Oven Ready - or Half Baked?
Just get it done so that we can get on. Attractive refrain. But does returning Mr Johnson to No 10 really Get It Done? We are promised that the EU trade deal will be done by the end of 2020. If not we leave without one. So No Deal is still very much on the table.
What about this deal, this very good deal? It's only the beginning. It needs another deal, that trade deal with Europe. Of course I can get a good trade deal with Europe. They said I'd never be able to renegotiate Mrs May's deal. But I did, didn't I? That's the half-baked bit. Boris' divorce deal is little different to Mrs May's. Whilst it removed the back-stop, so loathed by the idealogues, it replaced it with not one but two Irish borders and little else. What's more lots of Brexiters still hate it. The Brexit Party says Boris' deal still keeps us a vassal state of Europe. Nigel Farage has only withdrawn the Brexit candidates from Tory seats to try to ensure Remain doesn't win. Once Boris is back in Government the Brexiters plan to hold Boris' feet to the fire to get an even harder Brexit. So the internal strife within the Brexit camp will still go on
Once in Number 10, Mr Johnson is going to be very busy negotiating the trade deal with Europe and new trade deals with USA, the Commonwealth, China and Uncle Tom Cobbley still whilst fighting opponents in his own camp. Is he really going to have time and energy for anything else? Meanwhile we all, businesses included, will remain uncertain of the likely final shape of the deals. That sounds like dither and delay (now where have you heard that before?)
Voting Lib Dem will help to keep Boris out of no 10. It is true that this would not immediately arrest Brexit. But it would enable a people's vote. Without Boris and the pull of the hard Brexiteers, it would be possible to conclude a deal on a softer Brexit quite quickly. This time the Country would know what the Brexit plan offered meant. And could make an informed choice between Leave or Remain. No more dither and delay.