Careering towards extinction…
Yesterday’s second round of “indicative votes” produced no winner. Party politics, abstentions, defiant whipping and all the rest leaving us, the British public – never mind the rest of the world – in a state of frustrated stupifaction once more.
This morning’s news round brings us extracts from the latest The Times’ (Anthony Lloyd) interview with Shamima Begum who comments that Brexit “goes on and on without end”. TheStickler never expected to find any common ground with Ms. Begum but, as the saying goes, we live in interesting times.
What has brought us to this point? On Question Time last Thursday the panel were asked who was responsible. Yanis Varoufakis, late Greek Finance Minister, nailed it in two words: “Theresa May”. He went on to explain, and in this YouTube video he provides much the same explanation. Finally – someone unafraid to call it as it is/was. We surrendered to the EUrobrats on day one of the negotiations and have been out-manoeuvered ever since. It’s this catastrophic failure of diplomacy that’s really brought us to this point, and perhaps it’s worth considering how this could have happened.
Fans of “Yes Minister!” (and theStickler has to declare himself one such) are all familiar with Sir Humphrey saving the often hapless Jim Hacker from disaster, or deftly steering him in a direction which he believes was of his own choosing etc. etc. The democratic process in the UK has for years relied upon a solid and competent Civil Service to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes while the froth fizzed and splashed about on our TV screens and the front pages of the broadsheets. This mechanism served us well when the vast majority of our politicians were there because they felt a duty to serve, the so-called Conviction Politicians.
These days however we seem to have one convicted Politician, and a growing recognition that far too many of the rest are Career Politicians. With respect, this new breed are far too self-serving, stumbled into politics whilst at university, have never had a “proper job” in their lives, and – as recent events have only confirmed – have little grasp of negotiating tactics, practical compromise, or any business skills at all. So Barnier has simply (but oh so cleverly) put the iceberg in the path of the Titanic and awaited the inevitable. Perhaps Saint Theresa is the last politician with a soul and real belief in her cause. So as the captain of this epic disaster she’s maintained course throughout.
But where has the Civil Service been? How come the Sir Humphreys haven’t quietly stepped in to stop/reverse the engines even if changing course wasn’t an option? TheStickler wonders whether there’s a greater conspiracy at work here… is this the moment where the governmental systems that have served this country well for centuries must be seen to fail in order to modernise the legislature and get rid of these wayward parliamentarians who feel that they know best and that’s it’s perfectly acceptable to ignore the outcome of the Referendum and work to frustrate if not cancel Brexit?
If anyone has a better explanation for why “the system” has broken down to this extent theStickler invites comments below…
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