No.33 - No Troops in Boulogne?

Dear James,

There are no troops gathering in Boulogne, no landing craft on our beeches, no sign of an aerial armada heading for our shores. And yet our country is in its biggest crisis since the Second World War. It is a war without warfare because it is all home made. Yesterday’s cabinet meeting was described as tumultuous with Mrs Leadsom being reduced to tears. Soon after, in parliament, we were subjected to yet more displays of tramline stubbornness masquerading as leadership. And yet yesterday something did change. Both leaders buckled to an emerging reality. Mrs May accepted that she may have to extend Article 50 and Mr Corbyn accepted that he might have to put the vote back to the people. 

The reality is that people in our boardrooms and factories continue to look on with dismay at so much self-inflicted harm being done. Yesterday, amongst all the drama, Mrs May’s own ‘secret’ impact document was prised out of her by Anna Soubry. It shows that in the event of a no-deal, beef, lamb and car imports will be subject to tariffs of 70%, 45% and 10% respectively. It also predicts that our GDP will be between 6.5% and 9% lower within 15 years of Brexit. As Caroline Fairburn, Head of the CBI said this morning, at least yesterday we saw a ‘glimpse of sanity’. Meanwhile jobs and investment are already leaving the UK. In spirit, Japan has already gone. 

Mrs May came back to Britain on Monday with nothing to show for her expedition to the desert. Her various options are fast disappearing like the mirages that they have always been. Yet even now she continues to say that a deal that parliament can live with is ‘within our grasp’. She is truly delusional. 

Having backed Mrs May’s ‘deal’ James, you’ve seen it chop and change, contort and distort and now return threadbare to a likely final defeat in the Commons. Behind your formal adherence to Mrs May, I expect that the ‘real you’ is feeling confused and bewildered.  

It is the false and undeliverable promises of the ERG to the justifiably angry of the north that has lead to this Faustian Pact which is now engulfing us all. Mrs May continues blindly to keep your party together but very soon you will have to choose. So why not let these two unlikely partners, the Southern Toffs and the Northern Boffs, coalesce into the hard right party that their tribe has become. Let them also reap the consequences. The choice that you will eventually have to make James will be between a party lead by the likes of Boris Johnson or a party lead by the fast diminishing tribe of  one nation Tories? Mrs May’s ‘band aid’ efforts are doomed. I’d start choosing your life raft James. 

Let me end with another statistic. Yesterday Facebook cancelled the account of the extreme right fanatic Tommy Robinson. Apparently Mr Robinson was getting 17.5 million clicks on his Facebook page. This compares to Mr Corbyn’s 5 million and Mrs May’s 1.6m. Facebook have realised what is happening to our country and do not wish to be blamed. 

I trust you too will not wish to be blamed for our national fiasco James. Because there is another choice. It is the way of common sense  - the common sense that is determined to stop the damage being done daily to our nation in both economic, social and diplomatic terms – all in the name of resolving the unresolvable Tory Party civil war. And that way begins with putting the vote back to the people.  

Kind regards,  

BH - Your Concerned Constituent