Backing into the limelight again …
Today I’m breaking my vow of silence upon the subject of Brexit, moved to do so by pieces I have spotted overnight on newspaper websites.
So far as I can tell nobody is disputing that the Government’s conduct of the UK’s ‘leaving the EU’ negotiations gives every impression of being worked out on the back of a fag packet by some not very intelligent people from about 0800 hours every morning, buffeted by the ongoing shenanigans developing at all points east and west on a daily basis – not least the disarray rife within Tory and Labour ranks at all levels.
And please don’t get me started upon the superannuated, overfed pompous know-it-alls in what we on the edge of the Westminster bubble (Feltham branch) call ‘the Other Place’ – or the House of Lords, for the uninitiated.
[Here I have to declare an interest. Regular readers will be aware that I voted for the first time ever in my life by casting my vote in favour of ‘Leave’ in 2016’s UK Referendum.
This was partly because I was conscious, in a ‘bucket list’ sort of a way, that it would be pity if I popped off this mortal coil without ever having voted for something at some point.
However, my main – but not sole – motivation for voting was to ‘take up’ the enticing offer, sorry solemn promise, made by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon that Scotland would leave the UK if the UK ever voted to leave the EU. The chance of getting rid of the moaning, benefit-addicted hordes north of the border was simply too good an opportunity to miss.
I cannot disguise that underlying my thought process was an instinctive – and I would have thought instinctively British – revulsion at the prospect of being consigned forever to the whims and dictatorial pronouncements of a bunch of faceless fat-cat unelected bureaucrats swanning in and out of expensive restaurants in Strasbourg and Brussels without the slightest regard at all for the concept of democratic accountability in any practical sense ever devised by the human race.]
The last point above is aimed as much directly against the British Establishment as it is against its EU equivalent and for similar reasons.
In recent weeks – never mind the prospect (real or imagined) that the Russians have been systematically attempting to undermine Western Democracies wherever they can in order to confuse, weaken and worry their perceived ‘global enemy opposition’ by active use of hacking, promulgating false news and simply doing anything they can to bugger up our quiet enjoyment – we’ve heard news that George Soros, some over-opinionated supremely wealthy Yankee quasi-foreign exchange trader/manipulator with no mandate from anybody, is now involved in pouring vast sums of money into all sort of British ‘anti-Leave’ campaigning organisations in an effort to thwart the UK departing from the EU.
The Duke of Edinburgh once got into a degree of hot water several decades ago for describing the Daily Express as a “bloody awful newspaper”.
Right now The Independent is peddling a number of ‘Project Fear’ stories on its website. Some like me might think it would be an advance for civilisation if everyone who has being funded by anyone and/or have any personal interests in a matter were forced to declare this in red bold type over anything they said or wrote in public.
Here are just a sample from its webpages today for the delectation of Rust readers today:
Joe Watts, political editor, ‘bigs up’ a letter from some Labour MPs – THE INDEPENDENT
Joe Stone, Europe correspondent, on the issue of whether the UK is in any state of readiness for a ‘No deal’ Brexit – THE INDEPENDENT
Original founder of The Independent, Andreas Whittam-Smith, on the case for a second EU Referendum – THE INDEPENDENT
Joe Watts, political editor, (again) covers the news that a pro-Brexit think-tank is insisting that the UK stays in the single market – THE INDEPENDENT
Matta Busby ‘bigs up’ the views of David Miliband – THE INDEPENDENT
A list of London MPs have, of course, written a letter to – THE INDEPENDENT
