Remainer, Leaver or simply an uncaring neutral (are there any?): surely none of us could not have felt a twinge of pride in the almost heroic incompetence of our team of expert negotiators who’ve steered the nation through the ice floes of total intransigence in the unwriteable drama affectionately known as ‘Brexit’. Future generations of etymologists will thank us for classics such as
‘You’ve made a right brexit of that!’, ‘You’re a total brexit!’ or ‘Mum’s just brexiting a Shepherd’s Pie’
none of which will be entirely complementary.
Now I’m no expert, but I can spot a fiasco when I see one. This one has been organised, if it’s possible to organise a fiasco, by some real experts. I am naturally convinced, since I believe in the existence of common sense, that an almost-outcome like the one we’ve arrived at this morning could not have been accidental. Surely not. Please. If it is, then we should all be seriously concerned about the credentials of the people we’re electing to high office. How do you explain this to a non-Brit except by claiming that they’re seeing democracy in its truest sense and finest manifestation and hoping to get away it, whilst ignoring the list of political miscalculations which reveal ignorance of even the most basic arithmetic. For more info on the background to the fiasco, please see a previous rant from last July.
I am convinced that if we had simply left the EU without a deal the day after Theresa’s Dear John letter that we would now be well on the way to sorting out the mess and would have other governments queuing at the DTI* to sort out trade agreements. Our politicians would have been confidently directing policy designed to compete effectively in global markets with the Franco-German led Europeans, who would by now have got over the shock of our departure and started to send us flowers again on our birthday.
Instead, what have we got? Well, here’s the state of play right now:
A Government for which the only remaining option is to choose the method of its final humiliation. Let’s hope they can at least negotiate this with themselves. Doubtful on current form. An Opposition with no policy except to select the policy which makes an election more likely. Surely nobody’s crazy enough to throw that into the mix, except, of course, the Opposition.
And of course, an Electorate who are totally pissed off with all them.