Pardon me if I haven’t been paying attention.
Cabinet Collective Responsibility
David Cameron, that worthless piece of shit who, unbelievably, was once our Prime Minister, started it. He suspended collective cabinet responsibility for the duration of the formal EU Referendum Campaign. May asserted after the Chequers meeting that she was reimposing this again. Excuse me, but it’s two years since the referendum. Surely collective responsibility was reimposed then. Implying it was not so is a rewriting of history – or am I missing something? This seems nothing more than a convenient lie to cover up May’s extremely weak position within her own Cabinet.
Blink
So what do we know so far?
The Leave extremists – the Dunces – blinked first. That’s basically because they have no plan.
Attention seems to be now focussed on how long Boris Johnson can remain as Foreign Secretary. Basically this means how long until his next undiplomatic outburst and whether May meant it when she said “no more dissenting leaks”. We’ll see soon enough.
How Rees-Mogg and the backbench Dunces will react is anyone’s guess. They’re all impervious to reasoned argument.
The EU’s Position
The day-long squabble was for the cabinet to agree on a compromise between two positions already rejected by the EU. Why they should agree to what was cobbled together at Chequers is anybody’s guess, but Michel Barnier at least used warmer language in his initial response.
Don’t Mention the War
May seems to have failed in her attempt to peel off Germany from the EU and EU27 by her trip to Berlin before the Chequers “summit”.
There will be more compromises to come once the EU has had a chance to see – and reject sections of – the White Paper. Chequers was just a preliminary skirmish. The real war within the Tory Party hasn’t started yet.
Wasted Years
The real tragedy is the fact that two years have been squandered by internal Tory Party squabbling, while we – business especially – stood by open-mouthed and helpless. Strong? Stable? In the National Interest? Pull the other one.
Labour’s Position
Iain Dale, LBC journalist, on Newsnight, asserted that many Tory Party members will be tearing up their membership cards. Good! Anyway, they’ll be dead soon. More importantly, he asserted many people will simply stop voting. Apart from the big question mark over the health of our democracy – no small issue – that’s also good, as it will ensure the Tories are out of power for a long time. But it does open up the window for a new populist, neo-fascist party on the extreme right. Some of those “non-voters” will be attracted to its siren calls.
The Labour Party must get clear its message to secure “traditional” Labour supporters by redoubling its message. It’s convenient that it also happens to be true. The EU has never been the problem for rising inequality, crumbling services, the housing crisis and job insecurity. Blame all that on Free Market Fundamentalism. Started by Thatcher, pushed by Osborne, continued by Hamilton, austerity is a political choice, not a necessity. I think the message is slowly getting through. It’s imperative Labour seizes the moment and also uses the Remain majority in Parliament cleverly and tactically.
Is Corbyn the right man to do that? We’ll see.
