19 July 2018
Diary of a Corbynista
Not even playing for third place
by Don Urquhart
12 July
The Chequers White Paper is to be published today. I shall go through it in great detail, highlighting things that are not properly thought through.
Some Labour MP’s (Tom Watson has been mentioned) think it’s time to get behind the Prime Minister in the national interest. Beg to differ. We need to illuminate her incompetence and render it impossible for her and her cronies to continue.
13 July
Like most people hailing from this side of the Irish Sea I don’t understand Ireland.
Nevertheless we are told that the Irish border is the biggest single problem in organising Brexit. It is said that any “hardening” of the border would put the Good Friday agreement at risk.
Yesterday the Unionist bigots marched in celebration of the Battle of the Boyne. In the evening and into this morning seventy-four petrol bombs and two improvised explosive devices were thrown at officers. It was the sixth consecutive night of violence in Londonderry.
Superintendent Gordon McCalmont said:
While we have seen many young people involved in these attacks over the last number of nights, it is clear that this is being orchestrated by a more sinister, adult, violent dissident republican element.
Are the troubles returning? And is Brexit a contributory factor?
14 July
I am only halfway through the White Paper and my comments are more about style than content.
“Robust” is a favourite word for politicians. You cannot just implement measures, they have to be “robust”, as in:
The UK proposes that robust governance arrangements should be established
Rather than the flopsy bunny governance arrangements we usually go for?
“Robust” appears 23 times in the document.
“Ambitious” is the kind of word Sir Humphrey used with Jim Hacker to usher him away from a naff idea, yet we find it 14 times in the White Paper, for example:
The UK seeks an ambitious partnership covering the breadth of security interests.
If you take out “ambitious” does the meaning change? Try replacing it with “imaginary”, “unlikely” or “civil”. Does the meaning change?
The word “nimbly” appears twice, but you wonder why this almost archaic word rather than “athletically” or “deftly”. Here’s one of the examples:
It will be particularly important to have domestic regulatory flexibility, to ensure the UK can respond nimbly to new developments, and be at the forefront of emerging technologies.
And our continental friends will also be spending time down the gym:
Include new arrangements on digital trade, including e-commerce, which enable the UK and the EU to respond nimbly to the new opportunities and challenges presented.
These days, what with GPS and high speed travel you can nimbly get from A to B.
The trouble starts when you don’t know where B is. Then you have to “explore” and this word appears 11 times, as in:
The UK will explore options for maintaining reciprocal liberalised access through an Air Transport Agreement.
It is abundantly clear from the document that we don’t know where we are going or how to get there.
But all is not lost. Michele Barnier & co. love receiving life coaching from the Brits and there’s plenty of that:
Global trade rules and agreements are only as good as the use that people can make of them.
Sacré bleu! Elle a raison.
North Korea has flagrantly violated international law.
Nein, so was!
It was an ambitious enterprise to explore the Government’s White Paper but I have approached it nimbly and robustly.
Rumour is that Bucks Fizz had a hand in it.
15 July
I understand that the White Paper is to be debated tomorrow in the Commons. I’ve read it all now but can’t work out what it’s trying to achieve. It makes the 2017 Conservative Manifesto look like Ernest Hemingway and that document was a stream of unfocussed drivel.
I just hope we are not submitting this to the EU as the basis of a negotiation. In essence it is saying that we need many committees to manage the UK/EU relationship. And I can see the EU saying that they have all the committees they need but we can be a non-voting associate of some of them if we want to cough up some cash. And there’s a point – who do we think is going to pay for all these new committees?
How do we think the EU negotiators are going to react to the self-aggrandising tone? For example:
Continuing to deploy the UK’s significant assets, expertise, intelligence and capabilities to protect and promote European values.
The UK has developed an institutional framework to manage financial stability while ensuring the regulatory system supports a global financial centre.
The UK contributes cutting-edge expertise and leadership
The UK is home to a world leading creative industries sector.
UK expertise helps support the efficacy of EU policy and spending.
The UK has long championed sustainable fishing.
The UK has long been at the forefront of collective endeavours to understand and improve the lives of citizens within and beyond Europe’s borders
And do we really have to lecture the EU negotiators as if they were primary schoolchildren?:
The UK and the EU should commit to the non-regression of environmental standards
Properly managed migration brings benefits to local communities and economies.
Natural and man-made disasters can occur at any moment.
The UK and the EU are expected to maintain the commitments that they make in the future relationship.
This does not get to first base as a professional document. When the first sentence of Chapter 1 says:
This is a serious offer
you know there’s something not quite right and in truth the Prime Minister gives the game away in her Foreword:
We share an ambition for our country to be fairer and more prosperous than ever before.
News to so many of us.
The only people rubbing their hands over this are those Greeks keen to see the Elgin Marbles back where they belong when they read that the UK :
supports the restitution of cultural objects where these have been unlawfully removed.
16 July
As Tory MP’s go Justine Greening is one of the more acceptable to a Corbynista. She discards Theresa May’s Brexit White Paper as “fudge” and sees a second referendum as the only alternative. Like all Tory MP’s her main driver is the fear of a General Election and she trots out the usual “Corbyn will be a disaster for the economy” mantra.
I believe that the time will come for Labour to call for a second vote but it’s not yet. I hope they can hold their nerve.
17 July
The sound and fury of our Brexit drama could all prove academic in the next few years. I have nearly finished “The Silk Roads”, an alternative history of the world written by Peter Frankopan. He sees a resurgence of the countries of the Silk Roads, from the Middle East through to China. They have the natural resources and a growing confidence.
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg and his friends have destroyed the Chequers White Paper and yet Theresa May stands up to tell us nothing has changed. We have heard that before.
18 July
Yesterday The European Union and Japan signed one of the world’s biggest free trade deals, covering nearly a third of the world’s GDP and 600 million people.
EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said:
We are showing that we are stronger and better off when we work together. And we are leading by example, showing that trade is about more than tariffs and barriers. It is about values, principles and finding win-win solutions for all those concerned.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44857317
