The mouths of fools

'The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips' - Proverbs 18:7 New Living Translation

Nadine Dorries is by no means my favourite Tory backbencher, that privilege rests with Ken Clarke, for whom there is a parody twitter account where a tweet a few days ago summed up the state of today's Tory party. It said:

I've been sat up in bed for hours, whisky on the bedside table, soft jazz playing in the background, trying to think if I've ever worked with a more idiotic bunch of self centred bastards in my nearly 50 years as a MP.

Nope, still can't think of any. Time for another bottle.

However, in her apparent naivety the arch-Leave MP for Mid Bedfordshire has hit upon the major flaw of Theresa May's Brexit deal and of the whole Brexit agenda.

As the Independent reports,the Tory backbencher, who campaigned tirelessly to get the country out of Europe, said Ms May's deal would leave the UK without any influence in Europe.

“This is a very sad place to be,” she told Sky News. “But unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner.”

The paper says that her words were met with astonishment online:

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the quality of our politicians right now,” one Twitter user noted. “The intellect of a boiled cabbage.”

Author – and Remainer – JK Rowling was somewhat more succinct. She tweeted an emoji of a head exploding.

As the Independent says, it is not the first admission to make voters wonder if leave-supporting politicians knew exactly what they were campaigning for during the referendum. Just last week, leave voter and ex-Brexit secretary Dominic Raab let slip he “hadn’t quite understood” how heavily UK trade relies on the Dover-Calais Channel crossing.

Nadine Dorries then made an attempt to clarify her remarks. In a Tweet posted on Saturday evening, she said the proposed deal was “worse than what we have now where at least we have a seat at the table and can fight our corner”, which is precisely the point.

In just a few sentences, this MP has summed up everything that is wrong with the leave project. It is badly thought out, its proponents do not understand its consequences nor do they have a plan to make it work, it leaves the UK worse off than before under any of the many scenarios we might want to play out, and even when we have a deal (and one that accommodates all our other obligations like the Good Friday agreement) we find ourselves having to conform to standards, regulations and conditions belonging to other countries, just so that we can continue to trade with Europe and protect jobs, without any say in how those regulations are framed or what they say. That applies both with a deal and without a deal.

For those who are starting to see that we may as well stay in the EU where we at least we can fight our corner, protect jobs and exercise our veto if necessary, then welcome to the club. Brexit has led us down a blind alley full of muggers. We have to turn back. It should now be up to the people to make that decision in a new referendum, where we at last have all the facts in front of us and can make an informed choice of taking the deal or staying in.