The Economist - USA (2019-09-28)

(Antfer) #1

12 Leaders The EconomistSeptember 28th 2019


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o britishinstitutionisanylongerimmunetotheBrexit
virus. On September 24th the Supreme Court ruled that the
queen herself had been led to act unlawfully when her prime
minister, Boris Johnson, advised her to suspend Parliament in
the run-up to Britain’s departure from the European Union (see
Britain section). Unanimous, the judges ruled that the govern-
ment had not provided “any reason—let alone a good reason” for
this intrusion on “the fundamentals of democracy”. The very
next day mps returned to work triumphant.
This was the worst week in Mr Johnson’s extraordinarily bad
two months in office. The unelected prime minister has lost ev-
ery vote he has faced, squandered his majority and fired a score
of mps from his Conservative Party. Following the court’s ruling,
he was dragged back from a unsummit in New York to face the
music in Westminster, where mps now have ample time to grill
him not only about his fraying Brexit plans but also on allega-
tions of corruption during his stint as mayor of London.
Mr Johnson is an unworthy occupant of 10 Downing Street.
And yet the man who would replace him, Labour’s Jeremy Cor-
byn, is hardly more appealing. At its conference this week Labour
set out a platform of wildly far-left policies, including the expro-
priation of a tenth of the equity of every large company, a big
round of nationalisation, the seizure of private schools’ assets
and a four-day working week. The extreme na-
ture of the programme was matched only by the
extreme viciousness of the infighting, and the
extreme incompetence with which plots were
hatched and backs were stabbed.
It may seem like an awful twist of fate that at
such a crucial time Britain has both the worst
prime minister and worst leader of the opposi-
tion in living memory. But it is no coincidence.
Both men, wholly inadequate to their roles, are in place only be-
cause Brexit has upended the normal rules of politics. This tur-
bulent week has shown more clearly than ever that, until Brit-
ain’s relationship with the euis resolved, its broader politics will
be dangerously dysfunctional.

He fought the law and the law won
The Supreme Court’s welcome slapping down of Mr Johnson’s
unlawful suspension of Parliament was a model of neutrality.
But the unrepentant prime minister told a febrile Parliament
that the court had been wrong to intervene. mps are sabotaging
Brexit, he thundered; by ruling out a no-deal Brexit they are sur-
rendering to the Europeans. The man who claimed he wanted to
leave the euto restore power to British institutions has again
shown himself ready to vandalise them when it suits him.
There is no doubt, though, that the person most damaged by
the ruling is the prime minister himself. As well as the ignominy
of losing the case, the judgment brings more immediate pro-
blems. One is the prospect of mps digging into new claims that,
as mayor, he funnelled public money to companies owned by a
close friend. (He says funds were dispensed to her with “utter
propriety”.) Another is that his promise to leave the euon Octo-
ber 31st under any circumstances looks rasher than ever. He is

desperatetodoa deal,butstrikingonethatsatisfiesboth the eu
and his hardline Brexiteers in Parliament will be a tall order—as
it was for his predecessor, Theresa May. The court has shown that
it will not tolerate the kind of chicanery that his advisers seemed
to think might get him out of this hole.
If Mr Johnson feels tormented by Brexit, he should think
again. His lifelong aim of becoming Conservative leader had
long been blocked by fellow mps, who identified him as a light-
weight and a liar. Only their panicked belief that the party need-
ed a leader who had backed Leave, and who could win voters
from the hardline Brexit Party, persuaded them to overlook the
glaring flaws in his character. Brexit may well make Mr Johnson
the shortest-serving prime minister. But it was also Brexit that
made him any sort of prime minister.
Something similar is true of Mr Corbyn. He, too, is frustrated
that Brexit, which does not much interest him, is distracting
from his plans for transforming Britain. Labour’s internal split
on the issue is more likely than anything else to bring him down.
But it is also Brexit that has catapulted him to the extraordinary
position of preparing to form a socialist government before the
end of the year. Brexit has done for two Tory prime ministers and
counting, and split the party system in such a way that Labour
might yet take office on only a small share of the vote. Even with
their humiliations, the Conservatives are ten
points ahead in polls. Imagine how poorly Mr
Corbyn, the most unpopular opposition leader
on record, would be faring in normal times.
Voters will soon face an unappetising choice
between these two inadequate leaders. With the
government some 40 votes short of a majority,
an election is coming. Polls show that many vot-
ers (like quite a few mps) are defecting to the
moderate Liberal Democrats—a sign that they reject the drift to
the extremes in the two main parties. Yet under first-past-the-
post voting it would take an earthquake for the next prime min-
ister to be anyone other than Mr Johnson or Mr Corbyn. And as
for the great matter of the day, neither man has yet been able to
say precisely what type of Brexit, if any, he could bring about.
Given the polls, it is likely that neither will end up with a major-
ity, leaving Parliament just as logjammed as today.
That is why the Brexit question is best answered by returning
it to voters, via a second referendum. We have long argued that
they deserve a chance to say whether the final exit deal is prefer-
able to the one they have as eumembers. A referendum would
resurrect bitter arguments and infuriate Leavers, who see it as a
rematch of a contest they already won. But nearly four years will
have passed between the original vote and a likely exit date. In
addition, what was promised has turned out starkly different
from the reality, especially if Britain proposes to leave without a
deal. It is thus more important than ever to find out if voters are
really in favour of what is being done in their name. The public
supports the idea of a second vote and there is just about a major-
ity for it in Parliament, which can agree on little else. Only when
people are given a clear choice on this question can the country
begin to shake off the Brexit virus. 7

The reckoning


Brexit has infected British politics from top to bottom. To cure the fever will require another vote

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