Caroline tooted her trumpet as the sisters tutted
NOT exactly a day of veinflushing oratory about Britain’s looming independence. Instead we had hours of dusty debate about statutory instruments, the Procedure Committee, the ‘proper triage-ing’ of Bills, ‘Henry VIII powers’ and secondary legislation arrangements.
‘Is he conscious,’ Tory backbencher Sir Oliver Letwin asked Chris Bryant, ‘ of schedule seven and in particular part two and in particular paragraph six, subsection G…?’ Mr Bryant said he knew the passage intimately. The bluffer!
The continuation of the Great Repeal Bill debate – which will see many European rules glurped into British law temporarily, to avoid too jolting a change in the Law – was for purists.
As MPs fluffed out their tails, you could imagine petite, porcelain cups held at fascinated angles by powdered Regency dames, licking chocolate powder from their lips in dry-mouthed perturbation. Brexit? Accept the will of hoi polloi? Eek. My dears, what a frightful prospect!
A few Remainers/Reversers, such as David Lammy (Lab, Tottenham), were at least open in their revulsion at last year’s democratic result. Mr Lammy predicted that our economy would go down the khazi. He said independent British trade deals were ‘an aberration’. ‘How can we be about to leave?’ he wailed after asserting that Brussels was quite right to demand billions of pounds from us in a divorce payment. The EU will be delighted with him.
Brexit had created ‘nastiness’, continued Mr Lammy, before demonstrating just that by picking a fight with one of his fellow anti- Brexiteers, Anna Soubry ( Con, Broxtowe). It was like seeing members of a netball team starting slapping one another.
Again, there was no sign of the Lib Dems’ leader, Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) as the debate began. Is Vince okay? Perhaps he was taking 40 winks before his party conference next week.
The day began with unscintillating Maria Miller (Con, Basingstoke), fretting that Equalities laws might be diluted by Brexit. Mrs Miller was once a Cabinet minister and yet found it necessary to speak off a typed text. The rhetorical ineptitude of some of our politicians is staggering.
Bernard Jenkin (Con, Harwich & N Essex), pro-Brexit, was pleased by Tony Abstaining: Caroline Flint yesterday Blair’s recent interventions – because they had surely harmed the Remain side. ‘We might well leave without a comprehensive settlement with the EU,’ said Mr Jenkin. He wanted Whitehall to prepare for that.
Frank Field (Lab, Birkenhead) said the Government should set a firm date for our leaving. He intended to support the Bill. We all thought Caroline Flint (Lab, Don Valley) would do the same, particularly when we heard her denounce metropolitan intellectuals in her party who wanted to stop Brexit.
But after tooting her trumpet and enduring tuts and heckles from the Labour sisterhood, Miss Flint said – oh – that she was only going to abstain in the vote. Mr Field, behind her, gave a dismissive snort.
Sir Edward Leigh (Con, Gainsborough) did his usual thing of being bloody-minded to those in power. It does not really matter who or what the regime is. Sir Edward will always be bolshy. Unless it is the Kremlin, perhaps.
ZACGoldsmith (Con, Richmond Park) said Brexit would allow us to pass better laws on the environment and some of our cash would no longer be given to bull-fighting. David TC Davies (Con, Monmouth) noted that last time there was a close referendum, on Welsh devolution, the BBC did not send teams out into the streets to hunt for dissenters. Conor Burns (Con, Bournemouth W) said he’d never heard Labour’s Remainers complain about legislative dumping during all the years the EU forced its laws on us without parliamentary debate. Robert Syms (Con, Poole) said the lawyers would have a field day if the Bill was not passed.
Talking of which, I saw a little knot of lawyerly Tory wets: la Soubry, Alberto Costa (S Leics), Cheryl Gillan (Amersham) and a twitchy Capt Mainwaring figure called Bob Neill (Bromley & Chislehurst). In their midst, like some Turkish sultan, sat Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield), issuing decrees, silkenly stirring.