In his latest and most outrageous Remainer antic, Mr. “Bollocks to Brexit” Speaker John Bercow decided to defy parliamentary procedure, precedence, and his own clerks’ advice to approve arch-Remainer Dominic Grieve’s anti-Brexit amendment. This amendment was approved without debate. To read a good analysis of the outrageous and damaging nature and consequences of the biased Speaker’s decision, I recommend Mark Wallace‘s piece in Conservative Home.
Unfortunately, the approving without debate of Grieve’s amendment is just the latest in a long list of anti-Brexit and anti-Tory actions taken by the disgraced speaker. Even Anna Soubry (of all people) rightly pointed out that Mr. Bercow is biased against Conservatives but is quick to virtue signal and condemn the slightest offence against Labour MPs. We should likely expect more outrageous and anti-Brexit amendments approved by the Speaker as Brexit day draws closer.
Luckily, as Bercow confirmed to Sir Bill Cash yesterday, none of these wrecking amendments can override a statute. No matter how many silly amendments Bercow and the Commons vote for, the law is that the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019 regardless of whether or not there is a deal. Thus, Grieve’s amendment, requiring the government come up with a Brexit Plan B THREE DAYS after the likely defeat for the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement, can in effect really do nothing more than harass the government and make them engage in pointless work. At this late stage, the choice is between the Prime Minister’s deal with Brussels, No Deal, or both parties breaking their manifesto commitments and defying the referendum result and cancelling Brexit. There is no Plan B that can be negotiated, put in statute, and receive royal assent in 70 days.
The government knows, as does everyone who pays the slightest attention to politics, that Bercow and the MPs voting for the amendment are really trying to stop Brexit. For instance, of all the Tory rebels on the Grieve and Cooper amendments were Remainers. Any amendments tabled by Tory Remainers (let alone the opposition) are more than likely simply wrecking amendments – such as the bizarre and counter-intuitive Amendment 7 approved Monday that tries to hamper the government from making a No-Deal Brexit smooth and orderly. It is time the government fought back.
Because Bercow and the arch-Remainers have contempt for democracy and parliamentary procedure, the government should treat the Speaker and whatever pointless amendments he approves with absolute contempt. They should drag their feet on or ignore wrecking amendments as best they can. To take the Grieve amendment, the government should not waste valuable time and resources trying to come up with some “Plan B” that Parliament is unlikely to agree to anyway. It should instead put no effort into to complying and should treat it as a joke. Here are three possible Plan Bs the government could offer in response to the Grieve amendment:
- Propose to make the UK into a US territory. They could say to arch-Remainers that this would provide access to the world’s biggest economy and single market. This would also have free movement of (American) people and the US would have a Supreme Court and government that could rule over the UK just like how the arch-Remainers like the EU and ECJ ruling over Britain. The £39 billion goes to the US Treasury.
- Propose to make the UK a Chinese colony like Tibet. This should really satisfy the arch-Remainers because it completely gets rid of the pesky democracy thing and is the nirvana of rule by bureaucracy that they seek. And even better – no annoying free press or protesters to insult government officials – they go directly to jail! The “access” to the Chinese single market would be paid for with £39 billion to the Chinese treasury.
- Make the Queen an absolute monarch and just abolish Parliament. This would break the Parliamentary gridlock and provide certainty! Her Majesty would do with the £39 billion as she pleases.
Bercow and the arch-Remainers deserve no respect at this point because they are actively trying to thwart the 2018 EU Withdrawal Act, the 2017 UK General Election results, and most importantly the will of 17.4 million voters. Wrecking amendments and any attempt to delay Article 50 have no point other than to subjugate the UK under the EU. The government must resist the arch-Remainers last ditch guerrilla campaign to keep the UK in the EU and hold their nerve so that the UK leaves on 29 March 2019.
Hehehe – those are some very good ideas for Plan B, Ted. But come on, at least we could join as four States and not territories? To whom should we apply. And can we get our aristocracy’s titles to be grandfathered in?
And then, there is always the ‘Harold Wilson Solution’. I’m sure the Duke of Edinburgh could be persuaded to come out of retirement to put his illustrious uncle’s plan into action…