KEEN observers will know that it is a sure sign of division and disagreement when assorted MPs appear in the media saying that their party is a broad church and following that observation with a plea for unity.
Accordingly, you would have to have lived in a very deep hole indeed not to have come to the conclusion that there is something amiss within Conservative ranks.
The Brexit-ultras – the thirty to forty MPs who regard themselves as the keepers of the flame when it comes to Britain’s departure from the EU and the terms under which it should proceed – are cutting up rough. There are dark mutterings that the Chancellor is ‘selling out’ or ‘betraying’ the cause of freedom for which they and Boris Johnson fought and lied.
The mutterings against the chancellor follow the well-worn tactic of taking a pot shot at those close to the throne, rather than its occupant. Besides, off the record briefings about Theresa May’s uselessness made by those infamous ‘sources close to [insert name of one of the 57 varieties of MP groups here] are all too easy to place in the sort of newspapers whose proprietors are so fond of Britain they prefer to look at it from afar, rather than live there. Apart from the Daily Express, of course; its editorial line is not determined from afar, but from another dimension. Any day now it will pose the question of whether Philip Hammond is implicated in the deaths of Dodi Fayed and Princess Di.
The government, you might think quite sensibly, says it is proceeding with caution when it comes to determining quite what shape the future of the UK’s relationship with the EU might take. This means that all sides of the issue have to be examined. Brexiteers do not appear prepared to accept that this means potential downsides have to be considered as well as the prospect of the freebooting trade in chlorinated chicken favoured by Dr Liam Fox.
The cause of logic and clarity has, however, been thrown into disarray by the appearance of junior minister for Brexit Steve Baker MP before a Parliamentary Committee. Questioned about leaked impact assessments revealing that each of the three principal Brexit options lead to economic fallout for the UK, Mr Baker said the report needed “improvement”.
When asked about the accuracy of forecasts, the minister replied: “I’m not able to name an accurate forecast, and I think that they are always wrong.”
The leaked analysis forecasts that departing the EU on World Trade Organisation terms, as favoured by the claque of MPs around Jacob Rees-Mogg would see growth reduced by 8%.
It was not made clear what Mr Baker preferred to rely to inform his judgements, other than professional advice tendered to him in the course of his duties as a government minister. Runes, reading the entrails of sheep, possibly necromancy: on that he was noticeably not forthcoming.
As a member of the ministerial team charged with negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU, Mr Baker’s personal views on the EU are less of a mystery: ‘I think the European Union needs to be wholly torn down’.
Like Samson and the Philistines’ temple, Mr Baker appears to be resigned to the thought that pulling the edifice down could bury the UK.
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