Vile traders in dreams
FAMILIES around the world whose loved ones are missing will pray they are not among the 38 adults and a teenager found dead in a lorry container in Essex. The Prime Minister was right to tell MPs that “traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice”.
Desperate people long to live in a country such as ours blessed with peace and freedom. Those who exploit their dreams and enslave the vulnerable are monsters.
AT the House of Cowards, it is business as usual this week. Confusion, paralysis and obstinacy still reign at the Commons, where MPs have indulged in yet more delaying tactics over Brexit. Parliament should be a shining beacon for democracy but it has been transformed by a bunch of mediocrities into an arena for obstructing the electorate’s will.
On Tuesday evening, MPs had a golden opportunity finally to resolve the Brexit crisis when they voted on the Prime Minister’s deal with the EU. For a brief moment, the flame of optimism burned as they decided in principle, by a majority of 30, to back his deal.
Having made this apparent breakthrough, the House then dramatically undid its good work by rejecting the timetable for the passage of the Bill, on the spurious grounds that more time is needed for debate, even though the Parliamentary discussion of Brexit has dragged on for more than three years.
As a result of this depressing move, there is little chance that the Government can meet its target of leaving by October 31.
Further stalemate now beckons. The EU seems likely to grant a delay until the end of January 2020, providing yet more scope for anti-Brexiteers to engage in wrecking tactics.
THERE are two potential amendments that could cause real trouble to the Government.The first is to keep Britain in “a permanent and comprehensive customs union”, a step that would crush the dream of genuine British independence from EU rule. The second is to make approval of Boris Johnson’s deal conditional on a second referendum, despite the fact that the outcome of the first in 2016 has not even been implemented yet.
Such cynical manoeuvres are all too typical of the Brexit saga. But what is truly aggravating is the manipulative dishonesty of the saboteurs. They kept telling us that they would not support Britain’s departure without a deal, yet when presented with a workable deal, they refused to approve it.
Even more shameless is their pretence that they want more time to discuss the deal. It is now 1,218 days since the referendum result yet in that time Parliament has done little except posture and pontificate.
With a straight face, Rory Stewart, the Tory rebel, pleaded yesterday for “a little patience”, ignoring the reality that the patience of the British people has been stretched to the point of despair by the antics of his colleagues.
The anti-Brexiteers are not interested in debate.There is no amount of legislative scrutiny that will satisfy them, nor discussion that will change their minds. Behind the excuses, their real aims are to humiliate Boris and overturn Brexit.
Yet all is far from lost in the quest for national freedom. For all their shrill arrogance, the Remainers are on the defensive, while the momentum is with Boris. Against all expectations, he brilliantly negotiated a compromise deal with the EU, then won a majority for it in the Commons. Moreover, he has united the Tory Party behind him. Every single Conservative MP voted for the Second Reading of the Withdrawal Bill on Tuesday, something that would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago.
JUST as surprisingly, he secured the backing of a courageous band of 19 Labour MPs who want to honour the referendum result. They included Jim Fitzpatrick and Caroline Flint, who has pointed out that in her Yorkshire constituency “more than 80 per cent of voters in my mining villages voted leave in 2016”. Another Labour rebel, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, warned the House to “keep people’s trust in our democracy”.
The principled stand of these Labour figures is in stark contrast to the miserable negativity of Ulster’s Democratic Unionists, who have retreated into their embittered “no surrender” mentality as they try to block the deal.
Despite wrapping themselves in the Union Jack, the DUP are hopelessly out of touch with the British people, who want the Government to get on with Brexit. The more that Boris is frustrated in this task by Parliament, the more his stock rises. Much of the electorate sees him as a warrior for British sovereignty against the Remainer-dominated political class, as reflected in the latest opinion poll which put the Tories 13 points ahead of Labour.
If the Commons is unwilling to implement his deal, then a general election must follow. In the absence of a spirit of cooperation at Westminster, that is the only way out of the impasse.
Then voters can pass their verdict on this Zombie Parliament, which has subverted democracy for too long.
‘What is truly aggravating is the dishonesty of the saboteurs’