SO, HOW’S IT ALL GOING IN DOWNING STREET WITH BREXIT AND ALL THAT?

According to Reuters, there are moves at the top of the Conservative Party to depose May and replace her with Hammond. Davis would be deputy prime minister.

“I think Philip is the only plausible candidate for a couple of years, with DD (David Davis) running Brexit,” the paper (The Sunday Times) quoted a serving minister as saying.

“He is a more credible caretaker than the current prime minister. The PM’s brand is so damaged it is painful. The calculation that people are beginning to make is that she is so inadequate we can’t wait two years with her in place.”

A former cabinet colleague was quoted by the paper as saying that Hammond believed he could do the job. Not all cabinet members were in agreement, however, with some backing Davis and others favouring Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

A spokesman for May’s Downing Street office declined to comment.

The trouble seems to me to be that Hammond is only “better” because he and Davis may work together a bit more harmoniously to see if we can get a softer Brexit than May was proposing.

Of course, that would be good for some of us, at least. Remaining in the Customs Union and the Single Market is essential for Scotland’s economy. The trouble is that to be a part of these, countries must accept the now famous “four freedoms”.

These are freedom of movement of goods, capital, services, and labour.

And the EU is saying, if you want one, you get them all.

And of course, there is the EUs oversight of the laws that surround all of these freedoms, by (horror)  European courts. And at a cost.

Now, that might be acceptable if they hadn’t run a campaign that vilified everyone who was foreign, and played big, with the help of the comic press, on the “send them home” rhetoric. That campaign ran pretty in tandem with “bring back control of our laws” to English courts, which played well with some people. Well, until the English High Court found against the government at which point, of course, the English courts became the enemies of the people! (Go figure!) The third part of the campaign made it clear that the savings to Brits would be enormous. Remember £350 million a week to the desperately underfunded Health Services? Who could resist that?

If that was the three-pronged attack that the campaign came up with (and won on), it’s a bit hard for it now to say, “erm… well, actually, the foreigners won’t go home; the European courts will still have sway, and we probably won’t save any money”.

Then they’d have to explain that, whilst being in more or less the same situation as before, there won’t be any more EU social or infrastructure grants, farmers will have to rely on the UK government for subsidies and finally, the UK will no longer have any veto on the regulations that it has to obey.

Some might say that Mrs May was right, no deal is worse than a bad deal…

I just wonder how long the Tory Party could hold it together if that were the outcome,  regardless of leadership, if that was what they had to put to the people in 2019.

 

Return of Farage and UKIP, backed by the EDL, DUP, Britain First,  and England’s own Marine Le Penn: Tommy Robinson?

For a more detailed (and knowledgeable) coverage of Brexit, I advise a regular read over at Terry’s blog.