Political control of agenda; what does it entail in Brexit Britain?

Beware the Ides of September!

My fellow Europeans.

I suspect by now that you are feeling jaded and disinterested by the TV soap opera that is the United Kingdom. I can understand your disinterest and the desire to fashion a better life for yourselves, but all I would ask is that you always keep one ear open for those now left behind by the adventure of Brexit.

This has been a tumultuous few weeks in British Politics, which started with the near-election of the Rt Hon Mr Chris Grayling MP, also known as ‘failing grayling’, to the House of Commons Intelligence & Security Committee.

I say near-election, because at the eleventh-hour, a usurper appeared and stole the crown from the would be king, of this important committee. I realise that elections to a House of Commons Committee may not feature widely on the minds of our friends on mainland Europe, but it was a crucial moment in British politics.

The outcry in the days that followed resulted in the winner, being suspended from his membership of the Conservative Party. Why the angst over this relatively small election? Well, the election was important for two reasons, firstly, No 10’s preferred candidate, Mr Grayling, was expected to have been shoe-horned into the job and some have said that it would have been unlikely that he would have allowed the release of the much-vaunted, but delayed, Russia Report. The election of the Rt Hon Dr Julian Charles MP (suspended from the Tory Party) revealed a sudden rush of excitement about the said report’s release.

Indeed, true to expectations, the report was scheduled for release, which had been delayed by Boris Johnson, on the pretext that it was not possible to publish the report ahead of the General Election held in December 2019; this despite the previous Committee and all interested parties stating that it was ready to go in October 2019.

The Russia Report had been eagerly anticipated because it was expected to shed light on the suspected interference in the democratic processes of the United Kingdom, which could or would be read in tandem with the previous revelations over Cambridge Analytica and the Vote Leave Campaign.

As tension built before the release of the report, senior members of government trotted out the mantra’s that Russia did indeed interfere with the December 2019 General Election (the one that they won), citing the evidence that a sensitive report had been leaked and passed over to that well-known threat to National Security, the Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP.  Mr Corbyn was the then leader of HM Opposition, who had aspirations to lead the people of the UK along a different path. Importantly the commentary before release, also centred on the fact that there was no Russian interference in the ill-fated and highly controversial EU Referendum in 2016.

So the report was released and it demonstrated that the 2014 Scottish Referendum had been subject to Russian interference and it repeated the claims about the 2019 General Election.

On the issue of the Brexit-vote, there was nothing!

So a reader of the report could be forgiven for thinking that maybe the Russian State simply lost interest in what was happening in the UK or they they had no strategic interest in the EU-vote.

Not so!

The answer lay in the fact that the Tory government under May and then Johnson, simply didn’t call for the Brexit vote to be examined.

That’s right.

The report investigated all sorts of inter-State calumny, including cash donations made to politicians, but on the most key aspect of claims against Russia, the British State simply decided on the Brexit-vote that, ‘there’s nothing to see here, move on, move on’.

The astonishment of many was met with a robust defence of this failure, with Johnson and others simply carrying over the mantra’s that it was only the ‘Remoaners’ who were upset by this deficit; they were trying to defeat Brexit and in essence overturn a legitimate vote. I promise you, I’m not making this up!

The response of Parliament was lack-lustre, a few robust questions and then it was all over and the media moved on to the real dramas around TV soap operas and days subsequent were spent on whether masks were important in the fight on COVID19.

For several days we were however treated to revelations about how the great and the good of the Tory Party were wined and dined and provided with donations that would make eyes water. The sources of these donations were Russian emigres, now British Citizens, who had once been at the heart of Russian politics, happy to simply spend their money with no apparent benefit flowing from their generosity.

The Tory Party spin machine was by now in full swing, with Andrea Leadsom essentially stating that if donations weren’t made by “British Citizens”, then the taxpayer would have to fund politics!

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis MP, offered that these new “British Citizens” were entitled to make donations to political parties and he accepted that they did so because of their ‘admiration’ of British politicians!

At the same time, virtually all the recommendations made by the Intelligence & Security Committee were rejected by Number 10; the report was now dead in the water; any hope resting with pro-Europeans was now dead.

But whilst all this was happening, several other important developments took place.

The first came during the debate in Parliament about the Trade Bill and how that law should be structured. Opposition MP’s created a comprehensive clause to prevent the National Health Service from being part of the discussions in any further Trade Deal; there was a palpable fear that the NHS would be privatised and sold off to the highest bidder. The government denied that the NHS would be sold off but was not prepared to allow this Clause to be passed and so used its large majority to defeat the Clause, ensuring in my opinion, that the NHS is at risk from foreign health-care companies. Indeed, many of the Doctors I speak with, fully expect the NHS to be privatised and for them not to be employed by the State within a few years.

Another important development also came during the debate on the Trade Bill, with another Clause to prevent the government from making any Trade Deal, without that deal being subject to scrutiny by Members of Parliament. Again, the government used its hefty majority to defeat the Clause, so opening up the prospect that Ministers and Civil Servants will be the only arbiters of any Trade Deal, with Parliament being relegated to a 21 day review period and no vote on any such deal.

Did someone once say that Brexit was about returning sovereignty to the UK Parliament?

Another important decision came in the final day before the UK Parliament’s summer recess.

Johnson announced that responsibility for government data was now going to be transferred to the Cabinet Office for the purpose of using “data science”, to rebuild the structures of government. In the same vein, the US government has by-passed its own government departments and passed the data of millions of Americans to the highly contentious data companies, so that numbers can be crunched on the Coronavirus. The UK through its own dalliance with data and COVID, has provided a similar access to those same data companies, some of whose employees sit at the heart of National life, so much for the future of the General Data Protection Regulation!

Whilst all this sits at the heart of high politic, evidence is clear that the UK government have no intentions of negotiating seriously for a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. 

The EU is shaking its head in disbelief whilst Johnson and his cohort are laying the ground for the blame game ahead. But this is where it get’s interesting. Will Johnson rush headlong over that cliff into a no-deal brexit, or will he lament at the 11th hour and agree to a deal that satisfies no-one or ask for an extension?

If it is the second scenario, then it’s a clever strategy because it will lead a proportion of the public to think; he’s pragmatic, that he’s really thinking about my job or the country and all past sins will be forgiven. If indeed he does take the second option, all he will have to do is manage the ultra’s in his party!

But whilst I ruminate on Johnson, news also broke of the shocking way in which this government intends to deliver long-hours “justice” in the criminal system, requiring its long-suffering representatives to be ever present in the precincts of the courts without the ability to prepare or deliver effective justice. 

Of equal concern is the now changed approach to Judicial Review (the way that government or local councils can be challenged for the decisions they take or do not take). Johnson and his government claim that Judicial Review is another way to play politics, to frustrate the government of the day. Remember, this has come on the back of the Gina Miller Judicial Review in which the Supreme Court held that the government was illegally prorogued thus preventing MP’s from discussing the Withdrawal Bill from the European Union. Are we about to witness a power that begets powerlessness?

It has also become clear that Campaigners are being isolated through words and deeds, reducing their relevance in the National debate; it also seems that some companies have become fearful that if they speak out, particularly on a growing scandal about government tendering processes, they will at some stage be punished.

Then the piece-de-resistance has come with the moral outrage screaming out from UK newspapers, concerned about refugees coming across the the ‘english-channel’ or La Manche, in dinghies. 

Yes, the UK is obsessed with the dinghy boat, and not with the Russia Report, attacks on democratic processes, access to justice or the failure of parliamentary sovereignty. 

The humble dinghy has led to the delicious irony that the UK government has called for greater assistance from France, to effectively spend their money to secure UK borders. Paris has understandably produced an invoice for the work required! Oh, if only we were still members of the European Union; all that cooperation!

And only today, the new Director-General of the BBC has apparently called for the culling of ‘left-wing’ comedy that criticises other points of view or of government policy.

A chill wind has descended indeed.

They say to the victor comes the spoils, but I would say to my fellow Europeans, exhausted perhaps by your own apathy to the UK’s plight, that it is drowned out by those in the UK, who either do not fully comprehend what is being done in their name, or perhaps no longer care. 

There is however, I believe, a realisation amongst a growing number of people in the UK, that no good will come from those in power and from the actions they seek to bestow upon the British people. I suspect this new dawning realisation, will present a greater truth; that the lives they once had, that the freedoms they once took for granted are all being blown away by the chill winds of a raw, confident, unfettered, ambitious power.

Welcome to chimera Britain! 

(This is the script of the CreatingRipples™ Podcast - Letter from Brexitland III: A chill has descended. You can listen to Frank's Podcast here. Please note that all content is the copyright of Frank Brehany © 2020)