If you are going to do this damn silly thing, don’t do it in this damn silly way

We begin with the words of that most educational of civil servants, Sir Humphrey Appleby, and move on.

"So the politics of Brexit are truly remarkable not just because Brexit polarises opinion more deeply than perhaps any issue in modern British history but because it does so in a particular way. Brexit policy has taken a form that demands the impossible and requires those who know it is impossible to implement it. It is overseen by someone who presumably thinks that it is possible in this form, but doesn’t appear to believe that it is desirable. Meanwhile it is proclaimed as the sacred Will of the People who magically knew what they voted for two years ago, even though it was only last week that the government precariously agreed what that was. And what we end up with will certainly be different to what the government wants, because that’s impossible to deliver, but whatever it turns out to be it would be an affront to democracy to ask the people to vote on whether or not they agree to it."

Chris Grey puts things so well that it makes me wonder why I bother with this blog. I can only plead that I sometimes make connections he doesn't (not that he couldn't) and this morning it's worth looking at Rachel Sylvester in the Times, who writes, "It is becoming clearer by the day that Theresa May is leading the country towards a Brexit that she does not truly believe is in the national interest, even though she sees it as her duty to implement it. This is an extraordinary position for a prime minister to be in, psychologically as well as politically. There is no precedent for a leader consciously embarking on a course that they know will make their people poorer and less safe."

Both writers recall the words of Jonathan Edwards MP (Plaid Cymru, Camarthen East and Dinefwr) in the Commons yesterday: "Following the Prime Minister’s speech on Friday, she was asked by a journalist, 'Is Brexit worth it?'. She failed to give a direct answer; will she answer today? Is Brexit worth it: yes or no?". At the despatch box May replied in the affirmative readily enough, but this is not the first time her commitment has been in doubt.

Towards the end of last year's election Corbyn and May (both, publicly, Remain voters) had to face Jeremy Paxman on Channel 4. I reproduce what I wrote at the time: "May was asked 'When did  you change your mind on the biggest issue of the day (Brexit)?', then 'Are you trying to achieve something that you think is bad for us?'.  (Both questions are rendered approximately but fairly, I hope.)  And she wouldn't say that she had changed her mind on Brexit, or that she actually believed in it now, only that she believes in 'making a success of it'". And yet again, two days later, when she had gathered her thoughts...

"You can only deliver Brexit if you believe in Brexit," says Theresa May pic.twitter.com/dDgK4plbkE

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 1, 2017

I first really came across Matthew Parris when he tried to live on the dole for a week in 1984 and found he couldn't do it. Since then he's often made me shout at the radio, but he sometimes comes up with good questions. His opinion piece from the Times of 3 February 2018 seems relevant here.

"Wickedness may not always lie in the carrying forward of bad projects. It may also lie in allowing oneself to be carried forward by them, knowing their wrongfulness. Perhaps that is the more culpable, for zealots at least believe their madness. A special kind of guilt attaches to the sane majority of the Conservative Party today. It is written across their faces."