Martyn Richard Jones

Bonn 31st August 2017

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the view of the UK government doesn’t get any better.

Edinburgh, London, Brussels, Beijing or Washington. It’s increasingly obvious that Theresa May and her cabinet are a painfully embarrassing and unfunny joke.

They stand as an obdurate aberration where once there had been some semblance of cultured diplomacy, breadth and depth of intelligence and strategic thinking. They defy the laws of reason, good sense and decency. They are the Keystone Cops, the Chuckle Brothers and the Carry On Camping of governance.

Simply stated, the hopelessly ‘out of its depth’ Tory government is lurching, with unparalleled and unwarranted aplomb, from one strategic, tactical and operational balls up to another.

From the top to the bottom, the Tory government’s vessel is a ship of fools. Rudderless, directionless and floundering. Everything they touch either turns to dreck, falls apart in their hands or is rendered spoiled goods.

They called a general election when one wasn’t needed, and they were punished for doing so. They talked of bringing back grammar schools and of stopping free primary school meals, and were caned for their troubles. They tried to make the general election about Brexit and were rightly ignored. They floated the idea of bringing back hunting with dogs and they were chewed to bits. They took on the pensioners of the UK with their grotesque Dementia Tax, and were roundly and rightly cudgelled. They even claimed that Brexit negotiations would be a walk in the park, and were roundly ridiculed for their dopiness.

They then forged an incredibly imprudent parliamentary deal with the DUP in exchange for a massive and fraudulent bung, and in so doing put the Good Friday Peace Agreement at risk.

In 2016, Theresa May, in a gesture of reckless-provocation, appointed David Davis – for as ill-equipped and unprepared for the role as he seemed to be – as her Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (i.e. the head-boy of running away)

Like it or not, the reality of our understandably incompetent handling of the massive uncertainties, complexities, risks and costs that Brexit entails is making us look like complete and utter fools; locally, regionally and globally. At the same time, the EU Brexit team is telling the UK government’s Brexit team, and not without some reason on their side, to get serious and get a move on. True, we have produced a serious of position papers on Brexit, but they have mainly served to magnify the incompetent handling of the whole Brexit situation, and to highlight the fantasies that we have created in order to justify Brexit, rather than serving to bring clarity, light and understanding to the matter.

The fact that there has been no decisive advances in the Brexit negotiations is cause for great concern.

In recent days, Theresa May, playing post-imperial patsy to the 45th President of the USA, has been vociferously urging Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea’s leader, Kim Jung Un. The reaction from sectors of the media in China, over her unhelpful rehashing of Washington’s rhetoric, has been relatively measured and diplomatic. ‘Weak people often look to show strength,’ said the Global Times. Immediately seeing through May’s lack of strong leadership, her tenuous acquaintance with global realities and her unhelpful, awkward and obsequious bluff and bluster.

Worst of all, this Tory government is simply not listening. They have a leader who lacks leadership skills, empathy and charm. They have a cabinet jammed packed with chancers, opportunists and wide-boys. They are egged on to greater and greater feats of self-harming folly, hubris and conceit by the scatty right-wing faction of the parliamentary Tory party. And when it comes to considering reasoned, articulate and balanced arguments and concerns, they really don’t give a damn.

Many MPs in the Conservative Party, and indeed people in the country, want to see May out of Number 10. People are sick of seeing the UK government’s cabinet stuffed with this cheap political assortment-box of Charlies with dubious talent.

Johnson, Davis, Fallon, Hunt, Fox, Clark, Gove, etc. etc. etc. What on earth was going on in May’s brain when she included these people in her cabinet? It beggars belief, and maybe it’s even better not to know.

Many people want to see an end to this dreadful lunatic right-wing Tory government and the return to some form and sense of reasonableness, propriety and intelligence. It’s about time we started treating people as equals, whether at home, with the rest of the European Union or on the wider international stage.

The British Empire died many, many years ago. It’s never coming back.

That’s all from me for today. Many thanks for giving me your time and please don’t hesitate to leave your comments below. So, until our paths cross next time.

Bye for now.

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