(Times paywall)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-brexit-catastrophe-is-only-just-beginning-kpqnhz7d6
The electorate is going to the polls today in a state of blissful ignorance over the catastrophe that is about to hit the country.
That is because Theresa May has run a dishonest but successful campaign.
She called an election to give herself a mandate for her version of Brexit.
She has contrived to get through it while avoiding the substance of the subject entirely.
Labour hasn’t challenged her because it too wants to avoid the topic.
This has been the Brexit election where Brexit was scarcely discussed.
She has told the electorate nothing new about how she intends to do it,
about how Britons will be poorer and more highly taxed if she keeps to her plan to leave both the single market and the customs union,
or the devastation that will follow if she walks away from the table without a deal.
Instead she has stuck firmly to fantasy and empty phrases.
Brexit means Brexit.
Best deal for Britain.
Strong and stable.
It has been the lobotomisation of democracy.
Her failure to be truthful about what’s imminent means that if she wins, as everyone expects, she won’t have a mandate at all.
A brave and big leader would have tried to win the voters’ backing for the difficulties ahead.
She has avoided that.
Her victory will be based on evasion and soothing visions.
That our future is now entrusted to this rigid, proud leader terrifies me.
Unless she can adapt, in a year’s time a lot more people will be scared.
May has been fiddling but under her government the Brexit fires are starting to burn.