I said many months ago that Rishi Sunak is a desperate man, strategically in a corner. I expected him to come up with some disruptive moves to improve his chances of winning an election. In doing so, he would steal Keir Starmer’s clothes on Brexit. Well, he has. Welcome to PAY AS EU GO rejoin. The first signs of this have appeared via the Horizon science deal and paying for French border controls to do our dirty work. As with a phone contract, pay as you go tends to cost you more in the long run for fewer benefits and other restrictions. These changes are a very small nudge towards the centre of British politics. However they are more than counterbalanced by the gross moves towards a fascist state via the latest revelations about the Bibby Stockholm and the intention to break international law by leaving the ECHR. Overall, the Tory party is still being played by Richard Tice, Nigel Farage and their shadowy backers.
The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm floating prison is a grim reminder to us all that fascism is never far from the surface of public life in Britain. Every country in the world has dabbled with various forms of ‘othering’, but Brexit Britain has weaponised racism. This is quite surprising, given that Brexit folklore says that we beat the Bosch and saved the Jews. From the moment that Nigel Farage adopted a Nazi inspired poster to stir up latent racism in Britain, he then won the Brexit referendum by the narrowest of margins. Research from UK in a Changing Europe demonstrates that the austerity programme from 2010 – 2016 produced a 12% swing towards the 51.6 : 48.4 result, as people looked for other people to blame for their concerns. Foreigners are an easy target and Suella Braverman has weaponised the ‘swarms of migrants’ issue to appease her racist backers.
So, why am I not delirious about PAY AS EU GO Rejoin? On the face of it, what I call ‘logical incrementalism’ sounds like a good idea. However, the more sectors that Rishi satisfies, the less people have residual concerns about Brexit. If he solves the scientists’ main concerns, they leave the table, having got some of what they wanted. If he does some kind of single market arrangement, then businesses will be satiated to some degree. The same with farmers. Gradually, the pool of people that are concerned about Brexit gets smaller and smaller through divide and rule tactics.
The end losers will be the 68 million people who have no rights to live, love and prosper in the EU but we have no collective voice compared with big lobbying groups such as Scientists, Universities, Farmers and so on. Until my kids get their rights back, I will never be satisfied. You may call me an idealist or deluded, but I think you owe it to your children and grandchildren to leave them with some hope?
Whilst we are here, Labour have no idea what they are talking about when they say that they will make Brexit work. Our only hope to reform Britain is to work towards a rainbow Parliament with a greater representation of other parties such as Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, True and Fair. I am putting my efforts behind Gina Miller’s True and Fair party.
[…] Sunak has quietly tried to restore elements of Theresa May’s deal through what I called a Pay as EU go rejoin strategy. However, ‘Logical incrementalism’ has many faults, as I pointed out in conversation […]
[…] At this point I must say that it is ‘premature evaluation’ to say that David Cameron will be foreign secretary (now confirmed). If that is the case, it validates my suggestion to James O’Brien that Rishi Sunak should pivot to the centre rather than to the right if he wishes to recover his position and win an election. Cameron is a centrist. He will embolden the silent MPs in the Tory party and outside (they have been popping up regularly) and even Labour. Cameron regrets every day his decisions about the Brexit referendum and if he as much as breathed these public regrets, it would allow the opposition to move along the same pathway. Once the major opposition parties are aligned on the notion that Brexit has failed, we will have broken the parliamentary paralysis that has characterised the last five years of the Brexit entropy – see objective one of our five goals below. Let’s wait and see but then act on Cameron. So far, his arrival has enraged the ERG, the Lib Dems and Labour in one day. Proof positive that he is far from done. I said some while back that Rishi needed about 12 rabbits to pull from a hat and this is clearly one of them. See our article Pay as EU go. […]
[…] Read Pay as EU go […]
[…] our article Pay as EU go for more on Rishi Sunak’s strategy to pick single issues off one at a time and thus dilute […]
[…] By 2032, nobody will know what Brexit was. Micro Pay as EU go deals by Sunak et al will mean that the number of people caring about Brexit will get smaller and […]
[…] Read Horizon […]
[…] Read Pay as EU go Rejoin […]
Sunak may want a pay as you go approach, but the EU as a bloc will not. Yes, Britain may be paying France ( there is some discussion about late payments BTW) but that is one country, not the EU. Sunak is trying to do what Johnson tried to do – negotiate with each member state. In the meantime, we Brits in Europe have had issues with everyday living because the UK government hasn’t bothered with negotiating simple things such as exchanging driving licences or the ability for kids to be educated cross border. Yes, those, and others, need to be negotiated country by country…
If you want us to address this issue, pl let me know. I had thought others were dealing with it.