It seems someone within the Brexit Party, the latest vehicle for Nigel “Thirsty” Farage to use in his quest to continue his 20-year journey on the gravy train, has realised that there is no plan. Accusations of “betrayal” cannot be sustained in the face of an increasing push-back from those rightly asking “So what’s your plan? What would you do?”
Richard Tice. Still not totally honest
This has provoked Nige’s pal, and Brexit Party chair, the perma-tanned and perma-smiling Richard Tice, to tell his adoring public just what The Great Man would do. The problem for both individuals is that Tice’s plan makes even less sense than the usual Europhobic tosh, to the point where all he has attracted thus far is ridicule.
What was the Brexit Party actually for? “A vote for The Brexit Party on 23 May is a vote for: a WTO Brexit … competent Brexit negotiators & Brexit Party MEPs at the table … A vote for us is a vote against: paying EU £39bn for nothing … a half-baked Brexit treaty by Theresa May & Jeremy Corbyn”. So it’s a vote for more lying, then.
You don’t do negotiations if you have a WTO Brexit. There is no May and Corbyn “Brexit Treaty”. Settling the bill for what we owe the EU is not “£39bn for nothing”. This is more bluster. And Otto English, for one, was unimpressed. “You have no MPs and will play no part in any negotiations. It's a pathetic charade and it's disgraceful that you feel you can pull the wool over well intentioned people's eyes”. Quite. And there was more.
Deirdre O’Kelly had figured out that Tice’s first two points had a problem. “Hang on, the first and second things are mutually exclusive! Which is it to be, Brexit negotiators or WTO? WTO means we haven't been able to reach a deal - which means *no negotiations* Make your mind up”. Also, Brexit Party and “competent negotiators” - no. Just no.
Asa Bennett of the Telegraph observed “Brexit Party chairman @TiceRichard tells reporters he met ‘very senior people’ at the WTO in Geneva who ‘recommended we move forward with the EU towards using an Article 24 arrangement’ … This isn't the first time Tice has claimed this about the WTO”. Indeed not.
Nigel Driffield, who happens to be a Professor of International Business, was also unimpressed. “Quite simply that’s not what WTO do, and I would be surprised if they briefed anyone who wasn’t part of a formal delegation on matters of policy, let alone someone with no elected or appointed role. They may advise firms on policy but normally that is done at national level” [my emphasis].
Peter Ungphakorn, who served more than 18 years with the WTO Secretariat, was sceptical. “WTO officials meet lots of visitors, some in the delegations, others not. They don't advise anyone on what to do. They may explain WTO rules, for example, explaining GATT Art24. The fact that @TiceRichard claims its encouragement on policy, is his own invention”. Henry Newman of Open Europe also chipped in.
“He said this with me on LBC many months back and I challenged at the time”. So Tice is not only lying, he has, like his pal Farage, tried the same whopper before.
Yet press and broadcasters keep giving these frauds a platform. That’s not good enough.
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This, of course, should be what real reporters should be doing stories on, yet instead, some people have given their baby a name.
ReplyDeleteSo, where's the 28 page all colour special pull out on the "important" story, Tim?
£39 billion for 'nothing' eh? Glad to see that they agree that Nige shouldn't get his pension.
ReplyDelete