Thread by @PandaScottish

[thread] on a suggestion of a speech at the last

and how to vote for this deal on 30th December 2020

Mr Speaker

May I congratulate Boris Johnson

Truly

He is our Lion King as Robert Halfon calls him

Our herd leader with his massive success of coronavirus where as Priti Patel says we have always been ahead of the curve.

A Prime Minister whose achievements will go down in the annals of British history in infamy.

The focus of my speech shall be three pillars.

How did you win?

What did you win?

Where do we go from here?

But first I want to change tack and go to what I know is a favourite topic of the Prime Minister's: American Presidents.

I Know the Prime Minister has a deep ancestral hatred - sorry respect - for American Presidents.

As an Islington inhabitant once upon a time I know that his respect for America birthed out of a deep love for that nation and out of a deep desire to avoid his tax obligations to the Internal Revenue Service.

How was it the Prime Minister put it: “Why should I? I haven’t lived in the United States for, you know, well, since I was five years old”.

First I want to touch on Aunt Rebecca and their second letter.

“Dear girls, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you at all. Too well I know how much you suffer; but do, do, remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and so interesting.”

I know the Prime Minister has a pent up avalanche of passion for girls as the Baron of Hampton and Siberia can attest to & also carries within him a avalanche of passion for his technology tutor as much as for his favourite violinist

I jest of course. Aunt Rebecca was of course in her second letter written under a pseudonym.

To quote from Abraham Lincoln: “I should regret to see the day in which the people should cease to express intelligent, honest generous criticism upon the policy of their rulers.”

So I am going to follow Abraham's plea.

And because of course I know that Boris Johnson is across his brief and is capable of playing the ball I am sure he will live up to responding in equal and honest measure. My hindsight oh yeah tells me otherwise.

I want my country to get better

I want my country to improve

I want my country to well to borrow a phrase be best

I want my country to level up (although I want to know from what and whom)

I want my country to mightily prosper

Now I want to congratulate 37.4% of the electorate on the 23rd June 2016.

You scored a win.

You won.

Even when you were up against Jeremy Corbyn who is so used to winning the argument.

Maybe he did win - in a quiet internal way - the argument he wanted to.

But there are three questions that arise from that win.

And they are simple questions.

How did you win?

What did you win?

How do we move on?

Now for the first of these questions

I have family, friends, colleagues who voted to Leave on 23rd June 2016.

And I don't think they are stupid.

I don't think they are racists.

I think they made a choice.

So I am going to touch on how with the aid of 10 topics

1. Media
2. Franchise
3. Cheating
4. Scapegoating
5. Lies
6. Expertise
7. Simplism
8. Plan
9. Respect
10. NI Border

Just 10 simple topics

So first on the media

The media has for decades spun a web of lies and racism, xenophobia and nativist jingoism with which to smear the EU

And to aid deflecting from the consequences of Conservative Party policy

One of its chief propagandists sits opposite me

His biggest regret is that he does not earn as Prime Minister the hourly rate that he enjoyed whilst a "journalist."

I would quote a former boss of the Prime Minister

"I have argued for a decade that, while he is a brilliant entertainer who made a popular maître d’ for London as its mayor, he is unfit for national office, because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification."

The media predominantly in this country by readership served up by the Barclay Brothers, Richard Desmond, Rupert Murdoch and the shillsters they employ.

The range of newspapers who by 82% by readership sold the country lies, racism in bias of leaving the EU.

Television news well - it faced real challenges in a campaign of how to give balance amidst a campaign where so many lies were spaffed you barely had time to question the first lie before more followed on.

You can of course recall the quote attributed to Rupert Murdoch

“I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union.

“‘That’s easy,’ he replied. ‘When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.’

To give Rupert balance - he rebutted it saying

“There is much fake news published about me, but let me make clear that I have never uttered those words. I have made it a principle all my life never to ask for anything from any prime minister.”

Now if I accept Rupert at his words

Of course he never has to ask

It is given proffered automatically

See: Theresa May and her private worship before Rupert in New York.

And a reminder of Australia & the Murdoch press

“This power is routinely used to attack opponents in business & politics by blending editorial opinion with news reporting. contrary views are intimidated into silence. These facts chill free speech and undermine public debate.”

Secondly we move onto the franchise.

Now there are two main areas here where I would flag concern

The first is a promise by the Conservative Party

Their 2015 manifesto

“We will complete the electoral register, by working to include more of the five million Britons who live abroad. We will introduce votes for life, scrapping the rule that bars British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years from voting”

See also Michael Green

Sorry I meant Grant Shapps

“Being a British citizen is for life. It gives you the lifelong right to be protected by our military and Foreign Office, and to travel on a British passport. We believe it should also give you the lifelong right to vote."

Why would you not honour that promise in time for the 2016 referendum?

Why?

It's a simple question.

The second is the vote for 16 - 18 year olds

I do not care how 16 - 18 year olds may vote

I want to focus on the principle that they be allowed to vote

I recall many of the debates in the Scottish Independence Referendum

Those with young people

Were some of the best

See Danny Alexander

"Some of the best debates & discussion I have had about the Scottish referendum have been with young people in schools and Newsbeat's"

See also Ruth Davidson

" We deem 16-year-olds adult enough to join the army, to have sex, get married, leave home and work full-time. The evidence of the referendum suggests that, clearly, they are old enough to vote too."

Before she abandoned every shred of principles to affirm her thrall to the cult that is sitting opposite me.

To focus on part of her words

"In the weeks following the referendum, the debate has inevitably shifted onto whether the franchise should now be extended to all other elections."

Now the question is not whether 16 to 18 year olds are mature enough

They are

The question becomes

Why do you fear them voting?

That's the simple one

To David Cameron and his party

Why did you fear them?

Was it just that you knew you would never get your party to vote to support their enfranchisement?

Why did you fear British citizens living overseas?

I do not want you to suffer "fear"

I want to know why you were afraid.

Third we move onto cheating.

So first of all we start

With Steve Baker

And an email that outlined schemes to break spending limits during the general election campaign.

Steve's defence of that email has varied over the years

For 4 plus years

The cheating of leave campaigns

Has been well established

All that is left is the question of how you defend it

Which as always in brexit

It's the how you defend the behaviour that is fascinating

Essentially it boils down to well all politicians lie from the various brexiteer tropes that have been employed over 4 plus years to justify it

I should thank the tropes

They admit the deceit, lies and the con

See Theresa May

Who

Well

She outed

AND then sacked a whistleblower on electoral cheating

Imagine doing that

Imagine being silent as a Prime Minister did that

Why I would have thought at least some of her cabinet would raise objection and resign on principle

Possibly Sajid Javid - or do his principles only apply when it comes to his friends and power base

Or even her party of MPs

Theresa May of course got really upset at cheating

In cricket

"The Prime Minister is clear that cheating has absolutely no place in cricket or indeed in any sport.

Or of course you have Michael Gove

Who is so so proud of his role in the campaign

His role in Core Group of Vote Leave

Yet cannot recall any detail of what he did

It all fades into the fog of memory

Fourth we get onto scapegoating.

If one thing is true

Sadly of history

In so many countries

Not just the UK

It is that othering

And scapegoating

Is a familiar theme

It is an easy go to route

To well

Encourage anger and fear

After all

It is easy to point the finger at bogey men and say they are to blame for your troubles, your concerns, your fears.

What you do.

Is poison the bloodstream of a nation with decades of lies about the European Union.

You suppress reports on the positive benefits that migration brings to this country.

You avoid having a debate about the demographic crisis facing all western nations.

Instead

You exploit a global financial crash.

You exploit it to smear your opponents with.

And to incite hatred of elites, institutions

And of course

As always

The eternal go to topic of all scapegoating

The other

The immigrant

The refugee

Now scapegoating is not new

It is not original

It is not novel

Brexit did not introduce this poison

It used what was already there

Added to it

Inflamed it

Having "won" in 2010

David Cameron and his party

Had the gall to accuse Nigel Farage's party of being "fruitcakes and racists"

They were not able to play the ball

For a simple reason

They took his ball

The Conservative Party because it could not own the consequences of the austerity policy it chose

Chose instead to resort to racism and xenophobia as a deflection from the effects of its policies

A PM who needed something to steal the thunder of UKIP and stem its rise

And to deflect from his policies that even his mother and aunt could be honest about their effects.

Add to that of course Theresa May - a Home Secretary who showed Boris Johnson just how well a minister can suppress reports

Suppress reports that show the positives of immigration

And of course Operation Vaken

So brexit exploited that racism and xenophobia

It weaponised it

As Dominic Cummings put it

"Pundits and MPs kept saying ‘why isn’t Leave arguing about the economy and living standards’. They did not realise that for millions of people, £350m/NHS was about the economy and living standards – that’s why it was so effective. "

"It was clearly the most effective argument not only with the crucial swing fifth but with almost every demographic. Even with UKIP voters it was level-pegging with immigration. Would we have won without immigration? No. "

"Would we have won without £350m/NHS? All our research and the close result strongly suggests No. Would we have won by spending our time talking about trade and the Single Market? No way"

I would update a quote from another American President, Andrew Shepherd (a fictional one)

"Boris's problem is that he can't sell it!"

"He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it"

So the racism, xenophobia and islamophobia all deliberately and wilfully employed by Vote Leave and Leave EU

The lies on wages

The lies on societal pressures

The lies on schools

The lies on housing

The lies on hospitals

The lies on the threat to UK culture

Those racists for a simple reason peddled their bile

It worked

The demonisation of fellow EU citizens.

The demonisation of refugees.

The doctoring of campaign videos of the Turkish Parliament to incite islamophobia

Imagine doing that doctoring

Imagine being ok with that doctoring

There is no bottom to that barrel is there James Cleverly.

Perhaps you can tell us about Fact Check UK.

The sad culmination of that racism, xenophobia and islamophobia is that it fuelled a nasty, sick attitude across this country that ended in the murder of Jo Cox MP.

And even when the campaign was suspended after her death - those who peddled it didn't pause in their bile

ANd having won with the aid of racism, xenophobia and islamophobia.

You then when faced with the police reports of that effect.

Rubbish it as improved reporting or media hysteria.

Hardly surprising really - after all if the Prime Minister's words on letter boxes and bank robbers can be ignored by a party.

Then that party can silently abide any racism as long as it serves their cause.

Fifth we move onto lies

I will put this back up from point 1 on the media

If only I could think of an ex-prominent "journalist" at the Telegraph

Who enjoyed his job and the freedom it gave him to spout lies

He will be back there soon

He has a nanny he needs to afford after all and the miserly salary he receives as Prime Minister and the grace and favour residences and lifestyle he has a Prime Minister does not make him happy

He needs his Telegraph hourly rate back

So I am going to focus on just a few of those lies

1. a bus
2. on audits
3. on company movements
4. on protectionism

First of all

Let's get that damn red bus out of the fucking way

I can hear the groan's from brexiteers

not that f***ing red bus

It wasn't a promise

It didn't persuade anyone

Ok

It didn't persuade anyone

Why was it used then?

Really?

The red bus was tuned and focus group polled specifically BECAUSE of its target desired effect

Dominic Cummings admitted its effect

One simple bus

With one simple lie

You know what is worse

Not that people believed

But that liars had such contempt for taking people for fools that they would believe it

The £350 million a week figure was a lie

The promise was a lie

If you are still defending it

Then you confirming to liars - that their contempt for you was correct

Just like Jacob Rees Mogg is here

His contempt and inability to face admitting he the lies that were told

And that is good

Thank you Jacob

For showing us who you are

After all if you can lie to the Queen to unlawfully prorogue Parliament

Lying to a nation is child's play

Jacob to his constituents

"When the question-portion of the evening began a clear divide began to appear between Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg and all the other candidates. All the other candidates said the Brexit bus promising £350 million to the NHS was a disgrace"

"with Manda Rigby striking a cord with the audience when she said “anyone who voted on that basis has my absolute sympathy, because it should be the case that you should be able to believe what a politican tells you.”"

"Mr Rees-Mogg, to the disbelief of the other candidates and some in the audience, said that actually the £350m was an underestimate ... we are saving five times that with Brexit, and it is now a ‘matter of domestic choice’ how we spend that money."

Now

There is a question

Who was an MP you most admired during the referendum campaign

Well

I have mine

Sarah Woolaston MP

For her action on one small thing

Just one small thing

She was prepared to change her mind

And

She was prepared to challenge a lie

“For someone like me who has long campaigned for open and honest data in public life I could not have set foot on a battle bus that has at the heart of its campaign a figure that I know to be untrue,” said Wollaston, who is a former GP. "

Oh yes and as a consequence

Dr Wollaston was instantly subjected to aggressive attacks from Leave campaigners on social media saying she had been “bought”, or was a “plant” from the beginning of the campaign, destined to switch sides. She also received misogynistic abuse.

2. on audits

"The fact is that, contrary to the convincing assertions by some UK media, the EU accounts have been passed by the independent auditors every year since 2007 as accurate, legal, regular and reliable."

I am not going to cover the EU audit lie any more than that

3. On company movements

You spout some utter deluded lies about how the EU has encouraged other countries to "steal" British factory locations

They weren't.

Again this has been debunked and disproven by so many commentators.

Again.

It won't stop liars lying.

4. on protectionism

That old the EU is protectionist trope

"There is one country that imposes more protectionist measures than any other.
It isn't China, Mexico, or Japan. It is the US."

"Tariff rates in Eurasia are the lowest, thanks to freer cross-border trade promoted by the European Union. The dawn of the millennium brought with it a preference for non-tariff barriers, as the WTO actively discouraged the levy of tariffs. “

If you want to see a measure of economic openness

See the ICC Open Markets Index

The United Kingdom

In Position 30 for openness (which is Category 2 Above Average openness)

Above us in openness

Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Malta, Norway, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Bulgaria

Oh yes

And to those who peddle the EU protectionism trope

At the same time as Operation Vaken and the Chagos Islands and how did Boris put it - oh yes picanninies and water melon smiles

There's the Commonwealth trope BS

Or the lies of the CANZUK trope BS

I would talk about America

And how one man fanned the flames of birtherism and racism

Against one President B. Obama

But you know that already

You know what a racist desperate charlatan Boris was and is

6. Expertise

Now

Where to begin

Well first lets focus on a man who whilst a minister

Sought a fellowship of experts to advise him

Michael Gove

Except when he doesn't like those experts and they point out the reality of his policies in which case he has to get rid of them. See Natasha Devon whose concern for child and mental health was ignored by Michael & Dominic.

Roll onto a referendum campaign and Michael Gove decided to tackle the evidence and argument from experts

Not by playing the ball

But by playing the people/profession

“people in this country have had enough of experts”.

I guess that's why it took Michael so long into a pandemic before he got around to reading the suppressed Operation Cygnus report

Still he moved damn quickly at using his position of power to secure access to a covid test when his family was at risk

Imagine such sheer naked nepotism

Approved of and enabled by a Prime Minister

You demonise "elites"

You demonise "metropolitan" folk

You demonise "liberals"

You even demonise the "urbanites" of Bath if you are Jacob Rees Mogg

You smear an entire profession (economists)

Again - showing you can't play the ball

By the way - those economists were correct

You exploit coronavirus to hide brexit within

Imagine admitting doing that

And imagine not caring that you are open about it

7. Simplism / 8. Plan

It's quite difficult to separate 7 and 8

So I am going to combine them into one

Now once upon a time

Dominic Cummings warned of the danger of having a plan

"Creating an exit plan that makes sense and which all reasonable people could unite around seems an almost insuperable task. Eurosceptic groups have been divided for years about many of the basic policy and political questions"

And therefore it was quite surprising

When lo and behold

Before the 23rd June 2016

Who should pop up

But Messrs Gove and Johnson

To pronounce that they had a plan

14th June 2016 Daily Telegraph

"To that end, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the two leading figures in the Leave campaign, have drawn up a blueprint for implementing a Brexit. Sensibly, it calls for flexibility and a period of reflection."

Now I have so many questions

Given Dominic's words

There must have been a lot of care, drafting and reviews went in to agreeing that plan

They must have found to borrow a word - a lot of reasonable people

It is therefore surprising

That 4 plus years on from announcing they had a plan

That not one trace of that plan has ever been published or found

It would have been the perfect document

To have given to Prime Minister May

By the leader of the Leave campaign

To make it clear this is what was expected to be delivered as the result of that referendum victory

So again

All my questions

Are all really simple ones

Where is the plan?

Who wrote it?

Who agreed it?

Now lets just accept the lie of that plan

There never was one

As opposed to well

2014

Where those campaigning for Scottish Independence produced a plan

Dominic learnt from both the AV and Indyref campaigns

He & others learnt

That if you have no concrete target to attack

It makes it much more difficult for your opponents

So in addition to being no plan

They had to make it sound easy

Hence

You had a wide spread of tropes

From we hold all the cards

The easiest deal in history

To They Need Us More Than We Need Them

To the EU will bang on our doors on 24/6/16 to gift us unicorns

To the EU will collapse soon

Each of these utter bullshit of course

But it doesn't matter

Because they all achieved their goal

After all people don't want to hear how much you have as liabilities

- oh additional simplism

Our liabilities "buy" us a deal

Yes - that danegeld as Jacob Rees Mogg called it

9. Respect

Jesus I could go into so much on this topic

Into 4 plus years of rolling on of the lies and tropes of the con of brexit

Of a never ending selection of insults flung at any critique of brexit

Instead though I want to thank those who employ such personal abuse

Thank you because it shows as Thatcher said

You cannot play the ball

So all you can do is play the person

Ignore the bullshit printed on a 50p piece

From insults aimed at our neighbours e.g. "french turds" , nazi jibes and other insults

To those aimed internally e.g. remoaners
metropolitan
liberal
elites
saboteurs
enemies of the people

10. NI Border

This one's really a short point

Vote Leave promised they had "many solutions" to the NI border

Not one

Many

Some brexiteers like to claim that the NI border or its challenges were ever discussed

They were.

Now after four years of eternal rotating lazy susan bullshit of to name a few that included:

Unspecified technology
Drones
Blimps
Blockchain
Look to the Norway/Sweden or USA/Canada or an unspecified South American border

Why there was even talk of starving the Irish from the Prittster

I wonder how unintentionally frustrated she was on that day.

Maybe one of her members of staff wrote the threat for her. Is that her latest get out clause right?

Those liars who had nothing

And knew they had nothing

Well they passed their withdrawal agreement

Knowing they never had any intention of honouring it

Now at the last

They break the law

to justify breaking law the lies employed - well as usual you give people a range of ones to employ:

signed WA at pace

necessary to stop a foreign power breaking up our country

EU aren’t acting in good faith

its only a very specific & limited way

A reminder of the words of one M. Thatcher

“Britain does not renounce Treaties.

Indeed, to do so would damage our own integrity as well as international relations.“

So you have the "Conservative & Unionist Party" pissing on the grave of Thatcher

There is no depth they will not sink to

None

Here a reminder on Margaret Thatcher and what she expects in a Prime Minister

"The Prime Minister is a man of the highest integrity and honour and should not, therefore, suffer for someone whose standards were not as high as his own.”

So in terms of how you won

I am so so sorry

I am sorry that leave campaigns felt that they had to cheat, lie, peddle racist xenophobia and so many more shameless actions to win

In a way

It is a reflection of your desperation for the win

And that you would countenance anything that aided in that pursuit

The contempt you have for decency, democracy and people who fall for your campaign is endless

So

I come back to our second central point

What did you win?

You won

Theresa May for 3 years trying to serve not the nation

But her party

All she did

She did for her career (to ensure its continuance)

And for her party (to ensure its retention of power)

She could not and did not face up to how brexit was won

She deliberately sacked whistleblowers on electoral crimes

She deliberately did not investigate Russian interference

She deliberately served only self, career and party

Those wheatfields look on in envy

The UK government

Rolling on the con and lies of brexit

With more lies and desperation

But

At her core

Theresa May faced one difficulty

She actually was not a believer

She knew what she was selling was a lie

She knew brexit was sold with lies, cheating and racism

She knew brexit was unattainable

She knew there were not any "many solutions" to the NI border

She knew it would make us worse off

Why there even was one of her MP's who accused her of being a threat to open global Britain because Theresa's faith might care about the "common good" and posed a threat to open global buccannering brexit Britain

Imagine using someone's faith as a weapon against them like that

Stand up Michael Gove and be proud of your catholic bigotry.

Perhaps Michael can explain why only the catholic faith poses a threat if it cares for the common good.

Does that mean Jacob is a threat?

We won economic damage

Yes

That damage that forecasters had warned of

Did happen

It was not worse because the Treasury and the Bank of England took steps to help mitigate it

We won economic consequences - something brexiteers have written off for years as global trends

Now something they will tell us are because of coronavirus and a global down turn

We won comfort letters having to be flung at car companies in desperation - a sign of the desperation of government

The topic of brexit weaponised by Theresa May and her party to win a general election

And once May was deposed

Boris Johnson elected leader

A man who for his entire career has been an amoral lying self serving incompetent charlatan

Boris Johnson got at the last the thing he wanted

The one thing it was all about

Prime Minister Johnson

That is all that ever mattered to him

We won Boris Johnson and him spaffing honours and nepotism/cronyism to those who aided his ascent and the ascent of brexit

We won a border in the Irish Sea

I could quote so many words of Conservative MP's on how such a thing would be incompatible with the very notion of the union

But it doesn't matter

They forsook those words

They forsook the union

All for self, career and party

We won no dividend

We won our liabilities bill (no it didn't buy us a deal)

We won no sunlit uplands

As Sajid Javid put it the lost decade of brexit that he wrote about - although he didn't specify whether that started in 2016 or in 2020

He was so afraid and cowed of his words he cancelled his own words

Again anything to serve self and career

We won the celebration after 5 years of celebrating continuinty trade deals that make us stand still

And when it comes to negotiate new FTA's with nation's whether it be USA, India or others

We go to them enfeebled, weakened, desperate

We won a Britain so enfeebled and desperate that we have to use foreign aid as a trade tool to exploit and bribe other countries with

We won a 50 pence piece with the most hollow of slogans on it

We won Tory MPs and ministers admitting that brexit was so bad it needed to be hidden within the disaster of coronavirus to try and hide its effects

We won Tory ministers saying that the sunlit uplands might happen eventually in 30-40 years time but we won't know until then

We won a bad deal

The ONLY way the government can make that deal look good is by comparing it to NO DEAL

It is worse than what we had

A bad deal on fishing, on goods, on services, on playing fields, on citizens rights, on the union

But at the last

Boris Johnson is desperate

So desperate

He needs to sell it

So

At the last we turn to our last question

How do we move on?

The Prime Minister is lost

His cult is lost

They are a sad rabble of amoral cheating lying racist nativist incompetent self serving charlatans

Austerity, brexit and coronavirus

Their legacy to a country

No wonder they are all so afraid

So the Labour party as are other parties now faces a choice in how we vote for this trade deal with the European Union

As Margaret put it

"FINALLY, I should like to send a personal message to all Electors. No Candidate can promise a Utopia just by voting this way or that. The long training I have received has taught me to shape my own opinions judging on the evidence alone."

"I promise to consider all matters of policy in this light, and in Parliament I should vote as my conscience and not party line dictates. I should carry out my task to the utmost of my ability, allowing myself no rest until the duties which fell to my lot were complete."

Now there is much question over how Labour should vote in this bill

Vote for the deal
Vote against the deal
Abstain

All 3 of these choices are difficult choices

Because I know that the PM and his party will have been prepared for whichever of the 3 we pick to weaponise it against us for party political gain

He will have had Fact Check UK and his party ready to smear us

But they mask the most important question of all

How does the United Kingdom as a nation move on from Brexit?

All 4 home nation's are spaffed on by the Prime Minister as all he seeks is the sale of anything for his own career furtherance

As the parties across all 4 nation's make a choice on what is best for their nation's interests.

There should be one simple question:

Does this deal live up to what was promised in the referendum?

The answer to that question is no.

It does not deliver a better deal.

It does not deliver anything that will make us better off.

It does not even repay its costs of preparation, liabilities, economic mitigation and ongoing economic damage.

It does not deliver the "many solutions" to the NI border

It does not deliver on its promises for fishing, for farming for any sector.

All that matters to Boris Johnson is what he can sell it as.

Therefore the position of the Labour Party is a simple one.

We offer the Prime Minister a choice between two letters you might say

The issue now is how we as a nation move on.

The first step in moving on is to admit what was done.

So if the Prime Minister can admit how brexit was won and what was won.

The Labour Party will abstain and allow this treaty to pass this house without our opposition.

If the Prime Minister cannot admit this then the Labour party will vote against this treaty

This treaty is unconscionable against the union an affront to decency, honesty, integrity and the standing of this House.

I am not going to present a third option of the Prime Minister explaining how the bill meets the promise of brexit and persuade us to vote for the bill because he can't. He will spaff his usual lies and meaningless soundbites.

I know that the Prime Minister's focus is on his "legacy", on how he is remembered

For austerity, brexit and coronavirus - he now seeks in the remaining years of his term to carve out something anything.

His party also seek this - so that come 2024 someone else can take the reins of herd leader. Self, career and party first. Always.

To his last days Boris Johnson is as he has always been a useful totem.

Just as he used others so they use him.

I have three main threads on the last decade

The cover ABC so to speak Austerity, Brexit and Coronavirus

If I was a member of the "Conservative" Party

I would be afraid too

Of people remembering

Hence their desperation

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