by john_evans
Thu Jul 25th, 2019 at 12:05:46 PM EST
and we may laugh. It's about all we can do. Pfeffle's progression to Number 10, and the appointment of a very rightwing and Brexiteer Cabinet went without a hitch.
What happens now?
Frontpaging an old frontpager is such fun! - Frank Schnittger
After three wasted years, the real negotiations with the European Union will begin. Hard-headed, serious negotiators, with a strong conscience that they represent the voice of the British people, will lock horns with Brussels bureaucrats. Multiple all-nighters later, the lines of an acceptable deal will be noted down, soon to be engraved in marble.
Of course not. Pfeffle and his chums aren't into that sort of tiresome game. As has already been said and said again, there's no time left for it anyway. When Pfeffle says "Do or die" or "No ifs, no buts", he is in fact saying there will be no serious attempt at discussing an alternative agreement with the EU. It will be:
Pfeffle to EU: The British people want this, and this, and this, with double fries.
EU to Pfeffle: We've already said no. You can get the fries at <well-known junk-food outlet>.
Billionaire UK media to British public: It's all the EU's fault!
And that will not take long.
Then we will see that Pfeffle is not in government to govern, not in politics to pursue policies (let alone to waste time devising them), not in the representation of his country to conduct responsible discussions with other countries. He'll stick to the interests of his class by gut instinct, make arbitrary decisions with a show of authority, and flail around imaginary conquests at the end of his stumpy arms. Like Trump? For sure, and like Trump, he is in permanent campaign mode.
We know how Pfeffle campaigns. We saw it in 2016, and the nomination as Special Adviser of Dominic Cummings, leader of the mendacious Leave campaign, is a rinse and repeat sign. How does Pfeffle campaign? By piffle, waffle, racist and xenophobic insinuation, bullshit, propaganda, lies, distortion, more lies. By manipulation of uninformed or wilfully ill-informed opinion.
As soon as that opinion considers it a fact that the EU is kicking the UK out, or that no deal is inevitable despite the best efforts etc, or that Pfeffle is personally conducting a last desperate battle with the evil monsters of Europe on the final brink, or some such crap, the wind will be taken out of the Brexit Party's sails, and the coast will be clear for the Tories to beat a divided opposition in a general election and re-establish a comfortable Commons majority. On the strength of which he will crash the UK out of the EU and refuse to pay the £39bn.
Will all of this happen? A good deal of it is certain. The electoral victory, maybe not, but Britain is surely in for a display of demagogic politics that will be a sight to behold.
Just one thing. Step back a bit. When democracy is raped in this fashion, when public opinion is misled into believing that foreigners are the root of all problems, that such and such a foreign entity has stabbed the country in the back, that treaty obligations are made to be torn up, then the conditions for the maintenance of peace and friendly relations are not met. When economic conditions are bad and social tensions are high, the easy way out for big capital is war. And anyway, how else did Britain sail off to far-away places and get rich?
Ha! Ha! Said the clown.
