STOPPING BREXIT: The MP > lobbyist > Whitehall Remaindeer axis is hard at work

Military, geopolitical, security, global power and political sabotage in full swing as Leavers grasp full extent of perfidy involved New revelations remind us that Brexit is far from real

You may have spotted this piece at the weekend Telegraph. It’s fairly standard issue Mayflower spin: Mother Theresa is a good egg really, it’s just those nasty Sir Humphreys and that Philip Hammond bloke getting in her way. But May had a good think about things at Chequers last week, and now she’s jolly well going to tear some ears off at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting. The key spin phrase this time is “you’ve been given your marching orders, now get on with it”.

As Mayormaynot is effectively the Executive Editor of the Torygraph these days, we can dismiss this simplistic piece. Holidays are ending, the recess is nearly over, and across the spectrum of politics, lobbying and Whitehall, most tribes among the Leavers are beginning to realise that the pro-Brussels fanatics have no intention of letting a little thing like a majority of the electorate get in the way of their plans to remain on the SS Eutanic.

There is far more to this than the fantasy of an all-powerful Empress in Downing Street barking out orders that must be obeyed.

What we’re looking at here is a cynical “realist” in Number Ten keen to come out of “the Brexit process” with as little merde sticking to her as possible. She can have her people leak that Hammond is out of line, but she appointed him to be 2inC knowing full well his level of attachment to the European Union. And she can promote her “tough old bird” drivel in relation to senior Civil Servants, but she knows that not all of them work for the UK….or for that matter, Europe.

These are the realities:

1. The Americans in general and NATO in particular have no intention of letting their cornerstone European ally gaily float off into a more neutral role. Several top Sir Humphreys have foreign office and military responsibilities, and both these have been areas of expertise for Hammond. Sometimes, people are inclined to forget where their loyalties lie; that particular group remains close to Tony Blair and his unswerving support for the US, Israel – and the EU as a key globalist bloc.
2. Political sources close to the Treasury insist that the state of Whitehall unreadiness after the vote went in favour of Brexit was no accident. I also know that quantitative research was undertaken by one key department of State during the Referendum, and this left pro-EU hardline Mandarins “in no doubt” that Leave was going to win. The view taken was, “the more chaos and the more daunting the exit task is, the better”.
3. David Davies is frustrated by three problems he faces at the moment. The first is Hammond putting a bloc on any poaching of staff for the Brexit task-force (and on at least one occasion issuing a knuckle-rap on costs to the Minister for Brexit). The second is the complete lack of focus on anything being demonstrated by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. And the third is the entirely predictable turf-war going on between Johnson and the other overlapping Leave Minister, Liam Fox. Talk of the “air having been cleared” was dismissed by those close to the Davies circle at the weekend as “just more May spin….she put these three combustibles together, and she knew exactly what she was doing”.
4. A media Communications team dedicated to stressing the “difficulty” of the withdrawal process is reported to be answerable solely to the Prime Minister. It was the source of three separate stories about a two-tier Europe, a Nord-Europe and anti-UK hardliners in the British press over the last six days. “There’s a feeling,” said one prominent Leaver yesterday, “that it’s a softening-up process designed to get the electorate used to the idea of an accommodation, some kind of halfway house”.
5. Evidence also emerged over the last week that Theresa May dumped the idea of a Commons debate about the referendum result on the basis of disturbing advice about a potentially negative backlash from Leavers. Senior Met Officers (and, it is alleged, a branch of the security services) warned the Conservative leader that the Remain campaign was intent on making a major demonstration outside the House, but that “the more vociferous elements” in the Leave campaign had made it clear that they would make such demos a flashpoint if they took place.
6. The Blairite Group has a lot at stake on the Brexit question; we should in fact stop thinking of Blair as a retired politician, and see him, Campbell, Mandelson and a coterie of other professionals dedicated to pulling out all the stops – with both US and EC help – to ensure that the EU survives….and with it, an American hegemony based on secure access to energy. It is now looking increasingly likely that Corbyn will be re-elected Labour leader with a comfortable majority. An independent Britain and a popular Left Prime Minister is the worst nightmare imaginable for NATO.
   

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   Opinions vary wildly as to how the PM hopes to come out of this unscathed; but one recurring view on the Right of the Tory Party is that May’s plan is to let the ‘Fear Factor’ come to fruition. “She sees a global financial crisis as highly likely,” suggests one older head, “and given Britain’s particular vulnerability to that outcome, it wouldn’t be difficult to blame it on Brexit”.

Another major terrorist incident, however, would work in the opposite direction. No matter how manipulative Theresa Maniac is, she can’t control all events – much as her strategy is to suggest that she can.

Perhaps the most reassuring element for those of us who voted Leave is that – unless my own soundings are way off – the upper echelons of UKIP and Vote Leave are acutely aware of what the Establishment is up to. There are even rumours that, offstage, semi-formal discussions are taking place between their grass roots, and those of the Conservative Party. But as yet I am completely unable to confirm that.

Either way, the story remains the same: we’ve done V for Victory and V for Validation….now it’s V for Vigilance we must focus upon. But – and this is a reasonably sound tip -don’t hold your breath waiting for Boris Johnson to get voluble about it.