In desperation to get her deal through Parliament, the prime minister is toying with having a second shot at it. In same breath, she’s against a People’s Vote – on the grounds that the people have already spoken.
Doesn’t Theresa May recognise the inconsistency in saying she will require MPs to vote again if they don’t like her deal – but saying the people can’t have another vote now they see how rotten Brexit is?
Whether the threat of a second vote among MPs will force enough of them to submit to the prime minister’s will is not yet clear. What is clear is that without some kind of intimidation, she will not get Parliament to agree to her Brexit policy.
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What we are learning from this situation is that there is an increasingly explicit disconnect between what the government says, and its real policy. May says she is pursuing Brexit in the national interest; we now know that Brexit will be damaging to the national interest, both in the short and the medium term.
Meanwhile, there has been a discernible shift in public opinion against Brexit and in favour of a People’s Vote.
What makes May’s threat to ram a second vote through MPs doubly extraordinary is that she keeps repeating the argument of the Brexiteers, that we cannot have a second popular vote, because we have had one already.
If the will of Parliament can change in a matter of days, why can’t the will of the People change after two and a half years – when so many things have changed including the fact that we can now see the reality of Brexit whereas in 2016 voters were promised Boris Johnson’s cake-and-eat-it fantasy?
Edited by Hugo Dixon
One consequence of Brexit the public cares most about is damage to the NHS. The BMA is suggesting that GP’s talk to their patients warning them about this and pointing our that their informed consent is required (via a second referendum) before anything as major as leaving the EU.
Theresa May however is painting the exact opposite picture, that there is a ‘threat’ of no Brexit, and Brexit must be delivered at all costs as if is a life saving measure. I made up the following sketch to illustrate the current situation:
Arriving at the hospital A and E, the first patient Dr. May sees is a man who has taken 50 sleeping tables in a suicide bid, but is now regretting his decision.
“I was in two minds about it doc, even at the time. Half of me wanted to live”.
“Nonsense Mr Briton, you decided overwhelming to die, and your decision must be respected”
“Can’t I change my mind? There is still time, if you give me the antidote”.
“It was your will to die and I will deliver on that. There will be no attempt to remain in the land of the living through the back door”.
“Seems a bit harsh, doc.”
“Not at all. Now buck up and don’t be a moaner. You may suffer death in the short term, but there will be plenty of sunlit uplands ahead, when you go to heaven”.
Basically all May’s shenanigans are all about keeping the Tory Party intact – which is all this nonsense has ever been about. The interests of the nation as a whole come well down May’s list of priorities.