Critics have accused me
of predicting the future and say it is entirely unpredictable. They
are right I do look ahead and I do make assumptions. I try to make
them with a modicum of common sense and a reference to human nature
and history. Of course I could still be horribly wrong.
Yesterday I blogged
that if I were Angela Merkel I would look at increasing German
defence spending and that I would revisit the idea of a European
Defence Force, given Trump's wandering path over Nato, whatever Mrs
May might claim. Last night on Newsnight both things were discussed
with the German Defence Minister. I almost felt prescient.
I'm not getting above
myself though, I know that anything could happen, chaos reigns right
now. By the way Germany's Defence Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, was
yet another European politician who appears to be dignified,
educated, considered, reasonable and thoughtful, and far superior to
most British politicians. I find that interesting and wonder if
European politicians have greater respect in their home nations than
ours do here. Those I've seen seem to warrant it. Fascinating.
Yesterday's other big
news was the so called Great Repeal Bill, which the media still seem
to be calling it although Newsnight suggested the title has been
downgraded to simply Repeal Bill. Whatever you call it, it's hardly
going to be great. Passing EU legislation into UK law, simply to
avoid a legal disaster was inevitable. However, the other thing I
mentioned yesterday was the lust for control displayed by our
unelected leader and her cronies.
The government plans to
create powers to 'correct the statute book where necessary', without
full parliamentary scrutiny. I've blogged previously about Britain
becoming a one party state for the foreseeable future given the
disarray in the Labour Party, and frankly they are not the answer
anyway. In fact they largely caused the mess we're now in during the
Blair Brown Project. Substitute 'Witch' if you feel so inclined.
Anyhow, we're now
looking at a one party state AND executive control by a small
cabinet, lets call it a Politburo just to be mischievous. The powers
have been referred to as Henry VIII powers as they're similar to
powers he took upon himself, and what a great monarch he turned out
to be! Greedy, destructive, self centred and many more adjectives fit
his bill. No wonder David Davis is smiling.
The service sector
represents seventy eight percent of British GDP, our fall in
manufacturing is spectacular and sad, most developed nations have
seen falls but ours is almost certainly the biggest pro rata. Roughly
ten percent of our gdp is generated by financial services and for all
they've been a pain in the butt in recent years losing them would be
worse, so Brexiteers will rejoice to hear about Lloyds of Brussels,
JP Morgan buying premises in Dublin, Goldman Sachs looking to move
hundreds more jobs abroad and HSBC, UBS and others considering their
position too.
Labour and the TUC want
all workers and human rights currently enshrined in EU legislation to
be protected and some go further, wanting us to adopt anything Europe
adopts in future. It's fast becoming a farce. Of course the Tories
will tear up anything they don't like as soon as they can, without
proper scrutiny and the Daily Mail will rejoice.
When farce turns to
tragedy they'll stop blaming Remoaners like me and turn their ire on
Johnny Foreigner. Bob Dylan is finally accepting his Nobel Prize For
Literature and the times they are a changin'. But not for the better.
If you are proud to be liberal at heart and democratic in nature then
you can but hope that negotiations drag on and a general election
occurs which allows a Liberal Democratic government to be elected and
tragedy to turn into Churchill's broad sunlit uplands once more.
Even I wouldn't predict
that but when anything can happen, anything can happen.
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