You begin to get a sense of the rising panic in pro-Brexit ranks. I think there is a widespread acceptance that the deal is not going to be ratified by this parliament and the new PM, for all the bluster, is not going to get the EU to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement. Against this backdrop, David Scullion, deputy editor at Brexit Central (HERE) writes that a no deal Brexit is the only way to 'save the Conservative party'
Note that the country is being used to save the party and not the other way round. And if decimating the country is the way to 'save' the governing party we have all been very badly misled this past half millennia.
I single out Mr Scullion not because he's alone or unique in his thinking - it is after all received 'wisdom' among most of the cravat and blue rinse brigade in the shires - no, he just expresses it in slightly more colourful if scary terms. He also exposes the depth of the divisions inside the broad Tory church, which will very soon be not quite broad enough. He writes:
"The other day, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote an article [HERE] saying a no-deal Brexit would amount to political suicide. He is mistaken. The Conservative Party is already on track to political suicide and his attempt to appease Remain MPs at the expense of the extremely annoyed grassroots isn’t helping".
There are clearly elements inside the two wings of the party which thinks it is the end whatever they decide to do. This is a good thing - for us. And I think they're right.
"The other day, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote an article [HERE] saying a no-deal Brexit would amount to political suicide. He is mistaken. The Conservative Party is already on track to political suicide and his attempt to appease Remain MPs at the expense of the extremely annoyed grassroots isn’t helping".
There are clearly elements inside the two wings of the party which thinks it is the end whatever they decide to do. This is a good thing - for us. And I think they're right.
Scullion calls on the Conservatives to be 'radical'. This is a surprise. Brexit has given us the greatest political and constitutional convulsion of my life so how much more 'radical' he wants to get isn't clear - at first - although it's clearer towards the end of his article.
This will give you a flavour:
"This [pursuit of no deal] can’t be half-hearted. [The next leader] must be seen to embrace No Deal, to relish the prospect of it. To get over their understandable suspicion of Conservatives, voters have to believe the new leader is even more hardline than they are. The new Prime Minister must be so single-minded in their pursuit of not getting a deal that Tory voters begin urging Nigel Farage to join the Government, if only to offer some moderation"
"This [pursuit of no deal] can’t be half-hearted. [The next leader] must be seen to embrace No Deal, to relish the prospect of it. To get over their understandable suspicion of Conservatives, voters have to believe the new leader is even more hardline than they are. The new Prime Minister must be so single-minded in their pursuit of not getting a deal that Tory voters begin urging Nigel Farage to join the Government, if only to offer some moderation"
Phew! Let's roll that idea round our heads for a minute, eh? Farage as the voice of moderation. Takes a bit of believing doesn't it? He even accuses Dominic Raab of what seems like appeasement at one point, for heaven's sake!
As for being 'single minded in pursuit of not getting a deal' it's hard to suppress a laugh. Michael Palin couldn't have put it better. Imagine Raab traveling to Brussels to thump the table and demand they don't give him a deal. It would be the final humiliation heaped upon so many others since June 2016.
He continues:
"Despite what Remainers say, No Deal is possible. If we aim to leave on WTO terms, the EU could not stop us, and as a recent Institute For Government report concluded, the Remain-dominated Parliament could find no legal way to do so either".
He seems to believe the EU are trying to stop us leaving - this after we have begged for two extensions to the Article 50 period allowing us to stay in. I'm not even sure what is going on inside his mind on that one.
Anyway now we begin to glimpse Scullion's real thinking as we get to the meat:
"That’s why the next leader shouldn’t risk attempting a deal. And if there’s even a whiff of the Speaker trying to let the Opposition legislate against No Deal, the new leader must pass a law which stops the Opposition hijacking the House of Commons’ agenda. If that fails, then they need to prorogue Parliament".
One can almost see the scaffold going up in Whitehall, draped in black cloth with a quartering block and axe as the centrepiece, ready to receive John Bercow and the rest of the traitors. We can perhaps even imagine Kate Hoey and Andrea Jenkyns sitting and cackling as the heads roll into the waiting basket.
Make no mistake, when Nigel Farage is cited as a restraining influence, we live in very dangerous times. Anything can happen - and probably will.
Mind how you go.
Mind how you go.
