Help me, I’ve fallen through the looking glass and ended up in a world that no longer makes any sense. Up is down, backwards is forwards and everything that used to make sense no longer does.
The latest wease by the Prime Minister, to introduce an Internal Market Bill is just another example of this topsy turvy world. Apparently the bill is required to provide a “legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations of the Protocol”. Parliament needs to introduce a law, that breaks international law, to provide legal safety. I would have to swallow very hard to get that one down my throat.
I understand that there are bad laws and that there are times when such laws need to be broken in order to secure change. I am thinking suffragettes here. That is one thing and I would condone or support it depending upon my own position but to have the legislature break international law, breaking a treaty that this government only introduced a few short months ago and voted into law, is tantamount to crazy.
It leads me to one of four conclusions, that those who voted for it:
- Didn’t read it
- Read it but didn’t understand its ramifications
- Read it and understood it but hoped that somehow any issues would get ironed out in the rounds of negotiations
- Read it and understood it yet had no intention of sticking to it.
Numbers 1-3 would reflect an incompetent government while number 4 would reflect a dishonest and deceitful government. Taking the UK out of the EU was a major issue in the 2019 election and the conservatives won on the back of Johnson’s oven-ready deal. His anointing was followed by a rapid vote to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, the one that they propose to break.
Whatever the reason behind the position we are in, the consequences could be very grave, a no-deal, a bad deal or a total loss of standing in the international community. It also seriously undermines the legitimacy of the 2019 election.
Is the government incompetenet or just deceitful? You decide.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 