"The Conservatives are criminally incompetent" - Matthew Parris

[abilockhart]

The former Conservative MP Matthew Parris believes the Conservatives are criminally incompetent:

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/the-conservatives-are-criminally-incompetent-zbnppmx92

I find it hard to believe no one is doing anything regarding Brexit - presumably there is lots going on behind closed doors - civil service, banks, farming lobbies etc........ we will see in time.

Yeah, of course. It's all going swimmingly behind closed doors and no-one is leaking anything at all. Not the farming lobbies, not business leaders, not the civil service, not the banks. There are all these high-level top-secret meetings going on everywhere, which are being kept from the public just because. Never mind. Everything will be revealed to an admiring public just before we go off a cliff edge, like in one of those epic films where the heroes save the day at the eleventh hour. The leaks and disagreements that are regularly reported are all make-believe, designed to distract an ignorant public. We will no doubt gasp with wonder when we see the bright new future that our saviours have engineered behind our backs.

If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

Dammit two

I was getting all overexcited then!!

Since the current situation is so shit, why on earth wouldn't they tell us if things were actually being done? It's a piss poor effort. And the 'no one else would have done any better' line doesn't work because Parriss's point is that this is was the Conservatives' idea, so it's on them, and that they've gone on to do such a bad job of it all that we've reached the point of incompetence described. Quite something for the 'natural party of government'.

We only know what people really think after they have been exposed to deliberate mis-information. Fresh How is that democratic?

Surely everything is going swimmingly. The ERG (European research group = pro brexit Tory MPs) have agreed that work needs to be done to Dover, Felixstowe, the roads and rail links serving them, customs storage locations, and customs IT systems as soon as possible to prevent gridlock in march 2019.

We have ample time to get that lot done and cut the benefits bill by making unemployed people do it. As it's quite s lot of work it might need a few disabled and pensioners to help too but they'll want to go their bit for the country.

Anyone who says there isn't enough time just isn't thinking bigly enough.

Artisan! Go sit in the corner for talking the country down

And the 'no one else would have done any better' line doesn't work because Parriss's point is that this is was the Conservatives' idea, so it's on them
Brexit was how the country voted, it wasn't a decision made by the Conservative party. I dont hear anyone else actually coming up with a better way to do Brexit, other than "I would do it better, believe me, I really really would". So its entirely valid to say, 'no one else would have done any better'.

We only know what people really think after they have been exposed to deliberate mis-information. Fresh How is that democratic?
What election or referendum EVER hasn't had mis-information/spin. Just take the latest one where one party spun that they would eliminate student debt. Sadly spin is part of democracy.

I dont hear anyone else actually coming up with a better way to do Brexit

There is no good way of doing Brexit. But I would strongly suggest that aligning with UKIP on a hard Brexit, which then has to be rowed back from as unworkable; triggering art 50 before having agreed an agenda; calling an election which a) takes up negotiating time and b) loses seats so that you have to pay NI £1 billion to prop up your government; refusing to listen to business, manufacturing, industries, education, science etc let alone economists; briefing against your Chancellor's only realistic plan for Brexit thus far - showing just how divided the cabinet is over the best way forward - is probably the very worst way of doing it.

Hear hear ninon
Honestly I veer between despair and thinking it's all a grand plan to handle it so badly its really painful so we stay in and never ever consider leaving again.

There is no good way of doing Brexit
I would broadly agree with that. But 'good' is a relative word so it means different things to different people. I dont know anyone who ever expected Brexit to be easy which is why the word 'remoaner' was coined. To mean someone who moans its not easy, we should stop it. Most people I know always expected it to be hard/turbulent/argumentative a few would say they never gave it much thought. But just because its hard doesn't mean we should stop Brexit, to many its exactly why we should leave.

aligning with UKIP on a hard Brexit, which then has to be rowed back from as unworkable

Why? when negotiating you start with a high number then row back to a compromise.

triggering art 50 before having agreed an agenda
Why? If an agenda had to be 'agreed' before then procrastination could have reversed the vote.

showing just how divided the cabinet is over the best way forward
IF the cabinet is divided, then why is that a bad thing? I want the people in charge to put forward all the different views and hash them out before they decide the outcome.

IF the cabinet is divided, then why is that a bad thing? I want the people in charge to put forward all the different views and hash them out before they decide the outcome.

They should have done that behind closed doors before triggering A50. We are on such a tight deadline, we need a plan not party in fighting

They should have done that behind closed doors before triggering A50. We are on such a tight deadline, we need a plan not party in fighting

Well I differ, I dont like deals being stitched up in secret, I would rather hear the different opinions. I also think it was impossible to square this circle before A50 because the EU has a say in the outcome and therefore until we started negotiating we dont even know what is possible.

That's probably the EUs fault for refusing to talk before then.

No it isn't. The EU have been very clear on their negotiating position, freedom of movement is a condition of being in the single market/customs union.
We could be equally clear back but instead we are acting like toddlers going "I don't want to be your friend any more...."

I don't know what we're all worrying about. It will all be fine in 20 years. Or maybe 100 years.

Our great grandchildren will be ever so grateful.

freedom of movement is a condition of being in the single market/customs union
And everyone is in agreement we are leaving all that, wheres the 'disagreement'? The negotiation is all about what we replace them with, and that is tbc. All seems pretty much to be expected.