No. 88 - Did you hear the Roar, James?
Dear James,
Did you hear it? We are told that the roar of a million people standing outside parliament demanding a second vote could be heard inside the chamber as you debated the Letwin amendment yesterday. Like the huge applause heard inside Westminster Abbey when Princess Diana’s brother gave his defiant speech on the day of her funeral. Or like the sounds heard by William the Conqueror's men at his coronation in 1066 when, fearing an assassination attempt, they went on the rampage in Westminster. Sometimes outside voices do penetrate those august walls. What was it like? The wind rustling at the windows? The sea coming up onto the shore? An avalanche bearing down on the Westminster village?
I was one of those voices and I would be interested to know how you reacted. Did you hear it as a group of wild discontents venting their frustration? Or did you just ignore it and seek the warm hug of your Tory compatriots? On the other hand, is there just the faintest chance that something stirred in your soul and the dying embers of a conscience ignited briefly to question your current stance on Boris’s attempt to rush through his latest ‘deal’?
Just in case the latter is true, let me try to enlighten you. What that sound stood for was a cry of a million sensible people crying out for a return to honesty in parliament. A cry to stop the lies, to stop the posturing, to stop the ridiculous structure of half truths and U-turns that characterise Boris’s government. Honesty about the meaning of the 2016 referendum. Honesty about the impact of the Boris ‘deal’ upon the nation, honesty from a man who just a few months ago said that to separate NI from the UK mainland would be unthinkable by a UK government, and has just done exactly that. Ultimately, It was a cry for honesty about democracy itself.
Instead, on your side we witnessed the sorry spectacle of your Tory party faithful resorting to the last ditch excuse of ‘Just get it done!’. Even dear old Ken Clarke and the much diminished Mrs May went along with that one and indicated that they would vote for the ‘Boris Deal’. Just getting something done because they are tired and exhausted like the rest of us is not the way to deal with greatest question that has faced our nation since the Second World War. It is equivalent to saying, in May 1940, that we should just submit to negotiations with Hitler because we were tired and frightened. I am sorry but parliament must have time to scrutinize whatever the deal is and the Chancellor must provide us with a serious impact assessment of a deal that seems to be worse even than Mrs May’s deal. I am afraid that your party has run out of ideas James and is now resorting to desperate parliamentary tactics to thwart the search for truth.
When I started yesterday morning I was quite downhearted about the prospects. The vote when it came, 322 to 306 was a moment of relief for me, temporary though it may be. For others it was a moment of pure joy. The speakers included Hilary Benn and Dominic Grieve who you have, no doubt, been taught to regard as ‘traitors’. They are in fact two of the few truly parliamentary figures left in the ‘Mother of Parliaments’. They are honest, thoughtful and rigorous in upholding the traditions and intents of parliament and should be icons to younger MPs such as yourself. Unfortunately, they have been stigmatized by your sorry party, something for which your party should be ashamed.
There is so much more to come in the next few days. Today however, we hear that overnight Mr Johnson has behaved like a petulant child and sent an unsigned photocopy of the Benn Letter required by law asking for an extension to Article 50. Not only do we not get honesty from Mr Johnson, we do not get adult behaviour!
The sooner this country gets to a second vote James, the better it will be for all of us. Why can’t you see this?
Could it be your inability to be honest with yourself?
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent.