The movie Being John Malkovich was released just over 20 years ago. The central premise is that an unsuspecting puppeteer stumbles into a portal that allows people insights into the actor Malkovich’s brain. A steady stream of twists and turns relating to the self-obsessed, delusional actor keeps the audience gripped. It’s surreal but fascinating.
Given his bizarre musings, policy U-turns, extreme outbursts, apologies and extraordinary lack of self-awareness, Being Steve Baker could be a gripping sequel.
When it comes to Brexit, the NIO minister acts as though the rules don't apply to him; facts are ignored if inconvenient, and anything and anyone can be sacrificed on the anti-EU altar.
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The self-styled Brexit hard man has stated that he joined the Conservatives with the express purpose of campaigning for an exit from the EU, aligning himself with a variety of right-wing cranks.
Throughout his political career, his opposition to the EU has been visceral, gaining notoriety as one of the fiercest proponents of a hard Brexit. Following a stint as chair of the Tory European Research Group, he was promoted to ministerial office and served as a Brexit minister from June 2017 to July 2018.
He resigned after undermining May's premiership by torpedoing her Chequers proposals.
Later, he upset his erstwhile friends in the DUP by claiming Rishi Sunak, the latest prime minister, had "played a blinder" with the Windsor Framework.
Last week he jumped feet first into another controversy, this time on supermajorities. Baker told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly that the Brexit referendum "probably should have been a supermajority", meaning it should have required 60% voter support to pass. That's despite the fact that he voted against an SNP amendment to the EU referendum bill in 2015 suggesting just that.
February 2023: Steve Baker on Windsor Framework
Baker claimed that he now regrets that the UK's Brexit vote did not require the support of 60% of those who voted, and went on to add that it would therefore not be advisable in any future vote on Irish unification to accept a '50% plus one' decision.
Read more:Ian Paisley accused of trying to move goal posts on Irish unity poll
Baker said he was speaking in a personal capacity. Oh, come on, do me a favour... of course he knew full well the furore that would follow his remarks.
He wasn't expressing his opinion on Coke or Pepsi, but wading into one of the most contentious issues in Anglo-Irish politics. Playing fast and loose with the consent principle in the current febrile atmosphere was reckless in the extreme. What was going on in his head?
Why would he now contend that a supermajority would have been preferable in the Brexit vote? Does he really believe that the narrow 52-48% victory is the fundamental problem with Brexit?
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Blaming the Brexit fiasco on the 'losing side's' inability to accept the outcome is laughable. At no point does he acknowledge that Britain's imperial fantasies have led to them haemorrhaging relevance, power and credibility. The real reason that Brexit has been a failure is that it was based on lies and deceit. There is no buyer's remorse, no self-reflection and no honest assessment of the disastrous outworking of this calamity.
Make no mistake, Baker is not interested in border polls or debates about Irish unity. He knows full well he will have no say in any future discussion about Irish unity. He has a majority of just over 4,000 in his constituency of Wycombe and will be long gone by the time any border poll takes place.
He is an arch-Brexiteer who had devoted his career to a break with the EU. He only wants to protect his beloved Brexit. Recent opinion polls indicate a majority of Britons support a second referendum on EU membership in the next decade.
His Brexit dream is already dying. The next mission is to influence the terms for a second poll, to raise the bar and insist on supermajority for the re-join movement. Irish unity is merely a sideshow.
