SO, that was it then! We, all 65 million or so of us, who had no say and little interest in it all,last week had the good fortune to witness this amazing spectacle of two allegedly grown men putting themselves on display as the only examples of our alleged “nation” who are apparently capable of leading us poor souls to the promised land. What a sad and sorry spectacle it all is; surely any procedural system worth its salt should not have subjected a complete nation to this virtual cessation in affairs for weeks on end due to the appearance of an internal problem within a minor political party.
Surely, if the Prime Minister felt unable to continue, she should have just resigned and the head of state then asked someone else to form a government. If that failed within a few days, an election should have been called. Instead, we have two well-known “nonentities” gadding around the country spouting the same drivel at every stop.
We were told by Jeremy Hunt that he has covered some 5000 miles so far – I hope this is all coming out of party funds and not government expenditure. And what is he offering us? The only thing seemed to be that his constantly repeated statement that he is an “entrepreneur” means he alone has the magic knowledge and he alone is the only available person with the wisdom and ability to become prime minster!
Oh, and I nearly forgot, the knowledge that he is someone who will support our “beloved” union with all his being and definitely refuse any possibility of a future independence referendum forever.
We still have nearly another two weeks of this circus to go, and of course it is not just dear Jeremy, but all his attendant little helpers as well; just think of the harm that all of this has done to the environment – and the money spent could have been put to much better use helping to alleviate that financial suffering of countless members of society. Also, of course, that is only half the picture. To that we have to add the other, endlessly cheerful, bouncy loose-cannon – dear old Boris.
Boris of the exotic name structure, and the unfailing ability to, from time to time, put his foot thoroughly in it. He also has a speciality of not answering the questions put to him, with a few jovial and totally unrelated words thrown into his statements to completely distract the audience. He flatly refused to rule out closing down Parliament to ensure that Britain “fell out” of the EU by default, and also avoided answering the question of the future status of “our man in Washington”.
The situation regarding Sir Kim Darroch, the Ambassador to the US, is quite fascinating. He has one good card in his hand. His name. We have had a lot of insulting comments over the past few days from our “Special Relationship Pal” in the White House, more or less what we would expect. That means that there are now two Kims on the horizon of the Donald; give it a few days and Sir Kim will probably get an invite from the White House to have a friendly meeting on the demilitarised zone at the Scottish Border!
Among the other points scattered across the political landscape recently was Boris’s intention to use a chunk of the Government’s advertising budget to scatter untold amounts of Union Jacks across all things Scottish to emphasise the “Union”, which, again, like his pal Jeremy, he will defend with his last drop of blood.
One could, and should, go on and on. What good does a government advertising budget do for the country?. We have been promised that millions upon millions will be spent on nuclear defence, extra runways, high-speed trains and goodness knows what else; where is the money going to come from? Increasing obesity by consequence of reducing the sugar tax and thereby putting more strain on the various heath services ... to Boris, this seems like a good idea. Pals in big business will make more profit of course – can’t be bad.
Meanwhile, all sorts of businesses and professions are going to be denied the very necessary supply of people from Europe needed for the efficiency, or in many cases survival, of their enterprises.
We must say goodbye to this dreadful Westminster quagmire of stupidity at the earliest opportunity.
George M Mitchell
Dunblane
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