And so it begins again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That mad dance of mutual destruction which lies deep in the\nfestering heart of the Conservative body politic. For all of my adult life the\ntories have been tearing each other apart over the issue of Europe. From\nMacMillan, through Heath, Thatcher, Major, Cameron and now May. Each has faced\nthe dilemma of knowing that Britain has lost its empire but not the allusion to\nstill \u201crule the waves\u201d. The latest episode of this seemingly never ending saga\nis about to begin with the civil war which to elect of Theresa May\u2019s successor.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the decades the right of British politics has, like the\nright wing across the Western world, been able to do one thing, and one thing\nonly, well; garner votes! While the left obsesses about each and every minor\npoint of principle, the right cares not a fig as long as they stay in power.\nThe capacity to adopt and adapt has always been perfectly fine as long as they\nmaintain their grip on the levers of economic power. The ability to help each\nother help themselves overrides all other concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for the right in the UK and especially in England there\nis a flaw in their psyche like a stone in your shoe which makes them incapable\nof coming to terms with the whole issue of Europe. They want all the advantages\nof free trade, ease of movement etc for themselves but cannot accept that this\ninvolves a quid pro quo of reciprocal arrangements. Something about a goose and\na gander!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that we\u2019ve watched as successive mad brexiteers have come\nand gone as Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, each one less successful\nthan the last at negotiating a deal, we have the spectacle of the same failures\nnow battling for the top job. We\u2019ve watched as fanatical brexiteers have voted\ntime and again against brexit because it does not meet their personal\nideological purity levels. The debate about how many angels can dance on the\nhead of a pin almost seems sensible in comparison to the contortions of the ERG\nand their fellow travellers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems hard to recall that the freedoms to move goods,\nservices and people was regarded as Thatcher\u2019s greatest triumph! Almost as hard\nas believing that there is a purely technical solution to movement of goods,\nservices and people in Ireland which does not involve a hard border unless they\nare willing to accept that a person can legally travel across Europe to Ireland\nand then hop on the ferry to Liverpool etc with no barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upside of all of this is the prospect of the Tory party\ntearing itself in at least two. A prospect which becomes ever more likely with\neach seat gained by the Mad Hatter and his Brexit Party. The tories face a\nfairly straightforward choice, they can choose to recognise the real world and\nits failings, tell people that \u00a3350 million a week for the NHS etc was a lie,\nthat the world needs compromises to move forward just as each and every one of\nus deals with each and every day. Or, they can continue to peddle the myth that\nit is actually possible to have your bread and eat it simultaneously. Probably\nwith jam today and tomorrow! The brexiteers want Independence for England and I\nsuspect that most of them will be happy to be rid of Scotland and N Ireland if\nthat\u2019s the price!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whoever takes over\nfrom Theresa May faces the \u201csame swivel eyed loons\u201d she did. The hard rump of\nabout 80 \u2013 100 MPs who care more about their purity than reality. The\nParliamentary arithmetic will simply not change with a new PM unless they go to\nthe country and that carries a real existential risk to Labour as much as the\ntories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bonus for us, is that while the tories have been\ndemonstrating that they would not be safe if left in charge of the proverbial\nsweetshop, the supposed \u201copposition\u201d have been demonstrating an utter inability\nto inflict corporal punishment on a bovine creature with a stringed instrument.\nIt\u2019s almost beyond belief that even now the Labour Party still trail in many\nopinion polls! They know that Corbyn has been shown up as an utter charlatan,\ntotally bereft of principle and absolutely unable to take a decision. Labour is\nin reality as split, divided and uncertain as the Tories. Yet the small part of the Labour Party which\nknows this is now utterly unable to act having failed in the last Parliament to\ndump him. \n\nThe irony for Europe is that the only ones\nwho\u2019ll miss the Mad Hatter are his fellow travellers like Salvini and Le Pen,\nwho all want to stay in the EU anyway. The bonus for Europe is that with a hard\nbrexiteer likely to win the Tory leadership, they will at least be spared the\nrantings of the Mad Hatter. Now, that\u2019s quite a bonus.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And so it begins again! That mad dance of mutual destruction which lies deep in the festering heart of the Conservative body politic. For all of my adult life the tories have been tearing each other apart over the issue of Europe. From MacMillan, through Heath, Thatcher, Major, Cameron and now May. Each has faced the dilemma of knowing that Britain has lost its empire but not the allusion to still \u201crule the waves\u201d. The latest episode of this seemingly never ending saga is about to begin with the civil war which to elect of Theresa May\u2019s successor. Over the decades the right of BritishRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}