The Tory Party are in the Trump Zone. Just as Donald Trump famously claimed he could shoot somebody in the street and people would still vote for him, the Tories think there is nothing they can do that would stop them winning the General Election on June 8th.
They’ve got some justification in this belief, despite running the most abjectly awful campaign of any major UK party in living memory. Despite the PM careering from one campaign gaffe to another, if she even deigns to show herself at all, the Tories do look on course to emerge victorious, perhaps even increase their majority.
But it is not all over yet.
It’s up to you. If you stay home, if you don’t vote on June 8th, the Tories will win. But if you vote, you can make a difference. Here’s a few reasons why you might choose to try.
A few days into the Article 50 process, it is clear to the Government that this whole Brexit business is not going to be quite as straightforward as the Leave campaign said it would be. Not only is the process of detaching ourselves from the EU going to be fiendishly complex, with problems upon problems that ministers haven’t even dreamed of, let alone planned for, Theresa May’s basic strategy for negotiations has fallen flat on its face.
We’re not going to get the wonderful Brexit we were promised. What the EU have been saying all along – that the UK can’t expect better benefits as a non-member of the club than are enjoyed by any member, has already become the basis for negotiation. Barely a week into the two-year process, it has become a damage limitation exercise, and all parties to the negotiations now realise that the best possible deal with the EU comes from the closest recreation of what we have now.
(This is a story about an event from a while ago, but we’ve only just come across it, and it’s so special that we just had to share it with you.)
We owe you, and the Government, and the Brexiters, an apology.
There we were, telling you that the Brexit camp had no plan for how to achieve an orderly departure from the EU, and it turns out that they’ve been quietly beavering away on plans all along.
This week we are proud and pleased to announce the first ever repeat winner of the Hall of Shame award. Despite strong competition from Michael “let’s boost drug company exports by exporting the drug companies” Gove and Arron “let’s promote a healthy debate by getting rid of all the MPs who disagree with us” Banks, there really could only be one winner.
Step forward, Theresa May.
As I write this, Theresa May is poised to trigger Article 50 and start the process of taking us out of the EU.
Now that it’s certain we’re going to set this juggernaut in motion, I expect Leave voters are feeling pleased and a little relieved that we’re finally getting on with the job. If you’re one of them, I’d like to take a moment to address you directly now. I know you won’t want to hear what I have to say, I know this will seem like a “Remoaner” rant (and I have to admit that it is), but please bear with me on just this one journey. If you’re a Remain voter, or didn’t vote, I think you need to hear this too.
We’re about to embark on a massive change to the UK, and the effects will be felt for generations. There is no easy way to undo what we are about to do, so I think we all deserve a brief pause to consider it, and be absolutely sure what exactly we think we’re going to achieve. So please stay with me until the end of this article. I’ll put lots of links in here to support what I’m going to say, and show why I think we should be worried about what is going to happen next. I think by the end of this you may be quite worried too, possibly angry, hopefully not at me but at what is being done in your name.
It’s quite long, I’m afraid. But let’s take a deep breath, and dive in.
Choosing the recipient of this week’s Hall of Shame award was our most difficult challenge yet, there were so many worthy candidates. But in the end there can be only one.
Or can there?
Proving that here at CoN Towers we have no more idea of the rules or what we’re doing than Brexit Secretary David Davis, this week we’re awarding the Hall of Shame chequebook and pen jointly to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.
“We need a system that gives Parliament real power over ministers, enough time to scrutinise new EU laws and the transparency to restore public trust in the process.”
Theresa May wrote these words in a pamphlet she published in 2007, Restoring Parliamentary Authority: EU Laws and British Scrutiny. So it’s curious that now, on the brink of the biggest change to our country since WW2, the same Theresa May is attempting to stampede through our exit from the EU in a way that shuts out Parliament and will hide from us the implications of what she is doing until it is too late.
Lord Lawson, Chair, Vote Leave campaign, February 2016, before referendum
“Sadly, and it is sad, a bad agreement is all that is likely to be on offer.”
Lord Lawson, March 2017, after referendum
Entering the Brexit Hall of Shame this week, we have Nigel Lawson: diet book author; father of famous TV chef; Baron Lawson of Blaby.
Recently, we’ve seen the re-emergence of some of the elder statesmen of politics. Major, Clarke, Heseltine, even Blair, have all lined up over the past few weeks to warn in careful, measured tones about the risks the nation is running with Brexit, and express compassion for all the people affected by it.
And then there is Norman Tebbit.
If we crash out of the Single Market, as Theresa May intends to do if the EU don’t give in to her negotiating demands, we will need to expand our trading links with the rest of the world massively to balance the trade we are going to lose.
We probably are going to crash out of the Single Market. The EU have been very clear all along that they cannot agree to our demands so, two years after we trigger Article 50, we’ll be out without a deal.
