In praise of William Hague, a grown up statesman trying to fix Brexit unlike Blair
It is never a good habit to get into writing too many, or any, pieces in direct praise of politicians. As a breed they get over excited by praise and in extreme cases they even start to believe it.
Having said that, Lord Hague, William Hague, deserves a herogram for his latest intervention, urging the Prime Minister to shift on Brexit and try an alternative approach. I don’t necessarily agree with his suggestion, but at least he is trying to be constructive at a difficult moment.
In his column in The Daily Telegraph he said it is “late in the day” but worth thinking about some fresh thinking and alternative options..
He suggests exploring, at speed, the idea pushed by Nick Boles MP, and my friend George Trefgarne, of joining the EFTA pillar of the EEA for a three year period, creating a Norway-style arrangement while a full free trade treaty is negotiated and signed.
Hague says: “Clarity about the changes needed to rescue the current negotiations, wholehearted preparation for the worst outcome, and a readiness to consider entirely fresh ideas will now be important ingredients of a delivering a worthwhile deal after all. It can still be done.”
With EEA there are problems on freedom of movement, there would have to be freedom of movement for workers, it seems, but it certainly looks worth a go if Number 10’s confidence that they’ll get Chequers-lite and a compromise on Customs turns out to be fantasy.
We’ll see soon enough. And Hague’s intervention may be the first signal from the heart of the Tory establishment that a pivot is coming. Plan A, the “Chequers-based” plan, based in the way that a sausage might be said to be “meat-based,” looks like toast.
Whatever the outcome, Hague demonstrates once again what it is to be an elder statesman who has matured. Someone I know once compared him to a race horse that had been ruined by being entered too young in the Derby. Hague was only 14 or so when he was elected Tory leader in 1997. It was not a happy spell, and his return to government as Foreign Secretary under David Cameron produced mixed results.
Since then, Hague has blossomed. Goodness, if he had not been so silly as to leave the Commons he would surely have been Tory leader in 2016 or 2017 and the whole Brexit business might have been better handled. Hague might have located a compromise. He was a Remainer in 2016 with Eurosceptic credentials stretching back to his “Save the Pound!” campaign when Tony Blair, crazed Europhile fanatic and Brussels worshipper, was trying to abolish Sterling, the currency that is, not the town in Scotland which is Stirling spelt with an “i”.
The contrast with the activities of Blair, the man Hague used to best in the Commons, who used to best Hague in the country, is quite something. Inevitably, Blair has behaved completely disgracefully on Brexit. He began saying he accepted the result of the referendum, a statement that soon proved to have zero credibility. Before long he was at it, conniving with his friend Mandelson and footballing crisps salesman Gary Lineker, and the assorted fanatics in the “People’s Vote” (there was one already, in 2016.) The Blair campaign for a referendum re-run is the single most EU thing ever – with a bunch of people in EU berets demanding the public vote again so they give the “correct” answer.
The Brexiteers, me included as an advocate of a compromise which now looks impossible without the EU moving, are culpable for not having a plan and for propping up May who had a poor plan. But a former Prime Minister accepting the result but encouraging a compromise solution – Norway, EEA, EFTA – could have made a difference and defused the anger. Not Blair.
How much more of a grown up Hague looks today compared to Blair.