- 9 Sep 2019,
- Updated: 9 Sep 2019,
Yes, passions run high on both sides. But the Prime Minister is not smashing democracy, as barmy critics claim.
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Such character assassination would be laughable if it were not so corrosive to public life. It reflects not on the PM but on his sneering opponents.
It is ludicrous to hear Boris smeared as a liar by such Marxist plotters and terrorist sympathisers as Jeremy Corbyn or John McDonnell — the man who once said he dreamed of going back in time and killing Margaret Thatcher.
How dare hypocrite Emily Thornberry suggest Boris can’t be trusted when she has been caught out pretending to want a deal while simultaneously campaigning for Remain?
Assisted by scandalously biased Speaker John Bercow, they have hijacked Parliament and turned it into an ugly and dangerous juggernaut against the British people.
They, not Boris, are to blame for the cataclysmic collapse in voters’ trust in British politics. Even now he is trusted more to look after the NHS than Corbyn.
As for Tory rebels such as Phil Hammond, this is personal. They resent Boris’s effortless popularity and tried to sabotage his Premiership.
'EVERYONE WANTS IT OVER'
They overplayed their hand. The latest threat to drag the PM into court unless he seeks yet another Brexit extension is surely a bluff. In handcuffs, he becomes an invincible Brexit Martyr.
Voters are sick of Brexit. Families are divided. Everyone wants it over. Junior minister Jo Johnson blamed “family” stress for his shock resignation last week.
He was talking as much about his Guardian-writer wife, whose Remainer kin seem horrified she is married to a Tory MP, as he was about brother Boris. Seeking a delay will only prolong this agony.
And from past experience we know what to expect. A recent BBC film, Brexit: Behind Closed Doors, told how Brussels negotiators led Theresa May up the garden path with BRINO — Brexit In Name Only.
“We got rid of them,” chortles one EU official. “We kicked them out. We finally turned them into a colony. And that was our plan from the first moment.”
It wasn’t just THEIR plan. Tony Blair and Labour’s Keir Starmer openly consorted with the other side, encouraging Brussels to play hardball, pointing out UK divisions.
Hammond allegedly took legal advice from Brussels. Boris is an affable guy who generates affection. The Left is desperate to make him a hate figure.
RUNNING SORE
Their campaign turned to farce last week when Labour peacock Tan Dhesi — in a turban of deepest red — made a demented attempt to cast Boris as racist.
Speaker Bercow preened like a proud father as Labour MPs stood and clapped this outrageous libel.
No serious observer thinks Boris is racist. The torrent of abuse has had its effect. Boris lost his bounce.
He needs to recover the self-confidence which made his first few weeks as PM so refreshing.
The polls are on his side. Voters see Corbyn and McDonnell for what they are — a potent threat to this country’s stability and prosperity. Meanwhile, Brussels eurocrats are fed up that we’re a spanner in their works.
As a half-in, half-out member, we can throw proceedings into chaos, simply by doing nothing.
The EU risks more from No Deal than we do. And they have other fish to fry. A global economic crash risks destroying the euro.
Major damage to his rep
JOHN MAJOR is trashing his reputation by fighting Brexit, at considerable expense, in the courts.
Yet it was his signature on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 which led to this final breach with Brussels.
Euro-fan and columnist Max Hastings writes in the Financial Times: “I spent more than a few hours meeting John Major with Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, a close friend.
They were at pains to persuade me that our European partners had no intention of pursuing political integration. Far from lying, I am sure they believed this themselves.”
More fools them. We could have told them the truth – and indeed this newspaper repeatedly did.
