Of all the stories to emerge about Brexit this one (HERE) is for me the most shocking - by a very long way. According to The Times the fateful decision to leave the internal market and the customs union was made by Theresa May and her unelected adviser Nick Timothy acting alone and without a discussion in cabinet. The future course of this country, perhaps for years and years, was set by two people who didn't bother to ask the cabinet and who did not apparently understand the huge ramifications.
Worse, it was done simply to solve a problem of party management at the 2016 Conservative party conference that was coming up, where Mrs May expected trouble especially from the extreme Brexiteers.
It is this decision which is causing such difficulties now for the Irish border. Brexit was always a fantasy that cannot be delivered but May and Timothy have added several more layers of impossibility to it. Remember, it was Nick Timothy who was behind the 2017 election and the Conservative manifesto that cost them their majority. And as if that wasn't had enough,it turns out that he was also implicated in the timing of the Article 50 letter. Sir Ivan Rogers, our EU representative thought he had an agreement with the PM not to send the notification until the end of 2027, only to find May was to send it in March. I assume Timothy was involved in that too.
He will surely go down in history as one of the greatest unelected idiots ever. Not only did he give us Brexit (he is wildly enthusiastic), he also created the condition that ensured it would be a disaster.
Perhaps I am naive but I always assumed the PM was constrained by the twenty or so cabinet ministers, that decisions of great importance were supported by discussion papers, vigorous cabinet debate and then a vote. The decision to leave the single market and the customs union is probably the most far reaching and momentous ever taken about our legal order, our defence and security and just about every aspect of daily life in this country as well as our future trading relationship with our largest market and the rest of the world.
And it was made by two people who didn't know what they were doing. I am shocked and stunned but strangely reassured. If I thought the decision had been made after careful consideration by experts, with options fully analysed and weighed, it would have been even more worrying.
When the people of this country realise they are being led to disaster, as they most certainly will and this story just reinforces that, there will I hope be a big swing back towards remaining in the EU.
