At first it looked quite good. A decisive, focused government, a prime minister with a mission, willing to take control and make decisions, a charm offensive at the G7, positive noises around Europe and the promise to listen by the EU, to any new GB proposals on the backstop and not least, the proclamation by Boris of the end of austerity. So what has gone wrong?
A lot. But first we must remind ourselves that Downing Street is now in the clutches of the same gang who ran the Leave campaign and won it on a fraudulent prospectus full of headlines which were a combination of outright lies, wishful thinking and promises which could never be delivered. It is the ambiguity of this victory which lies at the heart of the present national crisis. The disingenuous character of Boris Johnson and his backers has in a few short weeks created an unprecedented atmosphere of distrust in the intentions of the executive. Today we learn that the negotiations with the EU over a backstop replacement, which the government keeps talking about, are not actually happening and the promised proposals from Boris & Co have never been submitted to the EU. So the centrepiece of the Brexit policy is apparently a spoof.
Promises not to suspend parliament, then doing so in a deft political manoeuvre, backfired to be seen as an assault on democracy, a definition which has taken hold in the public imagination. Threats to kick out of his party lifelong grandees who do not share the Boris view of the way forward, have caused hurt and upset, but above all anger. Escorting a treasury adviser from Downing Street by armed police on the instructions of Boris’s fixer were for many the last straw.
All this and more has done what nearly three years of argument and debate in the commons has failed to do. It has brought together all parties of the opposition, including an important minority of the Tory party, in a united way forward to thwart the government’s plans. This has inaugurated what amounts to a political civil war. The first battle takes place later today. A lot, perhaps everything, depends on who wins.