Tuesday 19 March 2019

We're going to remain after all

Hi All,

I've more or less reconciled myself to the fact that we won't be leaving the EU any time soon... here's an opening scenario : 


It had been an extraordinary 24 hours in British politics.  After  months of campaigning the strangely titled  "people's vote"-  a more accurate description would have been  "the elite's vote"- you know like all those old Soviet states that had the prefix "democratic/ People's republic"!   had won. We were going to remain in the EU after all. 90% of the voters had chosen remain against 10% for Prime Minister Theresa June's exit deal, leave without a deal was conspicuously absent from the ballot.  Only 50% of voters had turned out on a snowy December day . But now remain fanatics were crowing about the will of the people - forgetting that in the 2016  referendum they had argued only 38% of people had voted leave and thus that should be ignored. 

 The EU had in March graciously allowed a years extension, so the new government could set its sights on formally repelling article 50, much to the relief of Germany and the Netherlands. Secretly the French were outraged as they knew that Britain would veto their version of Europe as France. 

 Teresa June had resigned as Prime Minister  and as in 1894 and 1963 , the establishment managed to convince the Queen to appoint their choice as Prime Minister, before a ballot of Conservative MPs and then party members took place. Unlike 1894 or 1963 , the new Prime Minister wasn't a Scottish conservative- Whig aristocrat or male.  But like Theresa June , Jade Mudd , had been Home Secretary.  

Standing outside Downing Street , Mudd declared that the days of "xenophobia and bigotry"  were over . Unilaterally tearing up the Conservative party's agreement with the Ulster Unionist DUP , she announced instead that she had agreed an alliance with the TIGGERs , those dozen or so ex conservative and labour MPs who had resigned from their prospective parties,  and invited them into government. In fact they'd make up half the Cabinet. This reminded one astute observer that it was like the Lloyd George government of 1918-1922, wherein liberals and social democrats dominated the top spots, but reliant on their positions via a restive Conservative party. 

 But it was what the establishment wanted and what they wanted was what they got....





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