The Mess

Late at night Hubby told me about his frustrations re the whole Brexit process, the obduracy and incompetence of all involved. He has never spoken so vehemently before on the matter. He sounds, if less confused than most, then at least as fed up as everyone else.He's indignant at the lack of compromise and seeming lack of interest in what's good for the country. I am not even that angry anymore.No-one gets conned faster and denies it longer than the wilfully stupid, and the only thing to do is get out of the way and let them hurt themselves if that is what the people really want. Trouble is, projections of what the people really want are rife, backed by what seems to be an over-all reluctance to find out.

It is a thorough cock-up, and was always going to be; the referendum was a mistake, barely thought out and badly executed, the British or more specifically the English population have been drip-fed decades of misinformation scapegoating the EU for deficiencies in government, and the policy of Austerity angered so many that they were bound to kick against anything David Cameron supported.

Theresa May cannot control the far right of her party. She never has been able to do it, so she flannelled them. Now they stand ready to flog her till she drops, but alone they cannot drive No Deal through. The nearest they have to power in this matter is the ability to split the Tory party, and of course, the power of the default; No Deal. May doesn't want No Deal, but she keeps it as a sop to them and a threat to everyone else. She wanted her deal to be the only option, but parliament has rejected it. So she says she will talk across parties but if she won't compromise then why should they help her? No-one is going to take responsibility for this mess without being given power to change it. And time ticks by.

It may be that she has always been a quiet autocrat with a disdain for explaining herself, it may be that she really is an inept politician whose taciturn nature led others to give her the credit of ability, a still-waters-run-deep cliche. She's by no means the only MP who can't do their job. Never have I seen so little ability, such narrowness of vision across our political spectrum. This in itself is an indictment of Parliamentary Assessment Boards and candidate selection. Who is choosing these people, who is voting for them? What percentage of voters plump for an individual rather than the representative of their tribe?

And the way out? The obvious immediate need now is to extend article 50, whatever other discussions are going on, because this whole running down the clock tactic isn't condusive to strategic thinking. Beyond that I honestly have no idea.

The Fall

'It may seem strange to call this slow collapse invisible since so much of it is obvious: the deep uncertainties about the union after the Good Friday agreement of 1998 and the establishment of the Scottish parliament the following year; the consequent rise of English nationalism; the profound regional inequalities within England itself; the generational divergence of values and aspirations; the undermining of the welfare state and its promise of shared citizenship; the contempt for the poor and vulnerable expressed through austerity; the rise of a sensationally self-indulgent and clownish ruling class. But the collective effects of these interrelated developments do seem to have been barely visible within the political mainstream until David Cameron accidentally took the lid off by calling a referendum and asking people to endorse the status quo.'

Ah Fintan, you know us well, too well. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/18/europe-brexit-britain-state-politics-fit-for-purpose?CMP=share_btn_tw