Remain! Remain in the dying of the light

Only mysterious signs and portents so far, but the endgame, and the start of real negotiations might be in sight at last. It looks as if the Great Repeal Bill is about to be signed, transporting all EU legislation into the UK Parliament, and thus finally signalling a determination to actually leave. Even the illusions and hallucinations of the EU Commissioners will surely have to give way, and they will have to start serious negotiations at last?  

The signs and portents began with the Government defeating the rebel amendment to delay Brexit. The actual wording turned on giving Parliament a 'meaningful vote' to prevent leaving after no deal. Technically, Parliament already has a meaningful vote, of course, in that they can overturn a Government with a vote of no-confidence, but, presumably, Tory Remainers would not want to rebel that much, and there is no real sign that the electorate would sweep Remainers to power afterwards. 

We could see the writing was on the wall, when the oleaginous gossip–monger N Watt of BBC Newsnight said that after his confidential enquiries, the rebels were confident that they could master enough votes to carry the amendment. As it turned out, even the proposer of the amendment, a certain D Grieve, voted against.  As a number of BBC Remainers noted, mournfully, there is now no obstacle to the passage of the Repeal Bill. What seems to be left is some spite, some sulking, and some rehearsal of the old failed arguments one more time. 

The latter included a rerun of the Great British Strawberry Lament in the Guradniad [there are pages and pages of links]. This one reports that 'The government’s latest ruse is to try and encourage unemployed Brits they are missing out on picking jobs, which can pay up to £675 a week'. Marvellously, there is also an item on how to use up surplus strawberries (which includes how to make them into a facemask).  

The other great spokesperson of remaining on Newsnight (well, actually, they nearly all support Remain), one E Davis clutched at a straw and waved it in the face of P Bone, the Brexiteer MP, and about the only one who has any stamina left to put up with Davis's tantrums. The pretext was an announcement by Airbus, a 'Franco – German company' today's Observer reminds us, that they would be forced to re-view their investment decisions and consider moving their substantial production plant from the UK to either China or the USA. Apparently, they were afraid that the production of their wings would no longer meet European standards of safety once the UK left the EU, presumably predicting some tantrum on the part of EU commissioners to pretend that they do not have the standards of safety already. Big European companies revise their investment plans all the time, of course, but perhaps this was not a coincidence, given the imminence of a meeting of the European Council with the British Prime Minister, where she will be able to plunk down on the table what will then be the Great Repeal Act, suggested Bone.  It was nothing like that for Davis, of course. The decision by Airbus represented nothing other than a total condemnation of the government's plans by 'industry'. He could not and would not accept that this was really a political intervention. For Davis, this was 'business' offering their unassailable and totally objective wisdom against the ridiculous notions of politicians. Classically, the Airbus spokesperson was in the studio, while Bone was interviewed outside somewhere on the grass (you don't have to be much of a semiologist to work that one out). In a typical Davis performance, Airbus was given rather more time than Bone, Bone's last words were drowned out by a Davis heckle, and, just in case we had somehow missed it, Davies permitted himself a last word, when he summarised the argument by saying that business had made a case based on what they actually knew.  

Without much irony at all, W Hutton makes an almost identical case in today's Observer. Apparently, it is the EU that has raised standards and without them, we would fail to do so. So globalization has a good side after all? The only answer is to press for another referendum.  A substantial march in London yesterday (also in the Observer) demanded a new referendum, couched in the PR terms of a 'People's Vote', another example of what I have called elsewhere the 'Midnights Children' syndrome, where magically, all sorts of people suddenly seem to have come to the same conclusion. 

I perused the coverage in search of answers to my own eternal question — what is it about the EU that causes such passionate loyalty — but only found a few of the usual answers.  Some long-term residents from the EU felt insecure. 'Many' said 'freedom of movement defined their lives.',and one felt forced to apply for British citizenship! Some people felt they had been lied to and betrayed during the campaign, but, strangely, only by Leave. Some wanted just to demonstrate their 'anger and frustration' both at the decision and at the confusion afterwards. There were former Thatcherites and disgruntled Labour supporters. Some worried about further cuts and austerity. The Green Party co-leader spoke of what a 'precious gift it is to be able to travel and to work and to study and to live and to love in 27 other countries' (some sort of plea for sex tourism to be protected from tariffs?). T Robninson, an acttor said he was furious that patriotism had been hijacked by toffs in Parliament. Ed de Mesquita, a Tory Remainer, said he could hardly read the Telegraph any more. “Very often I find it difficult to get through an article. Even when Airbus says it’s threatening to close down some of its operations, they say you are moaning. This is the phony war. [Brexit] hasn’t happened. We haven’t left the EU yet. When it gets close the City, many manufacturers are going to leave..“It’s not going to be OK. I tell you what is the worst thing, it’s the legacy we are going to leave the young people.”

More voices included a marcher who felt 'they' had been sold a lie about the NHS, and that the Leave campaign seemed 'very racially motivated'; an 86-year old said she had wanted to prevent war and that nobody had said anything good about the EU during the campaign; a 73 year-old lliked cheap peaches [oh God! No cheap peaches either?], and said “It’s also the idea of Europe: I studied languages, I have friends in Germany and other places in Europe." [who will presumably now be disconnected?]; an 11-year-old said said her 'dad’s arguments had convinced her'; a Glaswegian said a people's vote was needed to resolve the issue [some chance!], that people had been sold a lie, and that no two Brexit voters had the same reason for leaving [unlike the unanimity of this crowd]; an acdemic said it was hard to explain to his 5 year-old [a surrogate for a Guardian journalist?] what the EU was, but reported that his parents were of mixed nationality [so--what follows exactly?]; the funding for youth work would get worse; a teacher worried about not getting work in Germany,and also said the No vote in the Scottish referndum had lied about EU membership; and 'I think, really, we are a genuinely good-hearted, multicultural, generous people, and I think we are showing ourselves up'. Hutton said they had marched to warn that time is running out [never heard that warning before].


Luckily,some right-wing groups had also turned up and the Observer was able to contrast the Remainers with them.