Right-wing Labour back-benchers and FBPE obsessives ended up with huge, rotten egg on their faces on Tuesday when Tory ‘rebels’ singularly failed to do anything remotely resembling actually rebelling.
Theresa May made enough false promises – obviously and unmissably false – to give the so-called rebels cover for not doing anything of the sort. So they didn’t.
The Independent’s Shehab Khan recognised the reality of May’s transparent dodge:
Even the S*n’s Newton-Dunn recognised the reality of May’s supposed ‘compromises’ and had to out their blatant insincerity:
But is was enough for Tory MPs to use it as an excuse not to vote against the government on Labour’s customs union and ‘meaningful vote’ amendments.
Lamentably ‘centrist’ MPs who should have known better fell for the ruse – and ended up looking extremely foolish:
Wiser observers, having anticipated what would happen, saw the Tories’ u-turn for the spinelessness it was:
Philip Lee, the Tory front-bencher who resigned from the front bench ‘so that he could vote against the government’ and then didn’t vote against the government, earned particularly short shrift:
One wag even coined a new term for the practice, named after a particularly skilled practitioner:
But some merely enjoyed the sudden, embarrassed – relative – silence from the ‘FBPE’ obsessives who normally respond to any tweet, on any subject, with a comment blaming Corbyn for Brexit:
As a year of FBPE noise just stops #ToryBrexitShambles pic.twitter.com/NLhkeoCVl5
— Sarah (@ScouseGirlMedia) June 12, 2018
At least one observed, correctly and with humour, that there would still be some who would try to blame Corbyn for Tory ‘rebel’ spinelessness:
Sure enough, it followed – and from quarters who should have known better (and were soon shown better):
And a few still, of course, stuck to what they know – asserting the obviously false as if it wasn’t obviously false, claiming that Corbyn could somehow magically have made a not-enough votes into enough-votes, if only he really wanted to:
On Wednesday, the ‘moderate’ attempt to push through their preferred, completely unworkable amendment for the UK to remain in the EEA (European Economic Area) proceeds – and its failure will inevitably be blamed on Corbyn. Somehow. Anyhow. With the assistance of the Establishment media.
But the narrative has been set. The fact that the amendments for a ‘meaningful vote’ and remaining in a customs union are not on the EU Withdrawal Bill after Tuesday’s votes is entirely down to Theresa May’s blatant dishonesty and the grateful capitulation of the Tory ‘rebels who didn’t rebel’.
And no amount of centrist whining or misrepresentation can change that fact.
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I voted remain but I’m quite ambivalent now.