The
question for today – April Fool’s Day - is how well served the Brits have been during
this past 3 years of the Brexit saga by their “opinion-makers” – or “the
chattering class” made up by their MPs, journalists and intellectuals?
Richard
North – the author in 2015 of the 400 page bluebrint Flexcit - has been
consistently disdainful
of the ignorance shown by MPs of the technicalities of the various options,
reminding us of the scale of the research facilities they have at their
disposal if only they would use them properly. And, given the way North’s plan was ignored
both before and after the referendum, he is clearly entitled
to his disgruntlement. Here he takes
apart those who contributed to the government’s third defeat on 29 March.
And how he assessed
the qualities of the various options MPs drafted in the first of the historic
sessions of indicative votes they held on the 27th
By way of comparison, this is how one of the Guardian journalists set the scene.
By way of comparison, this is how one of the Guardian journalists set the scene.
But it is contempt which is the dominant tone of most commentators eg of
this diatribe last week against the political class; and this TLS comment
on Parliamentarians – although “grammar
of Brexit” is less caustic.
A great new blog
Context Matters is a
fascinating blog I have just discovered – with intermittent posts written by ex-pat
Jonathan Story - Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy at
INSEAD at Fontainebleau – joining it in
1974. He does great book reviews – often on recondite matters….see this recent
one on a couple of academic books about German politics .
He
is also one of the most articulate enthusiasts for Brexit – set out in one
recent series
And
last
week’s post assessing the state of affairs was, as always, a great read.
Almost
uniquely he gave us a
summary of the key points of Theresa May’s deal with the EU
Titbit of the week
I
have just come across a 1972 novel which anticipated Brexit! It’s the last
novel written by the famous Daphne du Maurier – “Rule Britannia” It's a rather dystopian affair which actually involves a referendum (a device which had never been used at that time) a by the US!nd involves a takeover
No comments:
Post a Comment