Sic transit Brexit

The Brexit bill had just three days of debate before it passed the House of Commons today. Yesterday the debate ended four hours early, because so few MPs wanted to speak.

This was the bill, pared of concessions made before the election to Remainers, which the House had refused to pass in three days in time to meet Boris's pledge of achieving Brexit by 31 October. 

I caught my old friend from university David Anderson, now Lord Anderson QC, informing Radio Four's Today programme in October that, though as a crossbench peer he could not get involved in politics, he could say the bill would require a year to eighteen months for Parliament to scrutinise properly. 

This strengthened my view that lawyers do not understand politics and that judges should not be allowed to overrule Parliament. Judicial activism is as undemocratic as international or EU law.

Had Boris kept his promise to achieve Brexit by 31 October and then held an election, when finally permitted to do so, what would the election result have been? Labour would not have betrayed the referendum result by fighting the election on a promise of a second referendum and the Liberal Democrats would have been released from their promise to remain in the EU without bothering about a second referendum. Lifelong Labour voters who had voted Leave would not have needed to vote Tory in order to secure Brexit. 

How full of ironies history is.

Another irony is that Jeremy Corbyn could have had the soft Brexit he said he wanted, kept the UK in a Customs Union with the EU, held onto Labour Leave voters, prevented the Liberal Democrats attracting Labour Remain voters, split the Tory Party and left Theresa May in power as a lame duck Prime Minister, had Jeremy Corbyn stuck to what he claimed were his principles and agreed to a more left-wing version of her Withdrawal Agreement. Instead the Soft Brexiteers and Remainers in the Tory party have been defeated as badly as Labour.

From my Brexiteer point of view, Great Britain had a very lucky escape indeed. As for Northern Ireland, it is set to flourish as the ideal place in the UK for foreign investment, straddling as it will two customs areas.

The blame for Labour's catastrophic mistake was not Jeremy Corbyn's alone. He has always been a Brexiteer in secret and knew that for electoral reasons the referendum result had to be honoured. He tried hard to resist the demands from Keir Starmer, in particular, to pledge a second referendum. The blame is shared not only with Keir Starmer, but Lady Nugee and the rest of the people who want to be the next Labour leader. 

But great praise has to be given to Boris for turning Labour's folly into a comprehensive remaking of the Tory party and leading it to a historic victory. Widely despised by journalists, he has shown that he has the stuff of greatness.