It was a triumph. Triumph of mediocrity. After two years of painstaking negotiations May returned with a deal that was roundly denounced by both Brexiteers and Remainers. What did they expect? For someone whose primary focus is on style (think leopard shoes, leather trousers, Frida watch) and not substance, this outcome was hardly surprising. She May be the worst PM of all time and does not mind it one bit. All those fools that praise her resilience and bravery are misguided. It is not her stoicism or bravery, it is her pure shamelessness. There is no other word for it, whichever way one spins it. She lost support of most of her colleagues but they go on terrified of Corbyn government. Prepared to tolerate embarrassment in order to preserve themselves. What a sad state of affairs! I only wish JRM the best of luck. We may disagree on many issues but he believes in this country and understands UK’s strong fundamentals. Here, we are in accord. We need competent opposition.
Where did it all go wrong? There were two moments in time that compromised, or severely damaged, clean Brexit process. Gove’s spectacular betrayal of BoJo and surprising pull out of Andrea Leadsom, who I thought was a shining star and best performer during the Brexit debate. I still remember the shocked demeanour of Ian Duncan Smith when he heard the news. Andrea, oh Andrea! The members would have voted for you. With Leadsom at the helm”No deal is better than a bad deal” would have meant exactly that. EU, being very interested in a deal, would have negotiated in good faith, having realised that brinkmanship won’t work with Brexiteer in charge. Behind closed doors, of course. It didn’t happen and we got Submarine May instead. I could hear champagne corks going off in Brussels. Not a death match after all, but a leisurely safari. Pheeeewww. Noone could blame Juncker for having one too many on that occasion…
Indeed, why would EU give UK a good deal when they would like to punish UK and to prevent others from leaving? One thing must be absolutely clear, this is a position of weakness. Position of damage limitation. If there is no deal on the table, the deal suiting EU far more than UK in financial terms, then so be it. Those of indomitable disposition state exactly that. The transitional effect would be short-term at best. German and French papers write about thousands of EU jobs at risk but we do not like to talk about it here. They are all united there, right? Not really, far from it, in fact. What is unity when essentially two states decided EU policy? As Robert Skidelsky wrote in one his recent articles – there is no theorem for what will happen and we need to look at fundamentals. Chief Economist of the biggest German bank DB concurs:
“The UK will do just as well or better… the UK economy has it in its genes to do well, to be innovative, it doesn’t have this bureaucratic construct that the Europeans struggle with and it’s got flexible exchange rates!”
Why is our establishment so hellbent on putting this great country down? Because in the era of individualism and neoliberalism, they have risen above the nation state… Globalisation – death of nation states and the ascent of rootless wealth.
Bottom line:
Theresa May is shameless enough to plough on and she will. There is clearly no support for her white flag deal in UK Parliament. She is sure to lose the vote on the Withdrawal Deal. I dread to think what will happen if it does. Surely, losing the vote will trigger the avalanche of letters to Mr Brady. She might not lose, like Thatcher, but will all those wounds she must be running out of blood and shame. I predict that she will not survive the winter. Cons will put new leader in charge and the election won’t be called until 2022.
Things could have been so different but for another twist in this saga.