WITH yet more Brexit-frustrating votes in the House of Lords on Monday it is becoming increasingly clear what the strategy is of these privileged Remoaners. They want to drag out the process of exiting the EU to such an extent that we are so bored and exhausted by the whole matter that we will beg to remain under foreign rule just so we never have to hear another whingeing word about it.
PA Wire
But not only does that fly in the face of the referendum result it also bucks an increasing trend among democratically minded Remain voters outside the Westminster bubble to accept the result and just get on with securing the best deal for the UK.
That is where the latest decision of the Lords approaches treachery. By tying the hands of the Government to ensure that MPs must insist on a deal with the EU – however bad it is for us - they are undermining the most basic and effective of negotiating tactics, which is to be able to walk away from the table.
The fear of crashing out of the EU without a deal may not be a preferred option but the fact that Theresa May and her ministers could take us to that brink certainly sharpens the common sense on both sides.
But now thanks to the Lords’ latest vote they have run up the flag of national surrender before we've even got to the crunch decisions. Michel Barnier and his Brussels negotiators must be laughing themselves silly. Never has a nation made itself so vulnerable to domination by a foreign power.
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Can you imagine a proper businessman such as Donald Trump, the US President, approaching a deal like this? He made the global liberal elite quake with his threats of nuclear strikes on North Korea.
That's not the way to do diplomacy, they bleated. But here we are weeks later with talks of peace and most importantly a more compliant China worrying about upcoming trade sanctions.
The rest of the world admires strong leaders but here in the UK a small but influential elite does everything it can to undermine our leader as she seeks to deliver an effective Brexit.
Of course this treachery is presented to us as something supposedly honourable, as supporting the very process of democracy by insisting on the rights of Parliament to settle the negotiation. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn argues: “The principle has to be that Parliament must be sovereign on this matter and must make the final decision.”
No, no, no! That boat sailed long ago when Parliament decided by a substantial majority to give the final say on this matter to the British people in a referendum. We did not vote to have our decision overturned or watered down by an unelected body of peers out of touch with contemporary politics.
Because let us remind ourselves who is actually sitting in the Lords. Out of a total of 757 peers the openly pro-EU Lib Dems have 98 peers. Recent polls have the Lib Dems on seven per cent and they have just eight MPs out of 650 in the House of Commons, that is 1.2 per cent, but in the Lords they rocket up to 13 per cent.
It’s as if the general election of 2015 never happened.
Add to that 189 Labour peers and a substantial number of pro-EU Tories, including the usual trouble-making suspects such as Lord Heseltine, and you get an overwhelming majority that can endlessly undermine Brexit legislation. This violates the unwritten convention that legislation already scrutinised and approved by the elected body in the House of Commons should not be rejected.
This is the result of Tony Blair's reform of the Lords in 1999 with New Labour proceeding to stuff it full of Labour peers and then David Cameron allowing his Lib Dem coalition partners to inflate it with their peers too, thus distorting the political make-up of the Lords for years to come.
If not being abolished as a result of their undemocratic approach to Brexit, the Lords should certainly be forced to rebalance its number of party political peers every five years.
Not only did the Lords damage the ability of the PM to strike a fair deal for the UK on Monday but they also passed an amendment requiring ministers to get approval from a majority of MPs for their aims in our future relationship with the EU. All this designed to drag out our already overlong exit.
Finally, in a further slap in the face to Brexiteers, they voted to add an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill ensuring families of asylum seekers have the right to join them after Brexit.
