After a political lifetime of exposing how the BBC, and the rest of the mainstream media, consistently distort news stories, tell blatant lies and create contrived narratives which defend the rich and powerful at all costs here was a paid BBC lackey actually telling the truth:
“Boris Johnson started the day in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, talking pish.”
My surprise compelled me to smile broadly while reaching for the TV remote to pause and play back the clip. After a disastrous week which started with the resignation of the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson; and then involved the loss of not one but four Parliamentary votes; the expulsion of 21 Tories from the Party, including the longest serving member, Ken Clarke, and the guy who was the Tory Chancellor only 6 weeks ago, Philip Hammond; and then the embarrassing withdrawal of support from his own brother Jo Johnson MP, and an excruciating pathetic excuse of a speech in front of police cadets in West Yorkshire who were disgracefully used as a backdrop to a rambling and incoherent tirade about Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn and a General Election the BBC Correspondent had heard enough. This was the PM who on July 24th promised to bring everyone together and reunite ‘the nation’. He couldn’t even unite his party or family let alone ‘the nation’. Even he was now calling out Bampot Boris:
“Boris Johnson started the day in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, talking pish.”
Sadly my hearing had let me down. On replaying the clip I discovered the correspondent had actually said “fish” not “pish”. Boris Johnson had begun the day talking “fish”. I preferred my initial understanding of the clip and on reflection I have decided it is actually more accurate. Johnson was interviewed and said in relation to Brexit:
“I think the people of this country want us to get on and do it.” That’s pish. He was speaking in Scotland, a country where every single region and council district voted Remain. The country as a whole voted Remain by a 62% majority and every opinion poll since has suggested that figure would now be even higher. So even though I was one of the 38% of Scots who voted to leave the EU, when Boris stands in Scotland and says “the people of this country” want to get on with leaving the EU he really is talking pish.
The BBC correspondent then asked if the 31st October departure date was now impossible to achieve. Bullish Boris was having none of it:
“I’ll go to Brussels. I’ll get a deal and we’ll make sure we come out on October 31st. That’s what we are going to do.”
More pish. There are no negotiations with Brussels. There are no alternative proposals to the deal already rejected three times by Parliament. Johnson’s chances of bringing a deal back before 31st October are as likely as him making a speech or giving an interview without lying.
The intrepid BBC correspondent then put the harsh reality to Broken Brexit Promise Boris that he would have to resign if he doesn’t get Brexit delivered by 31st October:
“That is not a hypothesis I’m willing to contemplate.”
Even more pish. Of course he is contemplating it because he has so disastrously played his hand over the last few weeks that he now faces the option of eating the largest slice of humble pie in history and signing the letter, as instructed in The Hilary Benn Bill which has passed the Lords and will become the lawful instruction to him on Monday, seeking an extension to the Brexit deadline to January 31st 2020 or resigning.
I have not been alone in suggesting that Boris Johnson was not fit to hold high office but surely even his most ardent supporters are now beginning to realise that the man really is an incompetent buffoon and liability to the Tories. When confronted by real people he is taken to task for his incessant lying and empty bluster, and the reason he appointed a cabinet of “over promoted fanatics, snobs and halfwits” was to avoid any real scrutiny or accountability for his actions and speeches.
This is the guy who stated categorically at the end of July that there would be no early General Election. Now he berates the opposition parties for not agreeing to one on his terms on October 15th. He is a keen historian apparently. Has he not remembered Napoléon Bonaparte’s’ infamous war maxim:
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
It is absolutely essential that an early general election is held and the people of Scotland are given the opportunity to annihilate the Tory rump and press home once and for all the demand for IndyRef2 on our terms at a time of our choosing. Recent polls suggest the Tories in Scotland will lose at least 10 of their 13 seats and the deck will be cleared for a successful referendum that restores Scotland’s sovereignty and dignity.
In England and Wales an early general election will allow Corbyn’s Labour Party to fight Johnson and his bunch of cold, cruel and callous Conservatives on their austerity record of despair, destruction and undermining of living standards for the many while enriching the few at the top of society. They should be electorally punished for their record on stagnating wages, increased job insecurity through use of zero hours contracts, severe real terms cuts to essential public services like schools, the NHS and justice and the fact that the last ten years of austerity measures have been wholly unnecessary and a result of political choice, not economic requirement. Labour has to make it an austerity election not a Brexit election.
However with an understanding of Napoléon’s wisdom, why would Labour succumb to Johnson’s timing for an election when he is managing to self-combust and inflict so much damage on his own fledgling authority right now? The Scottish Tory leader couldn’t stomach his political path and has jumped ship. Some of the longest serving Tories were warned that a vote against him was a vote of no confidence. Twenty one of them understood that and voted clearly to indicate their lack of confidence and trust in him. And then, after losing his majority in Parliament he went on to lose even his majority in his household. It is damning beyond parody if your own brother does not trust you to do the right thing.
So delaying the date of an early general election to expose Boris as the fraud who makes promises he cannot keep and temporarily avoiding a No-Deal Brexit is entirely acceptable in the world of political warfare. But the delay must be minimal. The people are sovereign always.
If the electorate of England and Wales want to vote for a No-Deal Brexit, despite the Yellowhammer government department warnings of food, fuel and medicines shortages and thousands of potential job losses, then so be it. They cannot be treated like children and denied the right to vote a particular way because the adults have decided otherwise. You either believe in democracy or you don’t. An early general election should be postponed no more than three to four weeks at most. The opposition parties and Corbyn in particular cannot just oppose an early general election, they have to state when it will take place and either the first or second week of November must be promoted.
A November general election still qualifies as an early one but the public must be told that is the date to cut across the Tory accusations of fear of the people. In Scotland the SNP have nothing to fear and much to gain but their vote will only be enhanced and enthusiastic if a definite date for IndyRef2 is placed at the heart of the manifesto. Corbyn’s Labour has a popular and radical set of measures which will tackle wage poverty, grotesque inequality and the scandal of big business and millionaires avoiding their taxes. That programme can win over working class voters regardless of opinions on the EU.
Brexit must not be allowed to dominate the election in November. It must be dominated by opposition to austerity and genuine commitment to fund education, health, affordable housing and local government services. Boris Johnson and his right wing band of xenophobes and English nationalist zealots can be beaten but only if Labour takes them on with socialist policies designed to benefit the many, not the few, and they do so in November. Delaying beyond then would be wrong in principle and a major tactical error.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
