brexit Archives | Page 4 of 10 | MelaniePhillips.com

Why Brexiteers don’t trust Boris Johnson

July 7, 2019July 7, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, No Deal

Boris Johnson insists that he’s not bluffing when he says he’s prepared to take the UK out of the EU with no deal if, as is now widely predicted, he becomes Britain’s next prime minister later this month. Do we believe him? Maybe; maybe not. Many don’t. One reason why there’s so much suspicion is that he has consistently said he will try to get a better deal from the EU – and expects to do so. Since the EU has shown itself implacably opposed to any renegotiation, some might…

Britain

How the Tories can save themselves and Brexit

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Conservative party, No Deal

A general election in Britain in the near future is surely well-nigh inescapable. Whoever wins the Conservative leadership election — and as we can see from the histrionics of the past few days, Boris Johnson may end up destroying himself — both Johnson and his rival, Jeremy Hunt, have committed themselves to leaving the EU with no-deal on October 31 if they cannot renegotiate the withdrawal terms. Since it seems overwhelmingly likely — regardless of Johnson’s claims to the contrary — that the EU will not offer any concessions, the…

Britain

Can this leadership contest produce a real British conservative?

June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Conservative party, leadership election

Boris Johnson has topped the first ballot for the Tory leadership with 114 votes, and it is being assumed that his bandwagon is now unstoppable. Is it? If Michael Gove, that intellectually formidable, competent and experienced minister is deemed by the admission of his past cocaine use to have a character flaw that makes him unsuitable to lead his country, how much more so is this true of Boris Johnson. His launch press conference was shoddy. Faced with awkward questions, such as over his own sampling of cocaine in the…

Britain

From the frying-pan into the fire?

May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Mrs May

It would appear that Mrs May is about to resign. We’d do well to be a little cautious about whether this is actually going to happen. Just saying. We are reading that her resignation will be announced tomorrow. Then she will remain prime minister until the Conservative party elects a new leader. In normal circumstances, this would seem a strange way to govern a country. After all, by what authority would she do anything at all as a kind of post-political mortem prime minister? But then, these aren’t normal circumstances,…

Britain

At the cliff-edge, the Tory lemmings

May 21, 2019May 22, 2019 Melaniebrexit, democracy, Theresa May

Well, what in heaven’s name did anyone expect? Theresa May’s refinements to her Brexit deal, crafted in order to force it through the Commons on her fourth attempt, have caused consternation and horror in the Tory party. With the political cliff edge towards which she has been steadily driving the party clearly in sight, she is now proposing a lethal shove to push the Conservative lemmings over the drop altogether. For her new Brexit deal is even worse than the old one – which was itself beyond terrible. This new…

Britain

The one and only way for panicking MPs to save their skins

May 14, 2019May 17, 2019 Melaniebrexit, democracy, Farage

They get it and they don’t get it. Panicking parliamentarians are gazing upon their poll numbers in free fall with horror and disbelief. Is it really possible that the Conservative and Labour parties might be collapsing as much as the polls suggest? Yes, it is most certainly possible. Might the Conservative party now be out of power for a generation or even split apart and disintegrate altogether? Yes it might. Could the entire political system now be entering a profound realignment? Yes it could. Can Nigel Farage’s Brexit party really…

Britain Israel USA

Leaving Egypt to cross the (metaphorical) seas

April 19, 2019May 17, 2019 Melaniebrexit, British Jews, Passover, Red Sea

At the festival of Passover, which Jews are about to celebrate, the story is recounted of how the children of Israel managed to redeem themselves from slavery through their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea in which their Egyptian pursuers proceeded to drown. Plunging into the sea was a supreme act of collective faith by the escaping Israelites, involving extraordinary courage and requiring an equally crucial act of leadership. These three factors are in conspicuously short supply in the west today. In Britain, the stalled and sabotaged Brexit process irresistibly…

Britain

The only way to end this abuse of power: replace Mrs May by a PM committed to no-deal

April 12, 2019April 18, 2019 Melaniebrexit, Mrs May, No Deal, statutory instrument

It has been reported that the government has ordered all operational planning for a no-deal Brexit to end. According to a leaked email seen by Sky News, the decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill. On what basis has this cynical, manipulative and irresponsible decision been taken? For the possibility remains that, whatever the eventual date on which it leaves (if ever), the UK will do so with no deal. The Cabinet doesn’t even seem to have been told that abandoning no-deal preparations…

Britain

Will Mrs May now hammer the final nail into Brexit and democracy?

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 Melaniebrexit, eu, may, No Deal

On the Briefings for Brexit website an anonymous civil service whistleblower, “Caroline Bell”, who previously wrote about the government’s duplicity over Brexit and the case for leaving with no deal as I described here, has now written an explosive claim that many of the detailed orders prepared by Whitehall to enable the country to continue to function smoothly in a no-deal departure are being deliberately held up by Number Ten. MPs and even ministers, s/he maintains, have been acting in a deliberately created information vacuum. Worse, s/he fears that, if…

Britain Israel

From the Golan to Brexit, “compromise” is a fig-leaf for surrender

April 5, 2019 Melaniebrexit, compromise, Golan Heights, law

Two current sources of uproar tie Britain, the United States and Israel into a matrix of hypocrisy, double standards and spinelessness. The first was the welcome announcement by President Donald Trump that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the strategically crucial mountain range that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. Cue horror in the foreign ministries and policy circles of the world where Israel’s annexation was denounced as a violation of international law. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, tut-tutted: “We should never recognize the annexation…