For all the dire implications, Brexit becomes more ridiculous by the day. Last night 340 MPs traipsed through the lobby, essentially to breach an international agreement. I haven't checked yet but I see 328 were Tories and I assume 10 of the rest were from the DUP who at least were consistent. They didn't vote for Johnson's deal in the first place. The others have no excuse for making themselves look stupid having voted for the WA which they now want to renege on because it's such a threat to the UK. Bizarre isn't it?
This was only the second reading and now comes the Committee stage where the clauses will be debated and perhaps more amendments tabled. Some rebels have already indicated they voted FOR the bill this time but won't vote for it at third reading if it is not amended. So, all is not lost.
What is worrying was the rhetoric Johnson was using in the Commons as pointed out by a former French Ambassador, Gerard Araud:
The rhetoric is stunning. Why suddenly did the UK go to such extreme accusations they know to be false? Why do they accuse 27 allies and partners of preparing a blockade, which is, in international law, recognized as an act of war? Why do they renege on a text they were proud of? https://t.co/R37OavyKhA— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) September 14, 2020
This wasn't the worst either. At one point he talks of the EU having put a revolver on the table in a debate where he makes multiple references to our "European friends and partners." Which is it? Are we negotiating with friends and partners or the Mafia?
Johnson's word is worth nothing and he is striving to make Britain's the same. But even more than that he is devaluing and debasing our language. Colourful adjectives are OK for a novelist or a journalist but not for a politician whose words are usually carefully measured.
Most political figures, at least the leading ones, give themselves a lot of wriggle room to avoid telling a lie, they use semantics or avoid a direct answer (remember Michael Howard as Home Secretary being asked the same question 14 times by Jeremy Paxman about the head of the prison service). Johnson has no such constraints. Being caught out in a lie doesn't worry him at all. One might say he eats, drinks and sleeps a lie. His whole life is one long lie.
Only Johnson could come to the House and without blushing say last year's "perfect" oven-ready deal was actually a threat to the United Kingdom. He didn't acknowledge once that it was his deal, the one he negotiated and presented as a triumph, the best possible deal which protected the union. Now it's a threat.
Ed Miliband, standing in for Starmer who is isolating after a family member contracted covid-19, gave Johnson a right thrashing, utterly eviscerating the prime minister who sat there disgracefully fiddling with his 'phone while Miliband made him look a fool, admittedly not a very difficult job. Despite his attacks exposing the irrationality of the PM, Tory MPs then went through the lobby to support him and take the first step on the road to international pariahdom.
Araud later tweeted:
HMG should have understood after 40 y. of membership that the EU has no territory, no population. It is only a set of norms based on the implementation of a treaty. If the UK decides to be an outlaw, the EU will be structurally unable to follow it and even to relate with it.— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) September 14, 2020
The leaders of the EU27 listen to his speeches and read his articles. How does the sort of low rhetoric he uses help to create an atmosphere of friendship?
Sometimes, I think he or Cummings deliberately store up anti-EU stuff to create an enemy to focus people's anger in much the same way that Putin does. Is that where we are headed? A few years ago it would have been preposterous - now it's actually thinkable.
Sometimes, I think he or Cummings deliberately store up anti-EU stuff to create an enemy to focus people's anger in much the same way that Putin does. Is that where we are headed? A few years ago it would have been preposterous - now it's actually thinkable.
