Wish of the people must prevail
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s advice to Theresa May, while barbed at the end, singles out her dutifulness as her greatest virtue. All the more so with a cabinet that has forgotten Lord Melbourne’s definition of collective responsibility which requires a cabinet to sing from the same hymn sheet.
Rees-Mogg reminds her of her statements at the commencement of her primacy that Brexit meant Brexit.
He reminds her that the UK has irrevocably set a new course where the nation will reclaim its sovereignty, and the idea of paying £39bn (€44bn) on its departure, if there was no guarantee of a trade agreement, or entering into “the purgator y of a perpetual transition” would be foolish.
On the question of the Border he states there is a need to call the Irish bluf f, as any solution which would split the UK is outrageous.
The speech of Enoch Powell to the people of Omagh in September 197 1 comes to mind, as he told them they should harbour no doubts about their British identit y.
His example was from Greek histor y as Pericles taught the Athenians “a nation is not ships nor walls, but people”.
With Rees-Mogg’s barb at the end of his statement, he reminds her of what happened to Robert Peel when he departed from the wish of the English people and his party.
The act then was the repeal of the Corn Laws, which lef t the Tor y party out of of fice for 28 years.
The famine was in Ireland and also in Scotland.
The landlords in Scotland brought in shiploads of grain and anchored the ships in the Fir th of Forth.
The leader of the Scottish landlords was the Matheson family, wealthy bankers in Hong Kong.
Despite ef for ts by Peel to get the Irish landlords to help their tenants, they failed.
In despair, Peel, together with his evangelical home secretar y James Graham, repealed the Corn Laws.
He passed the act repealing the Corn Laws, and further forbidding the export of grain from Ireland to England, which never stopped despite the famine.
The result? He was forced to resign and the Tories were in the wilderness for 28 years.
Hugh Duffy Cleggan, Co Galway