A Parcel of Rogues – BINO, DINO and the collapse of the UK Parliament

On January the 19th I commented on the ongoing mess in the Uk Parliament – https://theweeflea.com/2019/01/17/why-is-there-chaos-in-parliament/\

Over the past couple of days the predictions made in that article have largely been proved correct.   Personally I take no pleasure in that at all – in fact I am in despair for my country – because I believe we are possibly witnessing the death of democracy in this country.  This is not just BINO (Brexit In Name Only) but DINO (Democracy In Name Only).   I take a great interest in politics and an admiration for politicians.  I don’t like to join in the general mockery and anger against our politicians, as I believe they are to be respected and honoured.  But that is becoming increasingly difficult.   In the past couple of days I have found myself having to switch off in despair.  Let’s look at our ‘leaders’.

Theresa May –  I find myself feeling sorry for her.  She has been dealt a rotten hand.  Her job seems to be the proverbial ‘herding cats’.   However much of this has been brought on by her own hubris.  Her greatest mistake was calling a general election which was then based on her leadership/character etc.   Her intransigence can be seen as stubbornness or persistence – but her unrealistic views of both the EU and her own abilities have helped create this nightmare.

Jeremy Corbyn –  When Corbyn was elected as the Labour leader he was seen as the rank outsider, a bit quirky but at least principled.  Indeed it was his principles which caused some to panic, with him being portrayed as a hardline Marxist, anti-Israel, pro-IRA.  I didn’t agree with him on many issues but I thought it would be good to have a more principled politician as a leader, unlike the cynical opportunism of Blair, Cameron and their like.  Corbyn has always voted against the EU (as was typical of the Left until Blair got control and the EU bribed the Union leaders).

But now Corbyn has completely sold out.  The Labour parties position is very close to May’s deal (so much so that the only reason they do not vote for it, is because of politics and seeking to let the Tories destroy themselves) – but the official position espoused by Labour (insofar is that there is any coherence to it at all) is that the UK should remain in a permanent Customs Union and the Single Market.  In effect this means belonging to the EU, taking its rules, being subject to its laws, and having no say in them.  Corbyn has not only sold out his own principles, he is prepared to sell out his country – for power.

Ian Blackford, Mike Russell and Nicola Sturgeon –    The SNP have promised so much and done so much good.  But now, again largely because of hubris and incompetence (as well as the increasingly authoritarian party control which treats all SNP politicians like sheep) the SNP has let Scotland down.   Mike Russell tweeted yesterday in effect calling Scotland’s Tory MPs traitors.   Sturgeon threatened a referendum she cannot deliver.  And Blackford’s boorish behaviour has reached such a level of embarrassment that some SNP supporters I know just switch off when he appears in parliament.

These three always tell us that they are ‘speaking for Scotland’.  As far as they are concerned when they speak its the same as Scotland speaking.  But not all of us in Scotland are SNP sheep.  One million of us voted for Brexit.  Two million voted to stay in the UK.  But nonetheless the SNP have determined that those who did so are not ‘Scotland’.

What is even more depressing for someone like me who would like to see an independent Scotland, is the way that the SNP have in effect given up on independence.  Taking ‘no deal off the table’ and insisting on a second referendum for leaving the EU means that the same tactics will be used for any future Independence vote – which will kill it.

Vince Cable –  and the Lib Dems.  They have almost become irrelevant.  We rarely hear from them but we don’t need to because as much as the SNP, they are the party of the EU.  Anything the EU does is good.  Anyone who wants to leave the EU is bad.

Caroline Lucas – The Greens – I just don’t understand the Greens enthusiasm for the EU.  They are worried that 10,000 lorries per day won’t be crossing the channel – is that not what they wanted?  The bottom line is that the Greens are primarily middle class progressives who are not radical at all.  They are on the side of Big Business, the Eurocrats and the Big State.

Alaister Campbell and Tony Blair – It is astonishing that Campbell and Blair have returned to talk up the second referendum campaign.  Blair has even been advising President Macron, telling him to hold firm because Britain will fold and remain in the EU. When a former Prime Minister is colluding with a foreign power seeking to overturn a democratic vote in his own country – that comes as close to treachery as anything I have seen.

Jacob Rees-Moog and Steve Baker–  I have a lot of time for Rees-Moog and Baker- both profess to be Christians (as do Blair and May).  Rees-Moog always comes across as calm, intelligent and worth listening to.  Recently he was being interviewed about Brexit and casually referred to the fact that he was reading the book of Job.  But on this one I think that he and the European Research Group have been outmanoeuvred and again fooled by their own hubris.  They have been relying on the fact that Britain is legally bound to leave the EU on the 29th of March and their tactic just seems to be to hold on until then.  But they should have known that parliament can change the law – and the EU has never been too concerned about changing or ignoring its own laws when they wish.  Now they find themselves in the position where they will either have to support May’s deal or end up with no Brexit.  Both are not good results – but if for the sake of their ideological purity, they don’t support May’s deal, it will ironically be the ERG who keep the UK in the EU.  My fear is that some, thinking more of their own position in the Tory party (whose members are overwhelmingly leave) more than the good of the country, will vote for something they can’t get and enable something they say they don’t want.  I have just heard Owen Paterson say that he could never vote for the deal because it would put us in some kind of sub-colonial status from which we could never leave.  And yet he does not ask what the alternative is – if parliament does not do a no deal Brexit.  We will end up with continuing in a permanent sub-colonial status in the EU in some form or other.

The DUP –  They are in the same position.  You can admire them as models of principle and discipline, or mock them as intransigent bigots, but they too have to face the uncomfortable fact that they cannot have their cake and eat it.  They are faced with the choice of the UK staying in the EU and therefore Northern Ireland being as subject to Brussels as the rest of us, or the UK and Northern Ireland leaving the EU under May’s deal – thus putting Northern Ireland as the EU’s major bargaining chip in any negotiation.

Juncker, Barnier and Tusk –  Of course the Irish government, the German parliament and the EU Commission are celebrating last nights vote.  It demonstrates to all those inthe EU who are unhappy with it, just how difficult it is to leave.   The Technocrats have won.  Because of course they don’t have to worry directly about answering to an electorate.   But they are worried about the coming EU parliament elections.  It is fascinating that Juncker has just declared that he is concerned about “British chaos infecting the continent”.  To authoritarian elitists like Juncker democracy =chaos.  Far better that we just live him and his political class to rule over us all for the common good!

John Bercow –   One of the major factors of this Parliamentary mess is the smug, pompous, bullying speaker – Mr Bercow, who was quite happy to have a  “Bollocks to Brexit” sticker on his car.  He has done his utmost to undermine Brexit and to facilitate it being stopped and in so doing has compromised the neutrality of the role of Speaker of the House of Commons.  The latest example is today when Bercow did not permit an amendment on preventing a second referendum – despite it being signed by 127 MPs from three different parties.  He is using his position to further his own politics.  And he is only able to stay in that position, because despite his bullying (especially to women) he is considered to be too valuable to ‘the cause’.

Anna Soubry – Heidi Allan – are examples of the kind of MPs who use the idea of parliamentary sovereignty and democracy, only to undermine it.  They want us to have another vote.  At best this is patronising (the poor dumb people didn’t know enough but now we have educated them, they will vote the right way), at worst it is dishonest cheating.  Why?  Because they want the question to be between May’s deal and Remain.   We already had a vote about Remaining and we decided to leave.   If anything there should be a vote between Mrs May’s deal and no deal.   But of course, they are not interested in democracy – they are only using the idea of a second referendum to try and stop Brexit.  It’s a cynical misuse of democracy which will only backfire

DINO

This is where we have ended up  – with DINO.  Democracy in Name Only.   Our major political parties exist to serve themselves, not the people who elect them.  One couldn’t organise a drink in a brewery, the other hopes the brewery goes bust!

All you need to know about parliament this week is that after last nights votes we are left with only two realistic possibilities.  May’s bad deal or remaining in the EU.  A ‘no deal’ is not going to happen and a re-negotiated deal is unlikely to happen (even if it did the vote of parliament in leaving out the threat or possibility of no deal has left itself with nothing to negotiate with – and will just have to accept whatever our masters in the EU tell us to accept).

The bottom line in this is that some 500 MPs out of 650 are Remainers whereas 2/3 of their constituencies voted Leave.   They gave us a vote not expecting that we would vote ‘the wrong way’.  Since then, egged on by almost the whole of the political, media, educational and arts establishments, they have been desperately hunting for a way to reverse our vote.  To take on that establishment (and the EU – which in turn funds establishments of the countries it seeks to rule) would have required leaders with courage, intelligence and nerves of steel.  Instead we have the spineless, confused and at best naive self-serving politicians who have made such a mess and will lead us back into the not so benign arms of the EU technocracy.  We can be sure – that once they regain control of the parliament (and hand that sovereignty) back to the EU, they will never make the mistake of giving us a vote again.  Although 80% of MPs were elected on manifesto promises to take us out of the Customs Union and the Single Market, parliament is unlikely to do that – and they never really intended to.

And so in 21st Century Britain, the ‘haves’ will continue to have, and the have nots will continue to have not.  They must be satisfied with the crumbs from their masters table  – all served up with dollops of assurances of how much the middle class progressives  ‘care’ for the poor and ‘respect’ them (in the same way that they ‘respected’ the vote of those they regarded as at best easily fooled dumbos and at worst racist ignoramuses).

 

“We were bought and sold for EU gold

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation  (with apologies to Rabbi Burns!)

Finally let me say something from a Christian perspective – which is the only thing that stops me despairing.  The bible tells us not to trust in rulers.  I don’t.  Events this week have again proved the truth of that.  I was reading Chrysostom this morning on the importance of leaders having good characters.  He argues that if they don’t know how to govern their own souls, how can they govern cities and nations?  It’s the character of our leaders that is the major problem.  A system is only as good as those who run it.   Where are the men and women of integrity, courage, intelligence and humility who will lead our nations?

1Tim. 2:1    I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—  ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  ³ This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.