Oh dear, Mark Francois. Your little tirade on Channel 4 News reminds me of one of my students. He also has a full-scale strop, throwing the toys around, when he doesn’t get his own way. The difference is he is just 3 years old and not 53!
I completely understand that you are an out and out Europhobe, who represents a Leave voting constituency, but you seem to have let your prejudices blind you to the simple fact that it is your own party leader that is keeping you in the EU against your will and not the 27 EU leaders. This situation arose from and the Prime Minister’s indecisive leadership, failure to seek consensus, and incompetence in handling the negotiations. The blame clearly lies, not with the EU whom you wish to scapegoat, but with your own fractured and disintegrating Tory Party.
I know that you Tories don’t do irony, so it must be your famed hypocrisy that you are flaunting when you ask to “pursue our respective destinies in a spirit of mutual respect”. I’ve not seen any Brexiteer give an ounce of respect to those in the EU who are bending over backwards to help the UK leave without the chaotic “No Deal”, which UK Parliament has repeatedly voted against and has now legislated against. So much for parliamentary democracy!
While I have no doubt that you and Boris Johnson believe the English to be “the chosen people”, the analogy with Pharaoh and the Israelites is inappropriate, given that we are not in this mess because the EU wants to keep us as vassals, but because the Leave Campaigners failed to define what Brexit meant beyond “leaving the EU” and all ran away and hid once the result was announced. You then left it to the Prime Minister, who committed us to leave by 29th March without any plan (let alone strategy) to achieve her pledge.
I wonder, Mr Francois, whether your claim about “not holding a country against its will” in the 21st century applies to Scotland – in which case, we look forward to your support in seeking Scottish independence from the UK – or whether it is just more of the hypocrisy that you Tories so cherish. Sadly, I suspect, from long experience, that it is the latter.
I’m sorry to have to inform you that there is no longer any such thing as “the democratic will of the British people” (if indeed it ever existed) – Brexit has put paid to that. I think you must be using British as a euphemism for English as so many unionist politicians unconsciously do.
Next, having set up your straw man argument, you threaten the EU, with whom, presumably, post-Brexit, you wish to forge a trade deal. Obviously, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are we, Mark? Your ill-advised remarks remind me of another of my students, who like you, has little concept of consequences; but he at least has the excuse of only being 10 years old!
I suspect, were you, as you threaten, to deliberately disrupt EU business during the extension, which, let us remember, was begged from the EU by your Party Leader and Prime Minister, a number of EU member states would reciprocate by vetoing any and every trade deal Britain proposed. This would be far more damaging to the UK’s export market, of which 44% goes to the EU, than to the EU whose exports to the UK are a mere 10%.
You talk about a Tory Party led by Boris Johnson or Dominic Raab, but I’m not sure how you think you can bring about such change, when you squandered your chance to oust Theresa May back in December. If you and the rest of your No Deal Brexiteers had had the courage of your convictions and had voted against the government, you could have had a new leader, but the fear of a General Election was greater than your loathing of Theresa May. May will go as and when she is ready and no amount of indicative voting will influence her one jot (any more than the indicative votes on Brexit did).
Finally, if you consider yourself a good example of what it is to be British, let me tell you that you make me utterly ashamed to be identified as such.
cunninghamegrahamblog.wordpress.com 