You can Whistle for your Brexit Boris

Things are rapidly beginning to change. The enfant terrible of British politics has spent the summer months ensuring that nobody forgets just that. First by exclaiming that the EU can whistle for its money as the UK will not be sending a single Pound their way, not to mention a Euro;  then to undermining Theresa May´s Brexit gambit in the form of a previously announced game changing speech, by publishing a policy dictating article in the Daily Telegraph days before the speech. Theresa May´s speech held at the church of Santa Maria Novella, lovely name considering, had a great deal less substance than could be hoped for. Her words had little effect on EU officialdom most of whom were not in attendance anyway, despite a cautious leaving the door ajar for further constructive dialogue by conceding that Britain is actually prepared to settle some form of divorce settlement.

As far as the negotiations are concerned the speech added very little to moving anything forward to the, from a UK point of view very much desired, talks on future trading relations. What it did confirm however was that the Prime Minister was publicly leaving her position outlined in the Lancaster House speech including the ”no deal is better than a bad deal” and accepting that it is in the interests of the UK to come to some sort of arrangement even including a financial divorce settlement. Even with transition being the word of the day whatever flavour of Brexit other than a hard or cliff edge Brexit will mean accepting, in the short term more likely the long term, conditions that are anathema to a Tory Brexiter. Freedom of movement and the European Court of Justice are just two things that are inseparable from the single market which most people now concede is inseparable from the idea of a future prosperous UK.

Theresa May in her new approach to the whole Brexit process clearly backed away from the ”no deal is better than a bad deal” whilst putting her party in roughly the same Brexit muddle as Labour. She did however not mince words when it came to appeasing Brexiters, claiming the UK had never felt at home in Europe. Her unfortunate choice of words although not entirely believable considering her earlier Remain standpoint, painfully shows her inability to grasp the essence of successful leadership. Appeasing those in favour of something by ridiculing or insulting those who are not, results in a longterm lack of respect from all concerned.

I wouldn’t be the first to say that the UK´s current situation is in the main due to bad Tory leadership. On the other hand should there be another election we are far from guaranteed of getting  a Labour Prime Minister with more expertise on the subject, more like out of the frying pan…. What with the present Prime Minister doing her level best to exclude Parliament in whatever way possible and the Leader of the Opposition a maybe future Prime Minister stifling debate at the latest Labour Party Congress on the most vital question facing the UK since the second world war, one might wonder.

The irony is that Jeremy Corbyn sees the EU as a capitalist club standing in the way of true socialism and his view would seem to be that Brexit must be carried through to remove this encumbrance allowing the necessary political room to achieve his goal. The Tory right are in full agreement with Corbyn concerning this obstacle and also that EU legislation restricts their own political freedom albeit to the far right. What the man in the street means by ”we want our sovrinnty back” is anyone´s guess and it is more likely than not that he would feel extremely uncomfortable if he kew that the far right and the far left of British politics do not have his sovereignty in mind. Unfortunately for our two popular factions Brexit is not going well and there is an increasing awareness of there being ulterior motives when the promised mother of all firework displays turns out to be a damp squib. I might add that politicians who tell me an economic union covering over 40 years of successful co-operation can be ditched, replaced and surpassed in under 2 years should start working on their CVs; for cluelessness or cynicism, you choose.  Suddenly its all about damage control and we won’t be worse off. The fact that the far right and the far left have a similar anti EU agenda paints a clear picture putting the EU in a place I think most of us would prefer to be in.

Well, every cloud has a silver lining and somewhere between the two Cs, cynical and clueless lies the answer. This just cannot go on for much longer. A hard Brexit is off the cards as it lacks sufficient electoral support and a soft Brexit is nothing but a pretend Brexit. Not withstanding May and Corbyn, Brexit is dead and all that is required now is a signature on the death certificate. In my opinion it´s a toss up whether Parliament or a referendum on the final deal will do the signing. Whatever, I do believe Boris can go whistle for his Brexit.