My Lords, do your patriotic duty

Anyone who follows current affairs will know that once patriotic fervour is called upon, that means there is no real evidence to support the cause. Just that it would be unpatriotic not to support the cause.

Thus it came to pass this week, that having been given the opportunity to debate the Government's Brexit bill, ended up passing it, with no amendments. This is mainly because the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, forced a three line whip on the party, thus asking the PLP to put party before country. Several did vote against the Government and party line, and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, thus forcing Corbyn into another reshuffle. Never has politics be seen so much as re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Not that Labour should have voted against the ill, but should have put in clauses that meant proper oversight. This they failed to do, even failing to back an amendment in supporting EU workers' rights post Brexit. Hopeless. And once the 3rd reading had been passed, Corbyn then tweeted that now the fighting would start. Thus failing to understand what his party had just done.

In the end, when Brexit is the shambles that it will be, there will be a day of political reckoning, in which the two main parties will each split in half, maybe a re-drawing of the political landscape will be good, but as the Union will be fractured, probably beyond repair by that time, it will be more deckchair arranging.

THe Brexit bill now goes to the House of Lords, with leaks from Number 10 stating that the Lords should do their patriotic duty in passing the bill, or face abolition.

The Lord's duty is to do what the House of Commons did not do, insert oversight and checks and balances. It the Lord's duty is just to nod along, then it really is a pointless chamber.

May has set herself a deadline of the end of March to trigger Article 50, no one forced her to do that, showing once again she really isn't as good at her job as she would like us to think.

Brexit is like a divorce, and the first part of discussions between the two parties is about what the talks will be about. Top of the list is the divorce settlement, outstanding contributions to various EU projects and initiatives that Britain has committed to. THis could be as much as £60 billion. Failure to agree this, means that the talks will fail there, and nothing else will happens, and Britain will fall out of the EU in two years on WTO terms.

Or worse.

Yes, there is worse, upsetting any one of the other 161 members of the WTO, including the EU itself, can trigger a dispute, trying trade up in hugely expensive (for British exporters) trade restrictions and border checks. But listening to the idiot savant, Jacob Rees Mogg, its so easy. Showing clearly, he doesn't really understand the problem, and he is an MP, son of a national newspaper editor, with the best education money can buy. All clearly wasted.

Part of me is past caring, let us see what happens. Maybe the whole process can be halted. Maybe it cannot. You would have thought the PM would have wanted to know, but they are so intent on implementing what is called "the people's will" which result in a massive power grab by the executive, changing laws and rights with little or no debate in the House, such is the so called "Great Repeal Bill".