Britain is standing up to Boris Johnson. His own party is defying his attempt to force a no-deal Brexit, which of course could be catastrophic to British unity, especially considering the hard-won open borders in Ireland which have led to a delicate peace; but also, what if Scotland decided to remain with the EU and leave England as well? The economic prospects of no-deal Brexit-ing are terrible. And what of all the EU citizens who’ve been living and working in Britain for years and years?
Well, thanks to a few brave Tory renegades, Johnson has lost the battle.
From NYT,
But behind all the talk of revolutionary ardor and mutinous tactics was an unlikely cadre of insurrectionists — a band of starchy grandees of Tory politics that includes Winston Churchill’s grandson and a 45-year party veteran and ex-chancellor so colorless that he earned the nickname “Spreadsheet Phil.” Running the government only weeks ago, they flouted it on Tuesday from the sidelines.
They believe that Mr. Johnson, in his zeal for pulling Britain out of the European Union without a deal, is risking severe damage to the British economy. But they also believe he is tarnishing the Conservatives, setting fire to their vision of a big-tent party with priorities beyond Brexit.
In setting aside their usual caution and ripping the heart out of Mr. Johnson’s Brexit plans, they offered perhaps the clearest indication yet that the party, squabbling for decades over Europe, is now enmeshed in a civil war. Mr. Johnson’s team almost immediately kicked the rebels — 21 lawmakers, most of them ex-government ministers — out of the party and barred them from running as Conservatives in the next election.
This is the kind of courage I’d hoped to see from American “conservatives” who, it turns out, are mostly nothing but Trumpists who have no core principles at all and less patriotism.
Who knows though, maybe a Republican or two in Congress will be inspired by these British Conservatives and rein in their feckless leader before it’s too late.
Meanwhile, though, the rebellion in Britain has resulted in a civil war within the Conservative Party, with a fear being that the remainder is more radical, less inclusive and rational now that so many of its members have been essentially kicked out. So the possibility remains that the Tories will indeed become more like our Trumpists —
But in the short term, at least, they’ve dealt Boris Johnson a comeuppance and delayed the no-deal Brexit. So we’ll have to see what happens. The old Conservative Party may be a thing of the past — or — the recklessness of the Brexiteers may yet prove to be the instrument of their own demise.
www.nytimes.com/...