Brexit Still Not Someone Else’s Fault

For those who shilled for Brexit, promoted Brexit through their writings and media appearances, celebrated Brexit, and are now defending Brexit, reality is proving not merely inconvenient, but downright difficult. As a result, an alternate reality is being spun, not least by the likes of Allister Heath, who has for some reason been made the Sunday edition editor at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph.

Allister Heath

In addition to this job, Heath churns out wayward and revisionist drivel on the EU, the latest being a shoo-in for a Terry Fuckwitt Gold Award. Titled “The EU’s abominable behaviour is about to spark a new Brexit war”, this weapons grade bullpucky details a series of supposed “provocations” coming from those dastardly Eurocrats.

These include “the despicable, counterproductive demonisation of AstraZeneca [not from the EU, it hasn’t], the ban on the exports of shellfish [not exceptional, just applying EU rules to a Third Country], the threats to disrupt the City [there haven’t been any] and, of course, the intransigent, tone-deaf approach to Northern Ireland [which is down to the behaviour of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, not the EU]”.

On Northern Ireland, Heath is especially stupid: “Arlene Foster, the DUP chief and First Minister, has joined a long list of senior British politicians destroyed by our entanglement with the EU. Her departure … is in reality due to the chaos wreaked by the Protocol”. Bullshit. She trusted Bozo, and like everyone else who has done that, is now able to repent at leisure, having been conned by someone who cares only about Himself.

The Northern Ireland Protocol was devised by Bozo and Co, cheered and endorsed by the Tories, cheered equally enthusiastically by their pals in our free and fearless press, all despite the warnings of what it would entail. Like anything and everything else to do with Brexit, it is not someone else’s fault. The nasty EU did not make the poor UK do it.

One wonders what Heath’s lame excuse will be when addressing the latest Brexit dividend, the failure of the UK to agree a fishing deal with Norway. As a result, UK boats will not be able to fish in Norway’s sub-Arctic waters, and so will not be able to land any fish caught there. But Norway will be able to benefit from those fisheries, and indeed export that fish tariff-free into the UK. UK Fisheries is not impressed with the outcome.

Their CEO noted the Government failed “even to maintain the rights we have had to fish in Norwegian waters for decades … In consequence, there will be no British-caught Arctic cod sold through chippies for our national dish. It will all be imported from the Norwegians, who will continue to sell their fish products to the UK tariff-free, while we are excluded from these waters. Quite simply, this is a disgrace and a national embarrassment”.

So, as the BBC has reported, “UK Fisheries said it had invested approximately £180m in the last 20 years in the Humberside fishing industry, and had planned to put in a further £100m. The company's giant vessel, the Kirkella, normally catches around 10% of all the fish sold in the UK's chip shops”. Another post-Brexit bungle. Not someone else’s fault.

While Allister Heath cites Elizabeth I, Castlereagh and the Cobden-Chevalier treaty, and talks of war, the reality is that the UK “getting tough” got us nowhere, and will continue to do so. He should get real and own his bad advice. Brexit is still not someone else’s fault.

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