They dislike the treaty but fear a clean Brexit,
They hope that – in more ways than one – they can fix it.
Too statist to say, even at their most livid,
“Take back control? Look at us, to whom you’ll give it!”,
Instead, as the fast-nearing date makes them manic,
Their failed Project Fear has become Project Panic.
Campaigning, they pledged they would honour the hour.
Elected, and climbing the greased pole of power,
They cling in death-grip to their fear-calming view,
“We’re the wise – VoteLeave’s win showed the folly of you.”
In parliament’s past, you at many times find,
It avoids doing wrong by not being of one mind.
So if “House fulfils pledge” seems a doubtful prediction,
Let’s hope for “House deadlocked in fierce contradiction”.
“Have you considered masterly inactivity?”, replied Sir Humphrey Appleby when newly-appointed Prime Minister Jim Hacker asked what he should now do. Alas, so polarised is politics today that even – indeed, especially – Sir Humphrey would likely oppose inactivity in this case. We hope parliament will in fact do nothing supremely stupid during the next two months, but my most confident prediction is that whatever they do or don’t do will not appear masterly.
When the Remainers said that Brexit would be a disaster, the Leavers were easily able to contradict their argument with facts.
But the Remainers did not issue this as a warning – it was a threat. It would be a disaster precisely because the Remainers would make it one, if they did not get their way.
What Bercow and others are doing is nothing short of treason.
It is wretched our parliament has come to this.
Inaction is what Corbyn is doing, as a life-long pro-democracy Bennite he should be standing up to this mockery of parliamentary process, but he probably thinks he’ll still be PM before enforced retirement from politics, the spineless worm.
When Britain really ruled the waves,
In good Queen Bess’s time,
The House of Peers made no pretense,
To intellectual eminence,
Or scholarship sublime;
Yet Britain won her proudest bays,
In good Queen Bess’s glorious days.
When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte,
As every child can tell,
The House of Peers, throughout the war,
Did nothing in particular,
And did it very well:
Yet Britain set the world ablaze,
In good King George’s glorious days.
And while the House of Peers withholds,
Its legislative hand,
And noble statesmen do not itch,
To interfere with matters which,
They do not understand,
As bright will shine Great Britain’s rays,
As in King George’s glorious days.
Bravo.
Just . . . bravo.
Thanks, bobby b (January 28, 2019 at 3:08 pm).
I thought of leaving ‘Hippos’ as the tag, but decided most people would think it was just there by accident (as, at first, it was 🙂 ), or else offensive to compare poor innocent hippos with remoaner MPs.
Appleby. Dragged into Hogwarts? Savory poetry, thanks!
What I mean is that pop culture is, regrettably, considered a philosophical foundation.
“Spare me,” Dr. Zachary Smith.
Ah, the joys of ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘Yes Prime Minister.’ We thought, naive that we were in the ‘good old days’ that this was all nothing more than a joke, to be enjoyed while real politicians solved problems and did great things.
Alas now we realise that the programmes were in fact not funny, but true. Politicians like Hacker and civil servants like Appleby were exactly what they have always been, and maybe will be as long as the system we so espouse as being the best of all possible worlds carries on the way it is.
Not me. A secretary to a head of department during WWII (i.e. she was to Sir Humphrey what Bernard was to Jim Hacker) told me that, while there was comic exaggeration, the programme’s basic idea of managing your minister, while defending him against outside threats, e.g. from the other departments, was spot on. She said that the only fundamental inaccuracy was the plot device of Bernard’s naivity. In real life, Bernard would be made the minister’s secretary precisely because he already knew well the things that, in the programme, Sir Humphrey has to explain to him – and so to us, the viewers.
Dominic Cummings once said he’d had experiences in Whitehall that were too extreme for a ‘Yes, Minister’ episode. He also wrote the following:
Long ago, I worked for a Senator.
Years later, I saw my first episode of “Yes, Minister”, and thought “they got it exactly right!” Except for the funny accents, of course.
Let us see how it goes Niall – I doubt the United Kingdom will really get independence, my nerves are worn down now.
However, if we do get independence (fishing grounds and all), I will stand you a drink.
Now I can not say fairer than that.