Post Brexit politics

Chris Grey posed the question as to what post-Brexit politics would be like: would be continue to be as poisonous and hateful towards the EU, or would there be a more pragmatic relationship?

It is too early to tell, but almost certainly we saw if not two political deaths, then two political ends.

If that makes sense.

Most people who watched the sessions from Westminster yesterday will not be surprised if Johnson were to shrink into the political shadows, revealled as he was as someone who never takes the blame and refuses to accept the truth, even when presented with the evidence. Indeed, if Johnson had been as nimble as a cat yesterday under questioning, the front pages would have been full of his victory.

If were at cat, then it was Garfield.

Instead, the sounded triumphant, but the reality was their man took one hell of a beating. And the heaviest blows were struck by Conservatives on the seven person committee, including Harriet Harman as Chairwoman.

What yesterday did confirm was that as the nation mourned and were locked down, so not to make each other ill, in Downing Street they were patrying like it was, well, 1999. That can never be undone, and it was all done under Johnson, with his, if not approval, then he did nothing to stop the gatherings and parties.

In a political doubleheader, as well as the Fall of Johnson, there was the vote on the "Stormont Brake", renegotiated NIP. Johnson grandly announced he would be voting against the improved versio of his WA. And it is better than his, and he did indeed vote against it.

Johnson did hope that this would lead to a huge rebellion by like-minded COnservatives who would rally round his flag. The usual suspects did: Truss, JRM, Priti Patel, the DUP. Oh yes, the DUp, the only NI party to want Brexit and yet has voted against every version of it in the Commons, without coming up with a version they liked that would work.

Anyway, I digress.

So, just 20 Conservatives rebelled, and the 9 DUP MPs. That's the combined Cult of JOhnson, the ERG and the DUP. They used to have over a 100 likeminded souls. Not any more. Even the self-styled "hard man of Brexit", Steve Baker voted with the Government, of which he is now a senior member of. And he stated that all MPs should vote with the Government, even Johnson, or be a "Pound Shop Farrage".

How times change.

And they might change again, of course. But I would like to think we are all tired of fighting the Brexit Wars, and just want to retire and grow old, like all soldiers of faith and fortune do.

The first step is the hardest. That has been taken, and the Brexiteers know it. Sunak, for all his faults, has shown what being a trustworthy negotiating partner can achieve. May we never go back to Johnson and (Sir) David Frost.