On the morning of that momentous vote it was still absolutely unclear which way it would go. I was prepared for months, even a year, of continued uncertainty and the prospect of Brexit becoming ever more distant. Thank you, Jo Swinson, for being such a monstrously vain, conceited and deeply stupid Parliamentarian. We owe Brexit to you.
Nemesis of the haute-remainers - John Gray
Today is yet another crunch day for Brexit. So many crunch days for Brexit have come and gone that I am not getting excited; either the Commons agrees an election and the EU deigns to allow an extension, or something else happens.
It's always good to take the chance to step back and look at the bigger picture. The Telegraph is absolutely right today in drawing attention to an essay in New Statesman America by John Gray. As the unfortunately-acronymed NS is core leftie-thinking fodder, it will be uncomfortable reading for many of those Gray terms 'haute-remainers' - the Blairs, Adonises, Grieves and others. I commend it to you.
I have said all along that Brexit was not primarily about the EU but about a wider democratic correction in the UK that re-balances power away from an establishment elite and back to the voters. This year the BBC, in a rare act of political prescience, featured Reith lectures by Lord Sumption covering the effects of State capture by this political elite on the relationship between law and democracy. Gray's focus is the way in which the Conservative Party has reacted and changed, as it has throughout its history, to ensure it comes through intact. The same cannot be said of parties embracing the haute-remainer cause.
Gray's essay is too crammed with succinct and tight analysis to usefully select any single paragraph to quote summation, so here then, as a sample of the essay rather than a precis, is just one -The haute-Remainer mind is an example of what the 20th century’s subtlest and most original conservative philosopher called political rationalism. Michael Oakeshott (1901-90) used the term to describe totalitarian ideologies such as Leninism and National Socialism, but he was clear that any kind of political tradition could succumb to rationalist ideology – including conservatism. (His own version of conservatism – an ultra-liberal variety, in which the ideal role of the state was that of an umpire – itself did.) The core of rationalism in politics is an idea of politics itself. Rather than being a practice in which people negotiate the terms on which they co-exist with one another, politics means the imposition of an idea. The idea is self-evidently true; anyone who questions it is ignorant and stupid, or else wilfully malignant. Though they claim to embody reason in politics, haute-Remainers cling to a view of the EU in which facts are secondary or irrelevant. They fulminate on the dangers of Brexit without ever mentioning that Paris has been convulsed by riots while Barcelona has become the scene of mass demonstration, burning streets and police violence. No mere fact can be allowed to cloud the vision of a sacred institution.Let's see what the day brings.
20 comments:
Yes, she showed that in fact she hated Labour more than she did exit from the European Union.
So much so, that she was prepared to trash her very own party's flagship law, the Fixed Term Parliaments Act in order to inflict a third General Election in four years on the country, and all that it would mean, as you rightly indicate.
It is for that moral squalor that her party deservedly suffered near wipe-out, and pro-Europeans will never forget it either.
Politics 'fails' when those that claim to support the principle try to undermine the result of democratic processes as the Lib Dums and Remoaners did.
They clearly don't think politics applies unless their version of voting wins. They aren't politicians but dictators-in-waiting and hypocrites - the same kind of people that would object to Putin becoming Supreme Leader when they themselves seek a similar position.
There are also extreme examples of hubris and hypocrisy from those that STILL complain about a democratic result and STILL seek to see it overturned.
This type of person needs to seek psychiatric help - FAST.
"No mere fact can be allowed to cloud the vision of a sacred institution."
Quite. I'm always suspicious of armchair 'experts'. Whether that's armchair generals, armchair philosophers, armchair economists, or armchair politicians. Unless you test armchair rationalisations against the real world you could be spinning yourselves a cocoon of certainty around a story you have told yourself. It's so easy to fall into the trap of living your dream.
Politicians have their ideas tested in General Elections... but some refuse to acknowledge what the polls mean. The dream is too seductive.
On a personal note I've just twigged that when I started my 'adult' job on 1 January 1973 that was also the day we were taken into the EC. Ho hum.
It's difficult to decide which Scottish female was the more arrogant and deluded: Nicola Sturgeon or Jo Swinson.
Ms Swinson, like most remainers, was given the false impression that the country wanted to remain in the EU by a relentless anti-Brexit campaign run by a biased MSM led by the BBC.
Well, when we leave remember.
It was achieved largely by the hubris, arrogance, petulance, stupidity and spectacular miscalculation of haughty remoaners.
It was always theirs to lose and they lost it good and hard.
I imagine this pattern will be repeated in other current colonies of the reich. The euro will make the process a lot more interesting though.
Wonder who'll write their "not my fault" memoirs first?
And none of these Haute Remainers will be punished.
Some people are sent to prison, and some die in prison, for at most minor infractions of some law or other.
These people sought to enslave a whole country by any means, legal or otherwise and they walk away as though it was nothing.
The linked article is very good, but I think that this quote is the one that should have been highlighted:
"When political issues become the province of courts, the law is politicised."
The Law should be a neutral arbiter respected by all - not another political football.
John, only nazis and other tyrants do retrospective criminal law.
The fact that you seem to want it shows that you have no regard whatsoever for the fine and decent traditions of English law, nor for anything else which honours this nation, it seems.
You absolutely voted against British Values, which incidentally, are exactly the same as those of any other Enlightened country, so in no way compromised by our membership of the European Union.
However, electoral fraud involving dark money from offshore very much is a criminal offence right now, and so we hope that those guilty of it will be prosecuted with the full force of the law if evidence be found.
Don't we?
Is there a statue of limitations on treason then?
"..electoral fraud involving dark money from offshore very much is a criminal offence right now, and so we hope that those guilty of it will be prosecuted with the full force of the law if evidence be found."
Absolutely - George Soros should be quaking in his boots then......
There is no limitation period on any crime in English law.
However, since Magna Carta, an Englishman has been entitled to rely upon the law as it is at the time. That is, if his conduct were lawful when done, then it cannot retrospectively be deemed a crime.
Even Farage upholds that principle.
But that is what your mob are asking to reverse, Mark.
You will rightly be refused, and even if it were granted, then this country would probably be invaded by a multi-national liberation army.
They'd have at least sixteen million of the youngest, smartest, and fittest to help them too.
Who has "our mob" actually threatened and with what?
And who exactly do you mean by "our mob": the duly elected and legally constituted government perchance?
You are only talking about the last three years or so, you do realise this?
Would magna carta still have applied under "acquis communautaire" BTW.
You answered me with the first line but you can't stop can you?
"Sixteen million of the youngest, smartest and fittest..."
Your EU masturbatory fantasies are getting really quite shameless!
Tomorrow, actually does, belong to us.
"It was achieved largely by the hubris, arrogance, petulance, stupidity and spectacular miscalculation of haughty remoaners."
Brexit should be studied as the mother of all examples of how to throw away victory not only once but at least 3 or 4 times over the entire EU referendum episode.
Starting with Cameron's 'renegotiation' which either he or his EU counterparts failed to take seriously, and achieved nothing. Had he come back from Brussels with something, probably on freedom of movement, then the vote would probably have gone the other way.
Then the campaign itself, whereby the best thing for the Remain camp to have done was keep quiet, and let natural 'hold on to nurse' attitudes bring waverers their way. But no they had to threaten Gotterdammerung if we voted Leave. It got to the point they were basically threatening the UK public with fire and brimstone. It was at that point I began to thing Leave could do it, the Fear campaign had jumped the shark, people were laughing at it.
Then of course, having lost, they managed to install May in charge, who was obviously attempting to force through a BRINO that would mean the UK was as far in the EU as ever, just not having a say in anything. But that wasn't good enough so Gina Miller was wheeled out to ask the courts to stop May from forcing through her plan under prerogative powers. Thus stopping an outcome that gave Remainers 80% of what they wanted.
This was followed by repeated votes against the May plan, which would have passed easily if the Remain camp had wanted it to, but refused to compromise one iota.
Finally they then allowed Boris to get his election, the outcome of which was never really in doubt. That really was turkeys voting for Christmas.
I'm sure there are other points where the Remain camp threw away victory, the final Leave victory has only come about because its opponents took the precisely wrong option at every important point.
Sobers, absolutely. They guaranteed that they met their fate on the road they tok to avoid it.
JPM said @ 08:36
'It is for that moral squalor that her party deservedly suffered near wipe-out, and pro-Europeans will never forget it either.'
I'm pro-European and one of the reasons I voted Leave in 2016 was to preserve Europe's plurality of societies - doing my own small bit to hasten the end of the Project. Churning populations whilst pouring Third World migrants into the mix will do more to destroy Western Civilization than a score of Black Deaths. A population can recover near wipe out but a multi cult once realised is final: the original is no more. Multi cults destroy human diversity with remarkable efficiency given the time it takes to actually form a human society, each with its own distinctive language.
Steve
The "Conservative" party is dead & buried
Now it is a true tory rump of right-wing rabid xenophobes & haters ... with a nasty drift towards real, actual fascism.
Francois is a "good" exemplar.
I can just remember Churchill - I was present at his last public speech in 1955.
The party of him & Hume & Heath & Major & even Thatcher ( Who was very strongly pro-Europe ) is gone.
I can never vote for them again, not now.
G. Tingey, are you JPM's dad? I am strongly pro-Europe too, as is BoJo and Nigel Farage. Hence wanting to see us out of the EU and hope others save themselves too.
The drift towards Fascism is demonstrated very clearly by Corbyn and his cohorts.
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