Angus Robertson asked a clever-clever question about the expected demise of the Northern Ireland Assembly

At Prime Minister's Questions the SNP's leader Angus Robertson asked a clever-clever question about the expected demise of the Northern Ireland Assembly requiring the postponement of Article 50:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38586483

Far from holding us up, it is encouraging to think that the entire Brexit process could be carried out during a period of direct rule of Northern Ireland - far from getting a veto, or even having their views consulted, Sinn Fein have ensured they will have NO voice in the Brexit process because they will have no official status in a devolved administration.

Looking at the Irish situation from a wider perspective, Brexit means effectively the ending of any logic to the power-sharing process.

The Good Friday agreement was based on the assumption that the border between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom would fade in importance as each country became provinces of the EU.

This is not now going to happen.

Personally I think it would be good to have a hard border with the Irish Republic and certainly I want to see the ending of the automatic right for southern Irish people to enter the United Kingdom and vote in our elections.

Since Brexit the world has changed

When even the party of open door immigration is wheeling out their most left-wing leader ever to announce (in a half-hearted way so that you suspect he had his fingers crossed) that free movement might possible need to end you know that things are changing:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-brexit-eu-immigration-high-pay-latest-chaos-single-market-a7520366.html

Forget the qualifications and the weasel words.

Focus on the fact that he had to address the subject in the first place.

Since Brexit the world has changed.

A nation state requires political parties that are nationalist.

As we have seen today, the Labour leadership is not capable of expressing nationalism.

Therefore they will have nothing relevant to say to the British people.

How many of the current House of Commons will be able to turn themselves into nationalist poiticians?  Less than a third one suspects.  We are in a pre-1973 world (even perhaps a pre-1968 world) when it comes to the new language politicians will need to learn.

How diminished she looked

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show this morning:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04nrnpx

And I thought how diminished she looked.

Not for the first time she mentioned that a million people in Scotland voted Leave.  It was almost as if she wanted to use this fact as a reason why she is not able to press on with a second independence referendum.  As most commentators agree, if she called a second referendum she would lose.

The Leave vote has profound long-term implications for the SNP.

The revival of a British nation state offers a rival nationalism to the SNP's variety of Scottish nationalism.

If handled well, British nationalism could prove to be more appealing than the lightweight Scottish variety with its ersatz narratives.

Perhaps Ms Sturgeon already feels support ebbing away.

The game is up for the pro-immigration ideologues

The appearance of Michael Gove on Dateline London earlier today immediately promoted that programme to the first rank of news and current affairs analysis.

Mr Gove advised us that Sir Vince Cable (former LibDem MP and Minister) had written an article critical of free movement.

You can read the article on the New Statesman website:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/01/why-its-time-end-eu-free-movement

When even fanatics such as Vince Cable (and he is a fanatic, for all his measured delivery) abandon their commitment to free movement you know the game is up for the pro-immigration ideologues.

Since the 1960s the left has used immigration as a way of diluting the British nation state, with the aim of destroying that nation state.  But the British nation state has proved to be too resilient.  As a Powellite Conservative it is a sweet moment when even fanatics such as Vince Cable are indulging in self-criticism.

The siren voices softly insisting we stay part of the single market

Weasel words from SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, offering to "co-operate" with Brexit so long as the United Kingdom stays part of the single market:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38528058

No-one should be fooled by the siren voices softly insisting we stay part of the single market.

The intention of these people is to keep the United Kingdom so close to the EU that a future pro-EU government (perhaps a Lab-Lib-SNP coalition) can take us quickly back into the European Union with the minimum of fuss.

That is why we need to leave the single market, whatever the economic circumstances.

Brexit must be permanent.

Brexit must mean Brexit.

No-one told him because they did not trust him

"We do not yet know what the government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exit" complains Sir Ivan Rogers in his petulant resignation letter:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38503504

Did it occur to Sir Ivan that he did not know what the negotiating objectives were because he was not told them - and no-one told him because they did not trust him.

And the idea that the civil service is impartial is ridiculous.  Over the last fifty years no Eurosceptic would ever get anywhere in the civil service.  They would be frozen out immediately.

Quisling

We are used to thinking of Channel 4 News as a biased organisation purveying news tainted with barely disguised partisan opinion.

However, this evening Jon Snow really confronted Nick Clegg with the logical impossibility of civil servants negotiating Brexit when they do not believe in Brexit.

Sir Ivan Rogers is a very distinguished figure and one hesitates to apply the description "quisling" to him.  Nevertheless, I cannot think of any other word that will do.  He is a quisling - his allegiance is not to the United Kingdom but to the EU, and he is so immersed in pan-European ideology that it is difficult to see him ever holding a public appointment again.

https://www.channel4.com/news/brexit-nick-clegg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38498839
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

The current position of the left

In an otherwise rambling article in the Guardian Jeff Sparrow pins down the current position of the left:  ...the left – a movement dedicated to social transformation – has become the defender of a status quo that no one much else likes.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/02/trump-brexit-left-progressives-aghast-they-should-be-emboldened

2017

In 2017 we look forward to the first formal steps in unchaining the United Kingdom from the corpse that is the EU.

In all the negotiations that lie ahead we must keep in mind that the Leave vote was a revolt of the ordinary people against the hypocrisies and corruption of a society degraded by the worship of money.

If liberty is to be a solid and lasting possession it must be gained by patient years of working and waiting.

Services to the Leave campaign and the Brexit result

It is the time for national honours to be awarded.

I would like to make an award of my own - to Dateline London for services to the Leave campaign and the Brexit result.

Throughout the campaign the programme presented a seemingly endless parade of foreigners with varying accents and ethnicities almost all sneering and jeering at the British people in a way most calculated to annoy the viewers and persuade them that whatever the arguments of the referendum this claque of foreigners must have their faces smacked (metaphorically).

So thank you Dateline London guests, and keep on what you are doing.

Brexit will be more final for your efforts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b087kcr8/dateline-london-31122016
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