The Tories’ utter ineptitude over Brexit has been beyond reasonable doubt for some time. David Davis’ forced cheerfulness and claims of positive talks have been shot down every time EU negotiator Michel Barnier opens his mouth to describe the complete lack of progress made, sixteen months after the referendum and with over a quarter of the time to Britain’s exit from the EU elapsed.
So dire has been the Tories’ complete lack of competence that they’ve been forced to start seriously propagandising about the likelihood of a ‘no-deal Brexit’ to try to prepare the public’s mind for accepting what will represent an absolute failure on the part of a government that only a few months ago was campaigning for re-election on the basis of Theresa May being the best person to negotiate Brexit.
A no-deal Brexit is the worst possible deal for British people – and the government desperately needs to obscure that fact.
A major spanner in the already-mangled works of the Tories’ haplessness appeared last weekend, in the form of Labour’s announcement that the party will not accept a no-deal Brexit and will vote against one if it is proposed.
So the Tories have launched what journalist Michael Holehouse has termed the ‘weaponisation’ of the no-deal concept – with a CCHQ-driven letter sent by Tory MPs to Jeremy Corbyn:
You don’t have to read too deeply between the lines to see the panic that prompted the creation of this letter – Labour’s firm stance represents a serious threat to the Tories’ attempts to obscure their complete lack of a clue. So the Tories are getting their excuses in early and could scarcely be more transparent about it.
The idea that the UK threatening to jump off a cliff is ‘leverage’ over the EU is laughable – and the idea of using the lives of EU and UK people as bargaining chips to cover their own ineptness is contemptible. The Tories are both ridiculous and despicable.
And so desperate that they’ll try anything at all to divert attention from it.
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I’m afraid on this one issue these Tories are correct; Corbyn has been bounced into this stupid policy by Starmer & the PLP hard-right/Blairites (which is possibly the majority of them). It’s only the Tories’ absolute internal chaos that is giving Labour a honeymoon right now: if leave-supporting Labour voters defect somewhere down the line, then the party is in trouble.
I’d rather (The legally qualified) Starmer/Thornberry/Gardiner negotiating and developing Brexit (regardless of their L/R leanings) than the lazy, unqualified triumvirate we have now.
Oh, and wasn’t Corbyn castigated for his views on the EU, and (alleged) lack of support for ‘remain’? Wasn’t he a ‘Closet Brexiteer’?
Reckon he’s gonna ‘jump ship’ then? Those – especially on the right of the party – who want to go, CAN go, for all I care. Let them use brexit as an excuse. A lot of them irrelevances are on borrowed time anyway, like the tories.
A proportion of those resigning from the Labour Party in recent weeks are citing Corbyns “Brexit supporting” policy. They happen to also be the RW older members who did well through the Blair and Miliband years, and the resignations (or threats to resign) have come in a cluster.
Hmmmm.. .. ..
Tories…
They’d even balls up ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ :/
Let’s get it right, Britain voted to leave, now were moaning because the E.U won’t let us leave on our own terms which would allow us to keep all the benefits without paying the membership fee
TORIES AND VOTERS OF LEAVE ARE CONSTANTLY BEMOANING THE FACTS!
EXAMPLE, THE UK, VOTED TO LEAVE, WE, HAVE TO STICK TO THE RULES, WE, DON’T HAVE A NEGOTIATING TEAM THAT’S FIT FOR PURPOSE!
THE LETTER, TO JEREMY, PROVES IT ALL, THE TORIES HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE!
THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PS, AS FOLLOWS.
PLEASE, PLEASE MR CORBYN HELP US, WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE RULES OF LEAVING THIS PRESTIGIOUS CLUB!
WITH A MEMBERSHIP OF OVER FIVE HUNDRED MILLION!!
SINCE THE VOTE THE POUNDS CRASHED INTEREST IS RISING COMMODITIES ARE COSTING MORE WHICH AS THE EFFECT OF THE POOR GETTING POORER!
I DO HOPE YOU TAKE THIS AS A GIVEN, WE ARE READY AND WAITING FOR YOU AND YOUR PARTY TO HELP US AND TELL US WHAT WE NEED TO DO?
MY ANSWER IS, “STAND ASIDE BEFORE YOU DESTROY THE VERY FABRIC OF OUR COUNTRY”!
Anyone with any sense knows that Brexit is and will be a disaster for the UK. It was foisted on us by the far right of the Tory Party to placate the ‘bastards’ who have dogged them for ever and has resulted in the worst case of constitutional vandalism ever.
The so called democratic referendum was nothing of the sort, the public were conditioned for years, a la Pavlov, by the right wing press feeding them anti-EU stories, topped up by little Englander Farrage and his bunch of imbeciles being given an inordinate amount of screen time by the BBC and others to promote their racism, without once fully explaining to the public, in an in depth series of programmes, the workings of the EU.
Every time it was put to the Brexiters that we would lose trade from the EU they said we would make it up from the rest of the world. The best we could hope to do would be to break even and even that would take years. Trade deals aren’t easy, after lengthy negotiations, Switzerland signed a trade deal with China and had to give China immediate free access to Swiss markets but Switzerland doesn’t get full access to Chinese markets for 15 years!
This is what the CBI said about trade: http://www.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/brexit-and-eu-negotiations/eu-business-facts/10-facts-about-eu-trade-deals-pdf/
This Brexit madness has to stop, we are wasting years just to set the UK back and destroy one of the most co-operative and mutually beneficial arrangements the UK has ever had. Labour, when we get into power, if nothing has changed, must either offer a new referendum after fully explaining the pros and cons or, which is most preferable, ditch the whole sorry mess and resume our membership.
gross naievity LONG TERM POLICY OF TORY PARTY No RESTRICTIVE TO THEM ;LEGISLATION they have already begun to instruct civil servants under pain of dismissal not to adopt new legislation to destroy all records to keep new records for one year only
new legislation only if three are first scrappped hence granville
“If the negotiations have taught us one thing so far, it is that the EU have played hardball with issues that affect people’s lives, and we must use all our leverage to protect the national interest.”
How about the issues that THE TORIES have forced on the British people that have affected their lives to the point of losing their homes, and even their lives? PIP, Universal Credit, ASOS, removing mobility cars from people who desperately need them, removing benefits from disabled and seriously ill people, even from people with terminal illnesses, the bedroom tax, zero hours contracts, food banks, raiding the NHS and selling it piece by piece to their millionaire cronies. The list is endless. And for the last 17 years, the only “interest” the Tories have protected is their own. I am totally gobsmacked at their audacity in writing this letter.