Who on earth will save us from power hungry, ego-maniacal and anti-democratic politicians ?
As the summer moves on towards early autumn, the forces of 'Remain' appear to be gathering yet again to prevent the democratically expressed Will of the People from being carried through. Jeremey Corbyn has put himself forward as a 'temporary Prime Minister' in a 'Government of National Unity' specifically to oversee the rejection of a so-called 'No Deal Brexit'. This is the man who led his Labour Party into the general election of 2017 on a manifesto that supported Brexit, who voted in favour of invoking Article 50 and has, until the last few weeks, consistently been opposed to reversing the result of the 2016 referendum. That he is also one of the last people who could ever be considered as a bringer of 'National Unity' almost seems superfluous and, unsurprisingly, his suggestion has been rejected by most.
While Corbyn has sniffed an opportunity to get his backside into the hallowed halls of 10 Downing Street, the egregious Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has had his say and made it clear that he will do everything in his power to prevent Brexit; he dresses this up as ensuring that Parliament will have its say on the matter and will not allow the government to force Brexit through, but this is just smoke and mirrors. Long ago, Bercow said that he would only remain in office for 9 years, then it was 10 and now his tenure appears to be open ended; he won't go until Brexit has been thwarted and he is determined to use his office, quite wrongly, towards that end.
Then we come to another anti-democratic Remainer, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond. Hammond, like Corbyn, stood on a pro-Brexit platform in 2017 and voted for Article 50 but has never been anything other than anti-Brexit. His regular pronouncements from his lofty perch have been delivered, Moses-like, as if written on tablets of stone and unchallengeable. He has consistently ignored every potentially positive aspect of Brexit but has concentrated, like his equally arrogant pal, Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, on nothing but the terrors to come in the event of 'No Deal', which has largely morphed into the terrors of Brexit, full stop. Hammonds' latest outright perversion of the truth is to claim that those who voted to leave did not want 'No Deal' and that to pursue such an outcome would be undemocratic; how can he claim this ? All he, or anyone else, knows is that the majority of voters voted to leave the European Union, nothing more was asked or stated. The only undemocratic action at the present time is the one favoured by Hammond, which is to ignore the result of the referendum and carry on as if it had never happened.
Yet another Remainer on the march is the newly crowned leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson. Ms Swinson has apparently made it clear that she could not support a vote of no confidence in the government that led to a Corbyn Premiership, but she has been discussing the notion of a Government of National Unity with certain other once prominent figures. One of these, Kenneth Clarke, is recently turned 79 and has failed on several occasions to become leader of his own Conservative Party; however, he's a staunch Remainer and doesn't like Prime Minister Boris Johnson, so may be tempted by the proposal although he'd hardly bring unity to the Conservative side of the House. Secondly, Swinson has suggested Labour's Harriet Harman, 10 years younger than Clarke but still no spring chicken, who has previously had opportunities to seek the leadership of her party but has declined to take them; it seems that either she doesn't want to be 'top dog' or doesn't believe that she would command the support of enough of her fellow MPs. Basically, Swinson is looking for anyone who will make HER deputy Prime Minister and bring about a reversal of the referendum result. Her 'Government of National Unity' would be nothing of the sort, just a ragbag of MPs who, like her, want to prevent Brexit from happening.
There are now just 76 days to go before Brexit will happen unless there is a change in the law or an agreement to have a further extension of time. Neither will happen unless there is a change of government and the parliamentary time available to bring that about is very limited; as things stand, Parliament returns from its summer recess on 3rd September but will only sit for 2 or 3 weeks before they all trot off for the conference season, a recess which lasts the best part of 4 weeks. What this adds up to is that Remainers have 2 or 3 weeks in September in which to either bring down Boris Johnson's government, cancel the conference season recess or find some other means of bringing about a further delay to Brexit. Waiting until after the conference recess will almost certainly be too late.
So what will happen ? The only thing that's certain is that we'll all be subjected to yet more dubious statistics, lies and political shenanigans as opponents of Brexit, and democracy, try every dirty trick they can dream up in their efforts to defy the Will of the People and even to renege on what many of them have previously said they would do.
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