The Telegraph have taken to writing front page stories about their own man Boris Johnson
in the breathless style of a 1950s Boys Own annual. This latest is by Christopher Hope
and Camilla Tominey HERE no £ and has all the hallmarks of a
with-one-bound-Jack-was-free tale of daring do in Brexitland. Our Hero,
Five Bellies Johnson, is assembling a 'crack team' ready to get us out of
the EU in 100 days of relentless and highly focused activity in Downing Street.
It certainly reads well, particularly if you retain an over-developed sense of credulity while you do it.
"The 'crack team' - as one source described it - would comprise a tightly-knit unit of senior ministers and advisers charged with mapping out and tackling every possible obstacle on the way to Britain exiting on October 31"
Note: every possible obstacle. Steve 'Get me out of here' Baker, the former Brexit minister and member of the ERG, welcomed the proposal suggesting a small cabinet sub-committee was 'absolutely right'. Johnson is said to be determined to 'learn the lessons' where they all got bogged down in details. He intends to dispense with them altogether.
The report covers the latest hustings in Carlisle where Johnson criticised Theresa May's government for 'indecision' and a 'lack of clarity' and then went on to offer a great menu of vague cricketing metaphors and empty slogans. That surely is the way to Brexit?
One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry.
Brexit is like separating conjoined twins. With Johnson, it is as if he was on the team of surgeons but got frustrated with the slow progress and has now taken over the operating theatre, swept away all of the delicate scalpels and surgical instruments and is waving a huge meat cleaver, declaring, "This is the way to do it".
At least someone in the audience asked him about his 'chequered' private life, and whether he could be trusted with the 'great lady Britannia'. At first, I thought Boris had announced that after becoming PM he would also captain a new Royal Yacht but quickly realised the questioner was actually talking about the nation itself. Wherever BoJo goes people seem to catch the metaphor bug don't they?
Mr Johnson gave a reply that was calculated to reassure: "Don’t look at what I say I do, look at what I do.”
Mr Johnson gave a reply that was calculated to reassure: "Don’t look at what I say I do, look at what I do.”
That's exactly what we are all worried about.
.
The idea that leaving the EU on October 31st is remotely possible is front and centre of the leadership contest with Hunt just as guilty as Johnson of perpetrating the self-delusion. It isn't and trying to do it with a small 'tightly knit' group is ridiculous. It simply demonstrates they have no idea about the scale of the problem. Worse, the 'crack team' is led by a bone-idle shambles of a man who can't even put his own trousers on properly.
The day before, The Guardian (HERE) carried a piece written by an anonymous civil servant who some time ago had been drafted in to Operation Yellow Hammer, the code name for the work to prepare Britain for a no deal outcome. Originally I thought Yellowhammer (one word) was a bird but I think it is actually two words and refers to those fibre glass handled sledge hammers you see in Wickes.
After March 29th when we got the extensions to Article 50, the entire 6,000 people working on Yellow Hammer were disbanded back to their day jobs elsewhere and they haven't been reassembled. Still, never mind a 'tightly-knit' group of Super Heroes in Whitehall can easily do it. The unnamed civil servant writes:
"Civil servants have legal obligations to serve ministers with objectivity and impartiality, as I wrote
earlier this year. I stand by that. But the civil service’s technical
work relies on facts and evidence – not force of personality. If, for
example, there’s no quantity or quality of analysis that could convince a
new prime minister to avoid disaster, then collectively we’ll have
normalised fanaticism or – even worse – the cynical appeasement or
cultivation of it. Either way, having withstood Theresa May’s hostile
environment for years, it’s a rotten and destructive
place for officials to be at the start of yet another new premiership,
with the hardest bit of Brexit still to go and countless other neglected policy areas needing attention. Things can get worse – just look across the Atlantic".
We are normalising fanaticism. This is what Brexit is, isn't it? All those delusions sold as easily within reach if only we were out of the EU. The idea we can do it by positive thinking or force of personality or sheer belief will soon be shown for what it is. Hubris. Pure unalloyed hubris.
We are normalising fanaticism. This is what Brexit is, isn't it? All those delusions sold as easily within reach if only we were out of the EU. The idea we can do it by positive thinking or force of personality or sheer belief will soon be shown for what it is. Hubris. Pure unalloyed hubris.
