One of the most tragic elements of Sir Keir Starmer’s various statements and manoeuvres on the reversal of Brexit has been their comical element.
This applies equally well – if not in fact far more so – to some of his Cabinet Ministers such as David “I think I’m still Foreign Secretary” Lammy, and Wes “None of my moves to become PM are moves to become PM” Streeting.
Both have already had to be reined in, following their comments about rejoining the Customs Union. Listening to Sir Keir this year, and to his cohorts around the Cabinet table, would be funny if their statements weren’t so dangerous for the country.
The latest moves towards the tearing up of the Labour Manifesto come from the actions of the PM’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who seems to have taken it upon herself to cosy up to her EU counterparts on a regular basis.
In this, she is closely followed by the PM himself, who is said to be embarking on fortnightly “how to get us back into the EU without anyone noticing” meetings in Brussels. (I don’t believe that’s the official description, but hey-ho.)
To remind us all, Labour committed not to re-enter the EU Single Market, the EU Customs Union, and not to allow Freedom of Movement.
In the news this week is one Valdis Dombrovkis, the EU’s (unelected) Finance Commissar, who has given an interview to the Beeb.
Presumably he thought he would get a warmer reception than from the People’s Channel, which respects the largest democratic vote in British history.
Keir Starmer is about to surrender Britain to the EU in two-week chunks. This is how - Leigh Evans | Getty Images
Questioned on closer alignment, unsurprisingly, he was full of warm words. Of course, the EU would welcome discussions on...(fill in the dots for the UK joining any vastly expensive and inappropriate EU scheme you can think of)
As the Commission’s head of finance, Dombrovskis knows only too well how the EU’s bills have been soaring at the same time as their major economies have been stalling.
Signing up the UK to anything involving the payment of billions of pounds would be very welcome for the former Finance Minister and subsequently PM of a country (Latvia) smaller than some British cities.
Indeed, one of the organisations I have the honour to chair, Facts4EU.Org, recently demonstrated on this channel how the UK’s growth had outperformed all the EU’s finest.
Now, GB News has Ms Reeves saying: “We are sliding towards a world where the rules are less clear.”
Well, if I were Chancellor of the Exchequer presiding over the impending disaster about to be wreaked by the effects of my policies, I would probably also be casting around for anything to blame, barring myself, and a sliding world would do.
It must be said that it’s a tad worrying she is talking of being on a slide, rather than being in control, but there we are.
Returning to the EU (because that is what this Government seems intent on enforcing on us all), Sir Keir has clearly been advised by someone smarter than some in his party that the UK already has a zero-tariff, zero-quota agreement with the EU, so why would we need to be in a Customs Union?
Instead, his focus seems to be on the EU’s Single Market, and headline-grabbers such as Erasmus+, the supposed student exchange scheme which less than 0.5 per cent of UK higher education students ever used when we were members.
As if on cue, the latest generation of students has come out like the last, in insisting on the need to be able to go and bond by spending a few months at an EU university.
This is despite the fact that hardly any EU places of study ever make it into the world rankings. One suspects it’s another form of ‘bonding’ the students might think would be fun.
This time, however, the EU is proposing what is more akin to freedom of movement for the under-30s. Watch this space.
Finally, I started with the tragi-comedy aspect of all of this, and I should be ending with a joke. I really wish I could, but the simple fact is that no matter how simple some of the minds at work on ‘re-alignment’, a.k.a. rejoining, really are, they are in power for enough years to do serious damage.
Anyone who voted for a fully free and independent United Kingdom should now be even more worried than they were before. The time to fight back is well and truly upon us.
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