Boris Johnson’s Brexit backstop plan is not designed to fail, it is simply bound to fail. The fact that this failure happens to suit the purposes of the rabid British Nationalists running things is irrelevant. Even if Johnson had been genuinely striving to find a workable solution to the Irish border problem, he would have failed. Because there is no solution. The Irish border issue is representative of the whole Brexit project. There are no solutions.
But the same applies to Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford. If they are genuinely looking for solutions – and, unlike with Johnson, there is no reason to suppose they aren’t – then they are pouring their energies into a totally futile exercise. There are no solutions.
All the talk of removing Johnson and putting in a caretaker Prime Minister and getting an extension and forcing a UK general election and having a new EU referendum – it is all founded on the delusional notion that there is a way of sorting out the Brexit shambles. There isn’t. There are no solutions.
This is the tragedy of the whole affair. The lunatic British Nationalists have broken something which cannot be repaired. They have broken the chains holding a beast which will never again be shackled because, on being loosed, it rapidly grew to be so massive and so vicious that no chains might hold it. They didn’t just break the UK’s ties with the EU. They broke politics. And they broke it in such a way that it cannot ever be put back the way it was.
Brexit isn’t like a bad policy that can simply be abandoned, or a poorly thought out piece of legislation that can be repealed. The implications of Brexit reach deep into the very fabric of the UK. The repercussions range across all of Europe and beyond. The consequences extend into the future far beyond what can be envisaged by the rational mind, far less the mind of a Mad Brexiteer.
The British political elite has made such an extraordinary mess of taking the UK out of the EU that comprehending it defies logic; describing it defies language; illuminating it defies analogy. Many have tried.It has been said that Brexit is like somebody quitting a golf club while expecting to continue using the facilities. But to even begin to get a handle on Brexit you’d need to imagine this person tendering their resignation by way of a bomb in the clubhouse. Then picture them gleefully ripping up the fairways and greens as they depart while loudly insisting that they will not be prevented from playing golf on the course they are destroying.
But to make the analogy work you have to keep on stretching it to cover every fresh inanity that even cursory consideration uncovers. Until you finally accept that there is no suitable analogy. There are no words. There is no logic.
This is not to say that it is impossible for a member state to withdraw from the EU. It is merely to recognise that it is very, very far from the simple process the Mad Brexiteers supposed it to be. Which begs the question as to why they failed to recognise how complicated the process would be. The answer is that they couldn’t see what was involved in leaving the EU because they didn’t even know what the EU is or what it does or how it works. Decades of anti-EU propaganda took it’s inevitable toll on the intellects of those already susceptible on account of their warped worldview.
The alternative explanation is that they were at least vaguely aware of what they should be taking account of, but didn’t care. They had an agenda which took precedence over the need to plan.
Some might even contend that the chaos of Brexit is the plan. That it is a purposeful strategy. Part of some scheme to use disruption to advantage. Beware those who see conspiracy in every development. But be equally wary of those who insist there is no conspiracy. Even if the chaos was not deliberately caused, there are always opportunists lurking in the shadowy corners of politics ready to take advantage of whatever chance opens up.
Whatever the cause or explanation, the chaos cannot be denied. What is being denied, however, is the non-Gordian intractability of the situation. Many people, Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford among them, persist in imagining that the Brexit knot can be untangled by finding some loophole or by thinking creatively. They think of it as an ordinary, if serious, political problem for which a solution may be found in the normal ways of British politics – forcing a resignation or the abandonment of a policy or the repeal of a law or holding an election or having a referendum. They are wrong. There are no solutions.
Brexit can’t be fixed. That is the plain truth. Run through any imaginable scenario with Brexit at its centre and the outcome is always something too grotesque to contemplate. Not even stopping Brexit works as a solution. It simply creates new and even more intractable problems. Getting rid of Boris Johnson solves nothing. A UK general election solves nothing. A new EU referendum solves nothing. There are no solutions.
Brexit has destroyed the politics of England-as-Britain. Or it has exposed the reality of England-as-Britain. Whichever way you look at it, the problem belongs to England-as-Britain. England has to live with the problem it created for itself. Scotland doesn’t.
For Scotland, there is a solution. Or, if not a solution, an escape. Not complete escape. England will continue to be Scotland’s neighbour and it’s travails will always tend to impact us in some way and to some extent. But we urgently need to be able to decide for ourselves how we deal with the issue of a powerful neighbouring state which is on a very different path from that which Scotland aspires to.
We have that option. We cannot fix the Brexit shambles. But we can protect Scotland from the reverberations of England’s descent into chaos.
The Scottish Government and the SNP group of MPs are embroiled in the increasingly toxic politics of England-as-Britain to the potentially disastrous dereliction of their obligation to the people they were elected to represent and the nation whose democracy they have a solemn duty to protect. And all for no good reason. Because there are no solutions.
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Peter A Bell 
27 days to go Peter!
Why are the SNP not doing anything other than talking about another GE. This is an Omni shambles!
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Which brings us to today’s article….
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female and commented:
Hit the nail firmly on the head there, Peter.
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I tend towards a belief that the chaos has deliberate thought, or even planning at its roots. The echoes of the events preceding the rise of Mussolini’s fascists in Italy and and Hitler’s national socialists in Germany are clearly audible in England today.
Sadly, we shall only become aware of the truth when in the post ‘chaos-max’ event a ‘saviour’ reveals him/herself and the new order is spelt out.
It will be of great benefit to the people of Scotland to be as distant as they can possibly be from that scenario.
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Calm down Peter and more than anything cheer up, for goodness sake. I sincerely wish that you would. Nicola Sturgeon is neither deluded nor daft and, eh, hate to point this out but she’s much more knowledgeable than you (or I or millions of others) when it comes to this issue. Do you have access to what’s going on / been going on behind the scenes, to a multitude of experts or to Constitutional / legal advice? More to the point do you really think for one minute that you want Scotland to become an Independent country more so than she does?
When we, she, knows exactly how this Brexit fiasco is going to pan out she’ll find herself in a position to inform the Scots of the choices facing them, such as the ins and outs (currency, pensions, NHS etc) of our future as an Independent country versus remaining in the Union (as is at that time) rather than having to cover Independence versus A, B, C to Z of Brexit (or not) outcomes. Let’s just imagine her having to stand up and debate that kind of convoluted “mess” with someone like Gove. IMO, she’d be totally confused, out of her depth and slaughtered. And this scenario by the way would have covered the last three years for those who have continued to spout that she should have held Indyref2 during that time span.
Post Brexit clarity and pre-debate period, she’ll OFFICIALLLY request (which hasn’t happened yet) a Section 30 order to hold an Independence referendum and Westminster will either agree to it or not. If they don’t the issue will be heard in the Courts, National and / or International. They, Westminster, know that they’re onto plums as per the Courts so will no doubt agree to a S30O. If not they will be humiliated Worldwide via the Courts and we’ll win.
Now Peter you can play a key part in this most critical juncture in our history by using your site to generate much needed support for Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP sole vehicle to getting our Independence, or again choose not to. You can choose to continue to use your site to undermine Nicola Sturgeon (Ian Blackford etc) OR the Unionists and / or inform the Scots in any number ways in an attempt to get them to vote for Independence, such as in relation to our wealth and assets. The choice is yours. Whatever choices you make now will be, for sure, on record for all time coming. Let’s just hope that you make the right decisions and all of this applies, in totality, to other (maybe?) pro-Independence sites right now.
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Mad mental Nicky believes that men can become women just by saying so.
That women never ever ever ever tell lies #believeher
That the evil HRC would make a good president.
That leslie evans is not a disgusting yoon misandrist bigot who framed Salmond but must be protected at all times.
That K Dugdale and R Davidson must be praised when they run away from the electorate simply because they are female and bent.
N Sturgeon also tells us that a Section 30 order is needed to allow a referendum when she knows as well as the rest of us that the S30 was supposed to force the english to accept the result. Not that the english parliament cares about international treaties so it would have meant little in 2014 and would be completely worthless now.
N Sturgeon has to demonstrate that she’s not acting against Scotland or go.
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Peter,
Stop letting people off the hook.
Brexit is only impossible to define if you are looking at what you “think” they should be doing. Instead look at what they actually did.
BREXIT IS EASY TO DEFINE.
May’s red lines only work if the GFA never existed. Just because the UK gets to leave the EU (that treaty allows for departure) that doesn’t mean it got to abandon the GFA.
May’s Brexit red lines were designed to fail.
BREXIT IS EASY – just not this brexit
UK could have left the EU easily – but that required freedom of movement. Once Westminster decided it wanted to blow up the GFA – Brexit could only be a disaster movie. Freedom of movement was not a constitutional risk to the UK but the UK’s proposed redlines would be an existential threat to the existence of the EU.
Think about it this way – once UK’s optional redlines are trying to make the more powerful party blow itself up – you are the enemy.
THE BIG QUESTION IS- WHY
Once an event happens forces always see what they can make of it…and Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving.
– Executive control over parliament
– A political Mexican standoff – Tory/Labour trying to eradicate each other
– Bonfire of regulations
– Blowing up the GFA
– Putting the devolution genie back in the bottle (re-chaining the Scottish unicorn)
– The great dispossession.
Lets be honest, we are about to see a feeding frenzy and you are their economic meal. They are poised to splurge on the firesale of troubled middle class assets (a 2- 3 month disruption in trade will send many to the wall and their mortgages will be on the sale block almost instantly) – not to mention privatisation of the remaining public services.
Brexit is easy to understand…and its not a conspiracy.
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“The Scottish Government and the SNP group of MPs are embroiled in the increasingly toxic politics of England-as-Britain to the potentially disastrous dereliction of their obligation to the people they were elected to represent and the nation whose democracy they have a solemn duty to protect. And all for no good reason.”
I agree with you, Peter. The British “Scottish National Party” allegiance has evolved into obedience to the British state and English law. Even the case before the Court of Session, when appealed to the Supreme Court of the UK, are submitted to the English doctrine of the Supremacy of Parliament. That’s a betrayal of Scotland.
Petra wrote, “Post Brexit clarity and pre-debate period, she’ll OFFICIALLLY request (which hasn’t happened yet) a Section 30 order to hold an Independence referendum and Westminster will either agree to it or not.” On the contrary, the First Minister signed an official letter asking for a Section 20 order on the 30th of march 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39449459.
The problem with a Section 30 Order is that it involved the English government of the UK in the Independence process. Only by following International Law and when Scotland is an independent state can we negotiate with that government without it interfering in our internal process.
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