THE ARROGANCE OF MAY

Mrs May's conference speech was a pretty good one I think, probably the best she's given as leader, which is not saying all that much. It was an attempt to get the party to stop obsessing about Brexit and look to other important political issues. For a couple of hours at least it silenced Johnson, Rees-Mogg and the other ultra Brexiteers. It was probably good enough to shore up support for her a little longer.  But the position won't hold for long - a few days at most. Normal in-fighting will resume very quickly.

It may even have been a brief moment of respite from the relentless all-consuming issue of Brexit for the embattled prime minister (as she is usually described).

She sashayed onto the stage to the sound of Abba and Dancing Queen, like Darcy Bustle on Strictly Come Dancing. The PM often sounds like an exasperated schoolmarm, occasionally veering towards an ageing dominatrix, but the section on Brexit was delivered in such a peculiar gimlet eyed, deep-voiced tone that it might have seemed almost threatening - if it wasn't so ridiculous and funny.

The conference itself was like a totally dysfunctional family coming together for an annual soiree where everyone has agreed to stop arguing to give a fragile veneer of unity to the proceedings. Let's not forget party conferences are simply opportunities to grab the news agenda for a few days and nothing else. Nobody wants things to descend into public acrimony so I suppose she was always quite safe - provided she didn't trip up on the way to the lectern.

Chequers was the plan that dared not speak its name although she is still sticking by it, whatever nom de plume it uses.  Even at this stage our still delusional PM couldn't bring herself to be frank, only saying her plan was "challenging" for the EU - "unworkable" being another word that was AWOL yesterday. The plan is like Lazarus, it keeps being pronounced dead but nobody can quite administer the coup de grâce. Everybody is looking sideways and waiting for someone else to step in and do it - perhaps I can recommend Arlene Foster?

What came across yesterday was the sheer unalloyed arrogance of Theresa May.

The arrogance to think she alone can decide our fate, "If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit - we risk ending up with no Brexit at all".  She is essentially saying, "I'll decided how we're going to do it". She dismisses calls for a second vote:  "But we had the people's vote. The people voted to leave." Rather than taking back control we seem to have handed it to someone who thinks they're an absolute monarch in the early seventeenth century.

She says, "Think for a moment what it would do to faith in our democracy if - having asked the people of this country to take this decision - politicians tried to overturn it". She ignores what Brexit will do to our faith in politicians when people discover what it means, and that she knew - and still went ahead with it.

The arrogance to tell business she was "backing them" by erecting barriers between them and their biggest customers and biggest suppliers. It's like being a passenger in a rally car and jamming the handbrake on firmly to help the driver to win.

The arrogance to ignore totally the sixteen million (and rising) who voted to remain and who are simply asked to accept the hardest of hard Brexits; comingout of the single market and the customs union. "Those of us who do respect the result - whichever side of the question we stood on two years ago - need to come together now", was all we got. What a pity her Eurosceptic colleagues weren't urged to "come together" with the rest of us over the past twenty five years. 

The arrogance to think a discriminatory immigration policy will be acceptable to the EU parliament, who will have to approve both the Withdrawal Agreement and the Future trade deal. As if she didn't have enough opponents of her plan, she just made another, The BBC report (HERE) that "the European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said the EU would not accept a UK immigration system that discriminated based on skills and job type - and that's the centre-piece of Mrs May's proposal".

The arrogance to tell the hall, that no-deal, "would be tough at first, but the resilience and ingenuity of the British people would see us through". She will never suffer, the poor saps who were persuaded to vote leave against their own best interests by a bunch of mendacious charlatans will be the ones to bear the brunt of it.

She went on, "Some people ask me to rule out no deal. But if I did that I would weaken our negotiating position and have to agree to whatever the EU offers. And at the moment that would mean accepting one of two things. Either a deal that keeps us in the EU in all but name [the EEA], keeps free movement, keeps vast annual payments and stops us signing trade deals with other countries. Or a deal that carves off Northern Ireland, a part of this country, effectively leaving it in the EU's Custom's Union [the backstop with a Canada + free trade deal].

The arrogance to draw yet more red lines: "So, let us send a clear message from this hall today: we will never accept either of those choices. We will not betray the result of the referendum. And we will never break up our country".

Literally, this means no deal - unless the EU breakout one of the four single market freedoms and accept her plan aka Chequers. Better brace for a no deal outcome. This is odd because I think a substantial majority of the population would accept membership of the EEA if it was explained properly.

The arrogance to say, "In a negotiation, if you can't accept what the other side proposes, you present an alternative. That is what we have done". Not until fifteen months after Article 50 had been triggered we didn't and not when meeting with Angela Merkel when Mrs May kept telling the German Chancellor to "make me an offer" (HERE) like some dodgy second hand car dealer offloading a nail.

This is not treating the EU with respect whatever she claims.

The arrogance to think she can indulge in brinkmanship with the United Kingdom: "You saw in Salzburg that I am standing up for Britain. What we are proposing is very challenging for the EU. But if we stick together and hold our nerve I know we can get a deal that delivers for Britain".

Business is pleading with her not to play chicken (HERE). Half the nation fears a serious accident at the end of a white knuckle ride that we were told would be the equivalent of a gentle day trip to Bognor Regis, and all she can do is tell us to hold our nerve!!

Perhaps the PM will be surprised to see that another woman in Europe agrees with her - that no deal is indeed preferable to a bad deal (HERE) but unfortunately for Mrs May, the lady in question is the French minister for European affairs Nathalie Loiseau and she was speaking about the EU. This is an international high-stakes arm wrestling match. It is going to be an interesting next 14 days.

Incidentally, I note BoJo's speech on Tuesday was up on Brexit Central's website in seconds but May's isn't there even now. You can read the full text on BoJo's employers website at The Telegraph HERE, although I imagine they published it through gritted teeth, since it was better than they or BoJo expected.

It didn't resolve anything. But it didn't create any new problems and I suppose these days that's a plus. So, what comes next?