Here’s another fine mess …

There’s little doubt that the overwhelming majority of the UK electorate is heartily sick of the subject of Brexit which has been dominating the thoughts and schemes of our political establishment – like no other issue – ever since the morning of 24^th June 2016 (date upon which most of us woke up to learn the result of EU Referendum).

I know I am.

Yesterday I happened to catch a ten minute passage of BBC2’s Politics Live – the Corporation’s not-very-different reboot of its previous ‘interviews & comments from Westminster’ Daily Politics show hosted by either Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn – in which, upon a panel of five hosted by Neil, arch Tory right-winger Jacob Rees-Mogg, once famously described as ‘the MP for the 18^th Century’, and the noxious Alastair Campbell, former press man and cheerleader for Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown (he of the famous Iraq War ‘dodgy dossier’ and greatly-discredited attack upon the BBC over its investigation into David Kelly’s death) during the Labour Government years sat uncomfortably side by side.

I was a long-time fan of Daily Politics and its Sunday equivalent (with a typical BBC touch of creativity called Sunday Politics) because they shone a window upon the incestuous shallowness of our political class and the academics, lobbyists and policy wonks who love to pontificate upon what is going on in the country. I just know I’m going to be similarly keen upon their new incarnations for the same reason.

In many respects the Corporation, without intending to, is doing a great service to the nation by the simple expedient of letting the lunatics condemn themselves out of their own mouths.

Here I shall leave my Rust readers to reflect upon the observation that the new versions, which inadvertently go a stage further – if one was actually needed – to alienate the British public from the political class by ensuring that every day PC/diversity is incongruously added to the mix via the expedient of including more women and more ethnic varieties on their panels than previously was the case.

My point is that when the UK electorate is systematically being taken for a bunch of fools – is it mushrooms (cue the tired ‘joke’ about being kept in the dark and regularly covering in excrement)? – there’s nothing more enjoyable (sorry, I should have written ‘edifying’) than beholding those lording it over us digging their own collective grave by simply being themselves. Talk about an absence of self-awareness – these daily BBC shows devoted to letting the public see the political class as they really are constitute some of the most subversive programmes ever broadcast.

And should be treasured for it.

This morning I awoke to see a swathe of media reports upon the Prime Minister’s alleged humiliation at the hands of EU leaders at the ‘informal summit’ in Salzberg.

Here I do not propose to intrude upon the Tory Party and Mrs May’s grief by seeking to analyse the gory entrails of what went on but instead simply wish to highlight once again the fundamental flaw with the EU project.

It has practically zero to do with taking forward the desires or best interests of the populations of the 28 (or can we now say 27?) countries involved – and practically everything to do with the exercise of power by a cosy elite club comprised of the political establishments of the aforementioned nations, happily (via the EU’s structures and protocols) unfettered by any real accountability or audit despite its lip-service nod to supposed democracy.

I call in evidence a piece on the summit by Jason Groves, political editor, as appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL

Yet again the inconvenience (to all political classes) of having to secure legitimacy for the next few years by being sadly required to consult the electorate is starkly exposed. The EU has a inglorious history of responding to an adverse election or referendum by waiting a while for the dust to settle and then asking any country which has had the temerity to return the ‘wrong’ result to go away, have another vote … presumably theoretically again and again … until it eventually comes back with the ‘right’ one.

Once again, helpfully – in ‘condemning oneself out of one’s own mouth’ style – President Macron of France has also weighed in by branding the UK’s Brexiteer politicians as liars.

There’s nothing more likely to get the UK’s electorate’s back up and reinforce it general cynicism and revulsion at the EU’s inefficiencies and iniquities than having its politicians (irrespective of their political hue or Party) lectured and/or insulted by a jumped up little squirt with a Napoleon complex and a rather French-chic blonde wife old enough to be his mother.

This, of course, is another key inconvenient truth for our generally Remain-leaning Westminster political classes.

As they gingerly try to edge towards finding the right strategy & tactics to thwart our EU Referendum result, e.g. by trying to get across how bad for us to leave behind the warm cosy benefits of being a nation member of the EU for a world of supposed crass uncertainty and outer darkness, along comes yet another arrogant EU luminary who spoils the plan by exhibiting just the sort of condescending attitude that reminds people (with bells on) of not only everything they’ve ever hated about the EU monster but also the unanswerable fact that when you’re a member of it you have little to no ability to affect the way the project is going or – on a day to day basis – what the hell it is doing.

Which inevitably makes the prospect of getting back our independence and ability to make our own decisions infinitely more attractive.

[Like having a UK referendum to decide whether we want to eject Scotland from the Union, for example …]