The UK has voted for Brexit. To leave the EU.
In a campaign powered by disillusionment with the political, business & journalistic elite, UK voters rejected warnings of impending doom and decided to leave the biggest trading bloc on earth.
We are left with a minister for Brexit, Mr David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden who appears totally out of his depth.
He has said the UK might establish trading relationships which amount to a free trade area ten times the size of the EU. Seemingly unaware that the EU makes up more than 10% of the world economy, meaning this would require our free trade area to extend beyond planet earth.
He also seems to lack basic awareness of what a trading bloc is. Having implied the UK might negotiate separate deals with different EU member states. This is particularly strange, as one of the criticisms of UK membership of the EU was that it prevented us from negotiating separate deals with non EU member states.
No matter, the rank incompetence of Mr Davis hardly registers when compared to the wilfully destructive act of appointing Mr Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. At first sight a totally bizarre move, for while Mr Johnson is undoubtedly intelligent richly talented, he is no diplomat. It's a bit like Barcelona playing Lionel Messi in goal. Ridiculous. Even professional diplomats like the US state department spokesman could hardly keep a straight face at the news.
Then there is Liam Fox. Disgraced former Cabinet minister, with a unique approach to charity (meaning he seems to think it is something that flows inwards, rather than outwards). Again, so far out of his depth it hardly bears comment.
Much has been made of how the Trump phenomenon in the US mirrors the UK Brexit vote. And it does.
Yet there is another parallel, so far unremarked. Trump may be the scourge of the Republican party establishment, but he is also the inevitable result of the politics they have been pursuing since the time of Reagan. Persuading blue collar ageing white males to vote against their economic interests for reasons of 'identity'. Stoking up fear on immigration, and terrorism. Thriving on barely concealed 'othering' of vast segments of the population. In truth Reagan may embody much of what led to Trump, but it can also be argued this sort of theing began with Barry Goldwater, or Richard Nixon's 'Southern Strategy'.
Likewise in the UK, the Conservative party establishment has spend a generation or more demonising the EU. Along with various other groups, including migrants.
Then they got bitten by the beast they created.
It has been amusing to watch Tories, only too eager to benefit from smears on their left wing opponents in the right wing press howling in outrage under the same treatment.
And then you realise, it is the future of our country these people play with.
You might well ask how a new prime minister managed to appoint so poorly. The answer is clear. If your desire is to cling to power in Number 10 Downing Street, as opposed to make sure the country is as well represented as it can be, these are superb appointments. In her first outing at Prime Minister's Questions Theresa May accused Jeremy Corbyn of putting personal ambition before the good of his party. This is an accusation that does not stick. Many of Mr Corbyn's detractors claim the opposite, he is simply not ambitious enough for a would be Prime Minister.
Mrs May's accusation is Trump like projection. She is the one driven not by principle or some great goal, but pure, unbridled personal ambition. Cameron believed in nothing but his God given right to rule. May believes whe has worked hard enough to 'earn' her time in Number 10. That she deserves it.
To be clear, the EU was and is a flawed organisation. The case for remaining was no slam dunk. But we did not have any sort of debate on the merits of membership versus leaving. We had a rabble rousing fest.
Our forbears fought and died for privileges we now call 'rights'. Democracy foremost among them. Neither the populace nor the elite are worthy inheritors.
