Wise words from Ms Gina Miller

From time to time I have criticised the actions of Ms Gina Miller.  Remember how she initiated the 2016 R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union court case against the British government over its authority to implement Brexit without approval from Parliament?  The court found in her favour and the judgement forced Mrs May to put the triggering of Article 50 before parliament.    

At the time many, including me, thought what she was doing was outrageous and government had the right to govern.  And so it was MPs that triggered Article 50, not the government.  MPs set the date for leaving.  Which, of course, has come back to haunt Remain MPs as it was they who voted not only to have a referendum in the first place but to implement its result.    

Fast forward to last night on BBCs Question Time we saw a different Ms Miller.  She clearly identified two issues I think few of us could disagree with.  

First of all she noted the government has been utterly negligent in its preparation for leaving.  What the holders of three of the Great Offices of State, the Prime Minister (Mrs May), the Chancellor, (Mr Hammond) and the then Home Secretary, (Ms Rudd) thought they were playing at by not immediately starting full preparations for leaving the EU without a deal with the EU I have no idea.   

History I fear will show their decisions to do nothing and wait to see what deals could be made will be seen as one of the biggest political miscalculations in history.  It is almost criminal.  Indeed, in some nations around the world it would be.  Or to quote Anotine Boulay de la Meurthe, on hearing of the execution of the Duc d'Enghien by Napoleon. "It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder".

Given MPs had voted to enact Article 50 with its exit date, it shows the utter contempt by the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Home Secretary of all the people who voted in the referendum, not just those who voted Leave, which resulted in the majority decision by the people to leave the EU.  These three have also displayed contempt of the parliament that had triggered Article 50.    

And Ms Millers 2nd point was even more compelling. And worrying.  The content in the Withdrawal Agreement is utterly unacceptable.  No MP who believes in parliamentary democracy could possibly vote for it.    

We all know the talk of the problems of a back stop is simply a ruse to take us away from looking at the real duplicity of our government while Kenneth Clarks desire, "I look forward to the day when Parliament is no more than a council chamber under a greater EU.", is fast become a reality under Mrs Mays Withdrawal Agreement.  Read the Agreement for yourself.   

The EU and those in the UK negotiations keep flagging up the backstop as the problem.  But let’s put aside for a moment the reality that there already is a non-visible border in place. There is no hard border to return to. No hard border ever existed.

As Ms Miller rightly points out the we should be looking at all the other stuff in the Withdrawal Agreement.  It’s outrageous and as she pointed out, the Agreement will make us a vassal state.  It's all there for you and our MPs to read.  We should be worrying about the colossal back stop delusion.

So Ms Miller, it was perhaps not your intention, but your stand has brought us, and you, to the position where we all realise, except these extreme Remainers who want nothing but political union with the EU like the Liberal Democrats and the SNP as well as some in the Conservative and Labour parties, your wise words to the nation on Question Time need to be not just listened to but acted upon.

Ms Miller may be pro remaining in the EU.  But she is wise enough to realise that what Mrs May is proposing really is the worst of all worlds.