19 September 2019
Diary of a Corbynista
Johnson Planning People’s Vote?
by Don Urquhart
12 September
On the Andrew Neil show Kwasi Kwarteng volunteered the opinion that many people in the country suspected that the Scottish appeal court judges were biased remainers. I await my invitation onto next week’s show to insinuate that the London and Belfast judges are Tory supporters – who would have thought it?
13 September
On Twitter yesterday, I thought I spotted a much-loved character from the days when I would sit with my kids watching Danger Mouse. It was not the diminutive superhero but his arch nemesis the evil toad Baron Greenback. However closer inspection revealed to my disappointment that it was not Greenback but a Doppelgänger who was going viral, a gentleman called Crispin Odey, wallowing in his success using Brexit-related market volatility for profit. If you are in any doubt as to who benefits from a no deal Brexit watch Crispin here.
14 September
The narrative being promulgated by the BBC is that our constitution is broken, and that it is not clear who runs the show – is it the Executive, Parliament, the Courts or the mob. The story goes that both of the major parties are in disarray over Brexit, whereas it is quite clear that the current inertia emanates from a Tory party split that is stopping Johnson from carrying through his Brexit policy. Labour Party policy is clear and the parliamentary party is united behind it. There are some MPs who would like to see a referendum before an election but there is unanimity (apart from Kate Hoey) in opposition to a no-deal Brexit.
Furthermore the BBC allow people on to say unchallenged that the Labour Party is frightened of a General Election, whereas its motivation in rejecting Johnson’s call for one was that they thought he would switch the election date to November so that he could take the country unchallenged into a nodeal Brexit.
If anything is broken in this country it is the BBC.
15 September
In Britain civil unrest is driven by poverty. Politicians and media harness people’s grievances by blaming others. Oswald Mosley had the Jews, Thatcher had the Trade Unions but was eventually hoist on a petard of her own making, the poll tax. In recent years the Irish and all kinds of immigrants have taken their turn as scapegoats and now Johnson and his cronies blame Parliament and the European Union. Describing himself as a hulk with all of its violent and anarchic connotations demonstrates the ruthlessness and irresponsibility which are his hallmark.
16 September
The Liberal Democrats are holding their conference and for once the media are interested.
They interest me only because they have 18 MPs and I want them to vote against Johnson to help prevent a no deal Brexit.
They are talking about General Elections and what they will do if they have sufficient people in the Commons after the next one. I hope they are wiped out and it wouldn’t surprise me.
17 September
Since Theresa May’s demise Corbynista has consistently predicted a second referendum initiated by Mr Johnson.
At the start of his leadership campaign:
12 June
The Labour Party is introducing legislation which will hopefully sidetrack a no deal Brexit. Given our next Prime Minister’s lack of interest in principles and consistency, a second referendum might well give him his opportunity to show leadership and save his party.
It became clear that Labour was moving towards a second referendum:
18 June
And who knows which way Boris will jump. It is surely not out of the question that he will “show leadership” by engineering a second referendum in order to avoid a General Election.
He committed himself totally to leaving by 31st October:
11 July
Johnson’s current “Do or Die” pitch regarding a 31st October Brexit is designed to get him into No. 10.
Once there the only “Do or Die” will be about keeping him at that address. If Parliament succeeds in stopping no deal, Johnson is left with General Election or second referendum as options and it is only the latter that keeps him in office.
Then he got the job:
24 July
Boris Johnson starts out today as Prime Minister. He has achieved the role by promoting Brexit, an enthusiasm of the majority of Tory Party members.
Now he will devote his efforts to remaining as Prime Minister.
He will go to Brussels and fail to achieve any change to the Withdrawal Agreement.
Parliament will vote against no deal.
So he will be left with two options. He will not want a General Election and his MPs will not vote for one anyway. So he will be left with a second referendum which he can sell to his party as the only way left to achieve Brexit. And if the country votes to Remain he can do the statesmanlike thing and accept the will of the people while, crucially, remaining as Prime Minister.
18 September
Yesterday I met up with old school friends. Such meetings are generally a most enjoyable nostalgia bath. Only rarely do we stray into politics but yesterday I was up against it with two bright lads who were convinced that Johnson’s Do or Die approach was the way to go. No mention of betrayal of 17.4 million – the arguments were about loss of control to the EU and the federalist direction of the bureaucrats.
Fortunately we were soon back to more familiar ways of abusing and upsetting each other but I was left feeling that as far as Brexit is concerned my old pals presented more rational arguments than anything I had heard from the Westminster Bubble.
