The Tory gambit, breaking the Withdrawal Agreement makes sense as follows 1/ The deal is close - with fishing and state aid the main issues. They need freedom to hand money to their mates in dodgy tech/service companies and to rival Europe on tech sovereignty issues...
2/ In just seven months the Brexit project has moved from "promoting free trade everywhere" to "a state-led investment economy whose success can only come from Europe's failure"... but the dud backbenchers and the xenophobes who vote for them don't realise this...
3/ I think Johnson will stage a walkout from the talks, using the Northern Ireland issue as the cause, and the threat to bar EU firms from raising cash in London as the deranged negotiating trick that everyone knows is fake....
4/ ... Then he will go back into the talks and do the deal that's on the table now. It's being done a) for the white nationalist domestic audience b) to destabilise the EU c) as a dowry for a rapid framework deal with Trump...
5/ .... is there any section of the British ruling class in whose interests this caper is being staged? Not really. Not the big service companies, not most parts of the city (except the No Deal focused hedge funds and law firms). Not Pret a Manger, not Oxbridge... but here's why
6/ This is a government that needs perpetual crisis theatre. If 60,000+ excess deaths are not spectacular enough, if not enough fascists paraded at Dover against the refugees, if the BBC caves on Land of Hope and Glory, you need another crisis...
7/ It's a clique government, awarding no-bid contracts to its mates, but it is strategyless. Since everyone's quoting Gramsci, it is a mild form of "Caesarism", where a clique takes power amid confusion but represents only itself...
8/ And it's not playing "3 dimensional chess" - it's playing drunk poker. With our auto industry, with our universities, with our world reputation for good governance and hospitality... but you know what...
9/ ... they can be beaten.
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