The Brexit Chronicles

The Final Throes Of The Blame Game

Published on October the 6th, 2019. 10.05.

The 'Get Ready For Brexit' media campaign has reached saturation point: I've taken the official online test, and as a result of my answers been reassured that I need do nothing in the way of Brexit preparedness. That's a relief as I was expecting to have to construct an Inner Refuge out of dismounted interior doors and earth-filled sandbags, as well as improvising an emergency toilet from a chair. The momentum to the inevitable exit end point is well under way now; EU-free British Passports have already been issued since last March, yet still there are some people who believe this Brexit juggernaut can be brought to a tyre-screeching halt in the twenty-five days remaining.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has revealed the UK's alternative to the problematic Irish 'backstop' when it comes to renegotiating the  Theresa May Withdrawal Agreement. Unsurprisingly his 'two borders for four years' plan for a combination of bonded warehouse-customs facilities, GPS vehicle tracking, random inspections, and added bureaucracy has met with a lukewarm response, as it was designed to do, for it must be obvious by now to everyone that there is no hope of arriving at any form of mutually acceptable Withdrawal Agreement as well as getting it approved by both the EU and the fractious UK Parliament while the last few grains of sand slip through the hourglass' neck. I'm sure this proposal is merely a ruse to be seen to be negotiating, even though in reality both the UK and the EU have been resigned to the reality of a 'No deal' Brexit since the end of September.

As for the runaway parliament, things have gone rather quiet there and the silence is telling. Why, you'd almost think the Remain At Any Cost establishment had given up hope! Their problem is that until Boris plays his hand they have nothing to react and rally against. For all their talk of appointing a 'unity' prime minister, they still can't agree on who it should be; the terms of the Fixed Term Parliament Act imply that it is the largest opposition party - Labour - who should get the first chance of forming a government, and there are many Remainer Tories who'd balk at handing the keys to Downing Street to Jeremy Corbyn! Conversely the Parliamentary Labour Party wouldn't want to have their sole chance of power slip through their fingers to be caught instead by John Bercow or Kenneth Clarke. Because of this intractable problem I consider the chance of a temporary National Government to be an unlikely outcome.

Or the Remainers might have privately concluded their position is a forlorn none, for there are many ways yet for Johnson to sidestep the Benn Act. There are rumours of a large brown envelope bung promised to the Hungarian government in return for their vetoing any grudgingly applied for Article 50 extension; even the normally patient Dutch are said to be reaching the end of their tether. Alternatively BoJo can ensure the UK becomes persona non grata by appointing Nigel Farage as our new European Commissioner! Imagine the consternation that would cause!

If even the threat of vetoing the next seven year EU budget framework fails to persuade the EU27 to give up on any plans to hold the UK hostage I'm sure there are other ways to make our continued membership an unpalatable prospect. Boris could always simply invoke the EU Withdrawal Act and declare our participation ended at Halloween and cut off all further EU funding and participation. So given all that it must be the case what we're seeing now is posturing and playing of blame game ping-pong, with all concerned looking beyond October the 31st, whatever their future plans. As the campaign slogan urges, Get Ready For Brexit.