Opinion

Tom Collins: Why did we decide to send in the clowns?

Tom Collins

Tom Collins

Tom Collins is an Irish News columnist and former editor of the newspaper.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arriving in Downing Street, London, for a cabinet meeting. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arriving in Downing Street, London, for a cabinet meeting. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arriving in Downing Street, London, for a cabinet meeting. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

I hope historians of the future have a finely-honed sense of humour, for when they sit down to write the history of our times they will need it.

We are living in the era of Buffoonocracy. Leading the cast of a global sit-com are Trump in America, Orban in Hungary, Netanyahu in Israel, Erdogan in Turkey, Kim Jong-un in North Korea – the list goes on.

Britain’s Boris Johnson is the epitome of the modern political buffoon, blustering his way past reality into the realms of fantasy. And Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has displayed zero understanding of the complexities of Irish politics, is Brexit fantasist-in-chief.

The theory of collective intelligence – which supposes that together we make better decisions than we would as individuals – has been sorely tested in recent years. With the exception of First Chairman Kim, all of these men (and buffoons tend to be found in the male of the species), have been elected to office by sane and sensible people like you and me.

We are getting to the stage where democracy is no longer capable of providing sane and sensible government. Winston Churchill, who had own his moments of buffoonery, said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” I suspect that is no longer true.

Something has changed in the body politic. The post-war consensus has broken down. We live now in a world of winners and losers, where politicians govern for the few, not the many.

Trump secured three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. In Britain Theresa May won just 42 per cent of the vote at the last election. She clings to power with the support of the DUP – which represents less than one per cent of the electorate.

Let’s not dwell on President Putin’s huge mandate. Former Soviet states have their own way of dealing with elections. In 2013 Azerbaijan’s election results were released by mistake on Twitter the day before the poll took place.

One of my favourite sayings is ‘it doesn’t matter who wins the election, the government always gets in’. Fair enough if you are a cynic. But cynicism is a luxury when decisions being taken by under-elected politicians are having a profound and detrimental effect on the lives of ordinary men and women.

May has no mandate for her current course on Brexit. She asked for one last year and didn’t get it.

All the economic indicators show that the pursuit of a hard Brexit is having a detrimental effect on the economy – last week the Bank of England revised growth expectations downwards again. Life and death services are also being hit. The NHS is being denuded of European doctors and nurses, farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to secure migrant labour to gather crops, jobs are leeching away to European capitals as companies relocate their headquarters.

The buffoons don’t see this. They still think Britain is Great. But it is a broken country, a busted royalist flush.

The latest twist is a sordid attempt by Westminster to take back control – not from Brussels but from the devolved governments.

In Scotland the SNP administration is fighting plans by Westminster to hold on to powers coming back from Brussels in areas already devolved to the regions. These include fishing and farming.

At the weekend, British government sources told Scotland on Sunday that if it gave into the SNP, then all devolved administrations would benefit. The source claimed this would “give devolved administrations a veto over UK-wide arrangements”.

And here’s the rub: “The veto would not just be in the hands of the SNP in Scotland or Labour in Wales but potentially Sinn Féin in a restored Northern Ireland executive.”

Yet again, you just can’t trust those bloody Irish; and once more the interests of anti-European Little Englanders, and their fellow travellers in the DUP, are being put ahead of the economic interests of the broader population.

John F Kennedy once quoted the saying: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

That is what is happening in the UK on Brexit. There is no opposition to the confederacy of dunces that is the cabinet.

For pointing out the inadequacies of the British position, foreign minister Simon Coveney was branded “belligerent, interfering and Brit bashing” by the DUP’s Sammy Wilson.

In the absence of credible opposition in Britain, the Irish government has a solemn obligation to call Britain out on a Brexit deal that threatens the safety and security – economic and political - of these islands.