Chaos looms with Johnson prepared to sacrifice all at the altar of Brexit

THE surge in Covid cases and the increasing likelihood of another national lock- down has, very understandably, been dominating conversation and headlines. Covid-19’s Irish second wave is the topic everyone is talking about but, in the background, another existential threat to our nation is growing.

In recent days Boris Johnson and his cheerleaders have dialled up the rhetoric in their battle with the EU and a ‘No Deal’ Brexit now looks almost certain.

Johnson has already torn up the agreement he signed just a year ago and the British parliament has supported the Prime Minister’s bill to breach the withdrawal deal voting in favour its second reading in Westminster by a resounding margin.

With parliamentary backing to break international law, Johnson and his Brexiteer comrades-in-arms look determined to force through their vision of Brexit, no matter the cost.

Be it the peace in Northern Ireland; the survival of the UK or the health and economic well-being of their own people, Boris Johnson’s reckless cabinet are willing to risk it all.

In fact, not only are they willing to do it, they seem to be taking some perverse pleasure in the disaster they are actively working to bring about.

Last week Boris Johnson warned that unless there was ‘a fundamental change of approach’ from the EU, the UK would leave the EU without a deal.

A few hours later – when the EU leadership had refused to kowtow to Johnson’s posturing – Johnson’s team doubled down, dispatching a Government spokesperson to issue a sterner warning to Europe.

This unidentified functionary told a lobby meeting in Downing Street that unless the EU is willing to compromise there is no point in EU negotiator Michel Barnier coming to London this week.

He went on to accuse the EU of ‘effectively ending’ the talks and followed the now well practiced Downing Street tactic of attempting to cast the EU as the villains of the peace.

The EU were having none of it. Having been asked to ‘compromise’ and ‘change their approach’ to allow the UK break international law, they refused to concede any ground and seemed to take the view that Johnson was posturing.

Whether or not Boris Johnson was simply playing to a domestic audience with his threats to walk away from the talks remains to be seen but the negotiations have reached a perilous point.

Neither side want to concede ground and EU leaders are rightly incensed at the UK’s attempt to break the law to engineer a more favourable deal.

For Johnson and his Brexiteer cronies, a ‘no deal’ Brexit with an uncompromising EU would suit their own political agenda, with Downing Street able to blame their people’s post-Brexit misfortunes on the evil bureaucrats in Brussels.

There’s a famous paradox that wonders what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Politically