Wednesday 20 March 2019

The Prime Minister Must be Forced to Resign.

It is now time to for government members and Parliament to remove the Prime Minister. It should be done fast and with a caretaker leader, one that will allow facilitation of votes to find what is consensual in the House of Commons. I say this as a convinced and unapologetic remainer, and all my comments have been directed at how we might stay in the European Union. What was missing in the Prime Minister's statement of bluster against MPs, was no reference to other ways to achieve leaving the European Union.

Why has this come about? Because, in her zig-zagging, last week a long extension was on offer that would allow 'The House' to find its consensus and act on it. What changed was half her cabinet revolted, to threaten resignations if she did go ahead with a long extension. And we had the free vote last week where the government sought approval for an extension beyond March 29th, and where eight cabinet ministers voted against, including the Exiting the EU Secretary who's just spoke in favour, and where 112 Tories only voted with the government and 188 of the 202 against were Tories. Previously the government had a free vote that was amended, and then whipped against its own policy and thus saw four cabinet ministers abstain.

Yet again the Prime Minister with her low value cards is being allowed to keep dealing the pack. We thought the Speaker had stopped this, but then it can be a vote attached to a delay if passed. So there will be another. And she will likely position the vote inches from the cliff edge.

So all the swivel-eyed enthusiasts for the cliff edge, who were under pressure last week to support her deal or risk no exit, are now getting out the champagne. They have no incentive to vote for it. The DUP don't care, so long as Great Britain is not perceived to be different from Northern Ireland. They were under pressure last week, but they are no longer under pressure. So the vote will go down again.

The blockage is not MPs, but the Prime Minister. She has played this as a Tory Party problem, and yet her delay went through by opposition votes: a majority of Tories voted against. So why not extend that practical possibility.

Corbyn, who seemed to find higher ground last week, who might speak with other parties to produce a consensus, has reverted to type with his sectarian battle with The Independent Group. But the other opposition leaders who saw Theresa May offered her her deal if it is also put to the public. But she is uninterested. She seems not to recognise that she did not win the election in the sense that she could set the agenda, and yet she has gone on and on doing it.

Let's be clear. She won't revoke, she won't delay so that we get a chance for representation in the European Parliament, she won't do anything other than this deal that is all based on her own view about what constitutes leaving the European Union. So she won't have the alternatives of out either. This is reckless behaviour on her part, and is enough on its own that she should be gone.

The Cabinet coup that began a fortnight ago needs to be completed. We need a caretaker Prime Minister who will stop the crisis. It can only come from within the Cabinet, and it must include the Chancellor who seems unwilling to do what is necessary.

This is like the descent into the First World War. Nobody but a few mad generals want it, but no one seems able to stop it. But the revoke mechanism is there, and so are alternatives and so is (still) the delay to enact alternatives. It is not quite binary. But the bunker mentality is overwhelming.

Perhaps I should not refer to Adolf Hitler, but the film Downfall was shown the other day. What it showed was a leader who never budged, and was deluded about the state of the conflict, and he would rather his country was destroyed than he got out of the way. In the end, he shot and poisoned himself.

If the Prime Minister takes us over the cliff edge, she will be gone anyway. If there is a long delay, it is the opportunity to get her out and try different approaches. (The EU will give a delay based on the actual strategy - the question Donald Tusk faced today was a narrow one.) If the deal was voted through, she'd have done it and would go. So she should go NOW before she does this country real harm.

No comments: