THERE is often a lot of faux outrage in politics. A lot of politicians are into proclaiming their distaste at the comments of others with as much gravitas and bluster as they can muster. Comments, usually, which any reasonable person would think were barely mild, never mind spicy. A man often on the receiving end of such “outrage” is President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. He was once again the subject of much false-furore this week when he stated in a press conference: “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit, without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.”
READ MORE: Donald Tusk says there is a special place in hell for ‘no plan’ Brexiteers
He can’t be the only person who’s been wondering the same sort of thing. I still find it unbelievable that there were so many senior politicians who advocated and fought for leaving the European Union and didn’t have any idea what being outside the EU should be, how it should look, and how it would be achieved. It’s possibly the biggest example of political negligence that many will see in their lifetimes.
But the merits of Donald Tusk’s comments aren’t really what is important. What strikes me as the most important thing is that an entire day and an entire news cycle was devoted to dissecting the meaning of this comment and the reaction to it. We are so close to the so-called Brexit day of March 29, and we still have no idea, literally no idea, what is going to happen then. The question isn’t just will it be a deal or no deal? It’s what will actually happen if no deal is the outcome, as seems more and more likely with every passing day? The Prime Minister continues to insist that she’s going to get changes to the backstop that will push her deal through Parliament, but on Thursday after hell-gate (which incidentally, would a decent name for Brexit as a whole) the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said plainly that there will be no legally binding changes to the backstop. The group of extreme Brexiteers in the Tory Party will surely say this is unacceptable and use this as the excuse they need to vote against the Prime Minister’s deal once again, all but securing the no deal hard-Brexit they have really always wanted.
READ MORE: Theresa May leaves EU talks in Brussels empty-handed
If there is any outrage that ought to be distributed this week, it is almost certainly the Leave Campaigners and hard-Brexiteers who should be on the receiving end of it. Or perhaps the leaders of business who advocated leaving the EU and are now shipping their activity overseas before the disaster hits.
Or, perhaps, even the leader of the Labour Party who, for fear of upsetting the Labour voters who voted either Leave or Remain, remained wholly ambiguous for two years on what he wanted Brexit to look like, before finally writing to the Prime Minister endorsing staying in the customs union and single market, after the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, put forward this compromise in 2016.
However, as I said earlier, the outrage many have been spouting this week has come across, to myself and many other, as tired and faux. If you need evidence of this, look no further than the Point of Order raised by Peter Bone MP in the House of Commons shortly after Donald Tusk make his remarks.
He said: “The president of the European council has said that there is a special place in hell reserved for Brexiteers. I don’t recall, sir, any president insulting member of this House, member of the Government and the British people in such a way. What mean is open to the House or the Government to respond to such a completely outrageous insult?”
To make his trumped-up outrage seem remotely warranted Peter Bone MP had to misquote Donald Tusk and remove all context.
Thankfully, my colleague Joanna Cherry QC MP was on hand to put the European Council President’s full remarks on the record.
WATCH: Joanna Cherry destroys Brexiteer's claim in Commons
If we continue to allow the conversation around Brexit to be hijacked by nonsense like this, we will almost certainly never reach a situation which stops the UK from crashing out the EU on the 29th of March.
Nick Eardly gave everyone a decent laugh though when he tweeted the following clarification from EU Officials: “Brussels officials were quick to clarify Mr Tusk’s remarks, stressing to BBC correspondent Adam Fleming that the Brexiteers’ special place in hell would be for when they are dead and ‘not right now.’”
UK politics is truly beyond parody.
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