Finally we know that Parliament is to be prorogued with a new Queen’s speech under our new Prime Minister to be held on Oct 14th. This should surprise no one. Not only is it normal practice for a new Premier to set out a new Parliamentary programme but this current session has been the longest since the English Civil War. The reaction from the hard core Remainers will be predictable and voluble despite the fact that the timetable is only a few days different from that already proposed to make room for the party conferences. Expect lots of hyperbole about a democratic crisis from the usual suspects. They been in denial about the referendum result from the start. Rather than admitting defeat they have retreated into the ultimate echo chamber of self justification, egged on by the metropolitan liberal elite, their media allies and the chatterati.
Their recent talk about a government of national unity registered on the pathological scale of political self-delusion. In their parallel universe it does not seem odd to imagine a so-called unity government that is specifically designed to exclude representatives of the majority who won the referendum. It does not strike them as perverse because they see Leave voters as being on the wrong side of the EU debate and therefore worthy of exclusion. The also seek to exclude the Conservatives who won the last general election and are by far the biggest party in the House of Commons. To the rest of us of course, it is not a government of national unity, it is a partisan packet of anti-democratic resistance.
None of this should come as a surprise to us for their stunning hypocrisy, opportunism and sheer undemocratic bias has been visible for the past three years. While some of them persist with their rhetoric about “wanting the right deal”, in reality they will never agree to any deal as their real aim is to try and thwart Brexit itself. Jeremy Corbyn may be no fan of the European Union, and many suspect he may have voted Leave In the referendum itself, but the current debate allows him to unleash his inner sixth form Marxism and castigate capitalism, the corporate world and the United States with total abandon as some of his more ridiculous statements this week made clear. There is nothing that an old Lefty loves better than being able to hate America in public.
Labour have always tried to be Remainers in the south and Leavers in the north. In throwing in their lot with the southern metropolitans, they run the risk of permanently alienating many of those who have been their most loyal supporters. Their new friends just cannot accept that voters, like me, were stupid enough and audacious enough to disregard their advice on something as important as membership of the European Union, for them an article of faith.
Boris Johnson was right this week at the G7 to remind all parliamentarians that it is their duty to deliver Brexit, as they promised they would do when the referendum was called and when they were returned at the last election. Brexit is not a useful political tool for the ballot box, it is a contract with voters that must be honoured afterwards. There is still time to do so with an amended deal.
Like many MPs, particularly Conservative MPs, my postbag is currently full of letters that generally begin “I want to express my concern about the government’s willingness to implement a no deal Brexit” before going on to set out a range of difficulties that might be encountered. I reply to them that I voted to leave the European Union with a deal on three occasions in the House of Commons alongside 90% of the Conservative Parliamentary party, including, in the last vote, the current prime minister. I believe that leaving the EU with a fair deal which involves an element of compromise and adjustment makes sense. After 46 years of complex economic, political and legal integration it is only to be expected that some time will be needed to disentangle efficiently.
I hope that Boris Johnson is able to achieve this, even at this late hour, and that we can persuade Parliament that this is the best way forward for all concerned. But let us be crystal clear. If the alternative to a no deal Brexit is an attempt to undermine the result of a democratic referendum and have no Brexit at all, then a no deal it will have to be. I cannot countenance any attempt to block the referendum result for to do so would be a historic betrayal. I have advised my correspondents that there is no point writing to those of us who have already voted for a deal. It makes much more sense to write to the leaders and MPs of the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP who have consistently voted against leaving with a deal, thus making leaving without one more likely. The prorogation of parliament will make it more difficult to block Brexit itself but they will be the ones who are culpable for any disruptions resulting from their antidemocratic tendencies.
Some of us voted for Theresa May’s deal with a large number of reservations and a heavy heart but believed that in doing so it served the national interest, however imperfectly. We will not stand by and let the humbug and cant of the hard-core Remainers detract from their own responsibility if, as they themselves describe it, we end up in a “hard Brexit” with unwanted economic impacts. Choices have consequences even in the parallel Remainers universe.”