May’s Brexit betrayal is incredible

There is an atmosphere of unreality surrounding Theresa May’s Brexit betrayal. The scale of the sell-out, the extravagantly masochistic submission, the abject surrender has no precedent in relations between sovereign entities. It resembles a final act of commemoration of the 1918 Armistice in which, since the EU is the continuation of Germany by other means, the historical situation is triumphantly reversed. If it survives, this treaty should be signed by Britain in a railway carriage at Compiègne.

It is Remain Plus. It would be impossible for the human mind to devise a more complete concession of all British interests; it is, from the Brussels viewpoint, an improvement on the status quo ante since it imprisons Britain within the most vexatious institutions of the European Union without parliamentary representation or any say in making the regulations that bind us.

The detailed deficiencies of the withdrawal agreement will be rehearsed many times in the coming days. The so-called ‘level playing field’ obligations hobble Britain on competition and state aid, employment law, environmental regulations and tax. We cannot even determine our own working hours. Instead of developing the virile enterprise economy we dreamed of, we shall be chained to the EU’s sclerotic and over-regulated regime.

We are imprisoned in the customs union forever. The stipulation that the absurd and contrived Irish backstop can only be terminated by the agreement of both sides means it will never end. During the two years of Brexit ‘negotiations’ how many times has the EU made the slightest concession? Why would the cynical Brussels hoods ever release us from the backstop if we were insane enough to sign this agreement? When did a sovereign nation ever allow a foreign power a veto in perpetuity over its economic arrangements?

Even after the end of the transition period the withdrawal agreement would be policed by an arbitration panel but, if EU law is involved, any issue would go to the European Court of Justice. The City would only have elementary access to EU markets via so-called ‘equivalence’. The fudge on fishing cannot disguise the betrayal of Britain’s fishermen. The future trade agreement – which is the only matter about which we should have been negotiating since 2016 – is as vague as ever. And so forth…

To describe this blueprint for British subjection to the European Union in perpetuity as Brexit is beyond absurd. It is indisputable that, of the tens of millions of Britons who voted in the referendum on 23 June 2016, not one of them voted for this. That a mature democracy in the developed world should be insulted by being presented with such a document is incredible.

It is also a reminder that, despite the historic magnitude of the Brexit issue, it is only a part of the larger problem that confronts us. This outrage has been made possible by our dysfunctional system of governance and that has to be brought to an end. That the express will of 17.4 million electors should contemptuously be dismissed by a tiny clique of politicians and civil servants signals that, under our present governmental system, freedom is a delusion.

This national humiliation and its destruction of our potential future prosperity and independence is a slap in the face that should awaken every British citizen to the reality of our situation. We do not choose our government: only the liberal progressive consensus is on the ballot paper, regardless of party names. The elites in politics and the media control our lives. In 2016 the Entitled Ones were momentarily caught off guard when the United Kingdom voted to free itself from the European Union.

Now they are back in the saddle with a vengeance. The public’s choice is stark: either seize this moment to unhorse them once and for all, or submit to rule by an alien and unpatriotic oligarchy. It is as brutally simple as that. If Westminster and Whitehall are permitted to ride roughshod over the electorate now, they will secure their ascendancy for a further century.

It is not sufficient – though it is a necessary preliminary – to vote out of power the politicians and parties who have tried to destroy Brexit. If the British people are to win back their sovereignty the institutions of government must be reformed too. Bicameral government should no longer be regarded as an axiom. The power of the House of Commons must drastically be reduced. It was happy enough to surrender its authority to Brussels: let it now do so to the British people.

The type, scope and scale of legislation should be curtailed. All major issues should be submitted to the public in mini-referenda, as is successfully being implemented in Hungary. Direct democracy should partially displace representative democracy. It is time to silence Sir Bufton’s self-interested mantra: ‘I am a representative, not a delegate.’ Since we have now seen where that has led us, it is time for him to become a delegate.

The precise mechanisms for a radical transfer of power from the political class and deep state to the electorate need to be debated in detail. What is not debatable is the need for such a revolution in governance. The old ways no longer work: they have delivered us into a potential ‘slave state’, in the words of Jacob Rees-Mogg, such as we might have expected to endure had we lost a world war.

If you doubt the need for massive change, consider our recent experience. A total of 29 cabinet ministers sat round a table for five hours discussing a document that represented the most abject humiliation ever inflicted on Britain and, regardless of what reservations some of them might have voiced, approved that shameful betrayal of what Theresa May cynically calls ‘the national interest’ without a single resignation. There might be a few delayed-action resignations, but the damage has been done in lending official credibility to the so-called withdrawal agreement.

The people voted; the politicians and deep state vetoed their decision. That is the reality. The whole world watched it. If this outrageous travesty is to be stopped – and anything like it prevented from ever happening again – our only option is to dismantle the current governmental system and replace it with one that will not only allow us to vote for what we want, but to see it implemented too.