinder with the useless cards she was given and has cut the balls off the ERG (very hard to find).

Brexit was a pretty notion but one with no substance to it. Now the enthusiasts skulk in the background waiting to kill off May and put in one of their own. Then flog off what is left of the silver and leave Corbyn's successor to pick up the pieces. A mess, but a democratic mess and an own goal, we are diminished by this Brexit fiasco.

John Brown said...

Mrs. May doesn’t care what happens to her government as long as the UK either remains in the EU immediately either by revoking Article 50 or at a later date by signing her/the EU’s WA. This is why the Conservative Party elected her to be their leader and hence PM and why her cabinet ministers can vote against Brexit as they so wish.

Whatever happens I shall be voting where possible for candidates who support Brexit, to whichever party they belong, including independents.

If no suitable candidate is on the ballot paper I will still visit the polling station and record a protest vote as I believe voters should never remain silent and give the impression that they are either too lazy to vote or simply don’t care who wins the election.

Not voting is just what the establishment would like to see. They don’t care how low is the turn-out as long as their candidate wins.

However, it is necessary to make your protest in the correct way for it to be taken as a protest vote as opposed to a mistake in completing the ballot paper. To do this, cross-out with a single line the line of vertically placed squares where a cross is expected to be placed to select a candidate and write a large “NONE” diagonally across all the candidates’ names.

All such ballot papers are counted and recorded but they are not included in news reports and results unless the numbers make them significant and newsworthy.

So notice would be taken if sufficient people took this action rather than simply staying at home and refusing to vote.

I shall also be buying fewer EU goods wherever possible, particularly from countries I feel are unhelpful to our leaving the EU, in order to "do my bit" to reduce our £100bn/year trading deficit with the EU.

Mr Ecks said...



Ketch:This "mess" is our freedom and it will come right. Brexit has been a bomb up the arse of those trying to "drift" our nation to Globo tyranny.

And we can wipe our backsides on May's treaty ultimately. Break Int'l Law? OH NNOOOOOOO. Fuck off and die EU. May on a treason charge that's what Britain needs now.

I hope and pray for WTO Rules Brexit 29/3/19. So should you Ketch. You are a malicious fool but the reality of Globo Elite tyranny will prove too cruel even as a punishment for a malicious fool.

Dave_G said...


Voting for ANY politician is fraught with the same difficulties we have today. Over time, any dependable candidate may be co-opted (coerced, blackmailed even) into following party lines explicitly thus leaving us exactly where we are now.

Any new Goverment must come with new requirements for those politicians we elect such that they can be properly, and immediately, held to account, barred from being 'careerists' and threatened with serious consequences for succumbing to any form of bribery, lobbying etc.

Ain't gonna happen though, is it?

We're still going to get (as I've said before) a WTO exit with EU/.gov manipulation in the short term thereafter of all aspects of trade and red tape such that in no time at all both industry and public are clamouring to rejoin the EU.

This was Merkel/Mays pplan all along. We're following the script TO THE LETTER.

Cedric Pugh said...

If, as Banks etc. have asked, Italy or Poland were to veto A50 extension, then the only way to avoid No Deal would be to withdraw it altogether, Jack.

It might come to that.

Cascadian said...

Oh dear, the patricians and presstitutes never fail to disappoint, do they.

At this point, why would Tommy Robinson MP (and 600 plumbers, housewives, truck-drivers etc) be such a bad thing?

Firing Rudd and Hammond would be useful, but DisMay is incapable of rational thought or action.

Raedwald said...

Cascadian - Yaxley is a convicted fraudster, thief and crook and a thoroughly nasty little shit - I'd rather have an East Hastings Street crack whore in Parliament. The idea is to rid the place of such people, not fill it.

Cascadian said...

Elect the whore too Raedwald, better than the likes of Amber Rudd, Gove, DisMay etc etc.

At least Tommy knows what he believes in.

And since when has being a fraudster,thief or crook ever disqualified anybody from the commons? Onasanya voted last night, anti-semites voted too and who would doubt if a paedophile or three did not also vote. Rather too late for purity tests.

yUK is the third (perhaps turd) world now. The country's future, your assets and my pension are being destroyed by "representatives" who do not even understand the concept of democracy let alone decency.

Raedwald said...

Apols - my account is being attacked again. I'll have to switch off comments for now.

Raedwald said...

Jack Ketch said:
(Sorry jack your comments are getting stuck in a security net for some reason)

- At least Tommy knows what he believes in.- Cas or perhaps he knows what he is paid to be believe in? on

- then the only way to avoid No Deal would be to withdraw it altogether, Jack-CP Was this addressed to me? I can think of 2 ways May might be able to 'revoke' Art50 without getting a bill through the house(s). Funnily enough , the ERG may also have found a similar (in its 'supernaturalness') way that will allow them to back the WDA- depends on what Cox says.

Domo said...

"I can't see a way out of this mess, except May resign, revoke Art 50 by 'supernatural' means (there are ways of doing it without getting a bill through parliament) and calls a GE."

But who runs on what Manifesto?
With Farage in the wings....

mongoose said...

If Farage's march goes ahead, expect much disorder.

Even without that, I'm pretty sure now that we are looking at "emergency revocation".