LeftAndRightAndBrexit

Quora Answer : Is former Labour peer Lord Sugar correct that Theresa May should have left Jeremy Corbyn to make a mess of the Brexit talks?

Feb 15, 2018

Well, I'd be delighted for Theresa May to pass the buck to Corbyn, Keir Starmer, Barry Gardiner, Emily Thornberry, John McDonnell and co.

Even at this late stage they'd take over, get up to speed, and make a hell of a better job of it than the current omnishambles of a Tory government.

The entire Tory negotiating position is basically Leavers saying "if we all clap our hands and believe in an "out of the box" solution then we can have one".

They are right of course. Restrictions, laws, treaties etc. are, in the final analysis, just human beliefs. And if we all decided to believe and think something different, all the problems could evaporate like the mist. If only those damned Europeans would just get with the programme.

But there's something hilarious about this : believing that we can, through sheer will-power, break the bonds of existing institutions and belief systems, is the most left-wing / progressive / revolutionary mindset ever. It's the thing that Conservatives have, since EdmundBurke, insisted can't work. Because ... laws, institutions, traditions have to be respected and can't be wished away in practice. That belief is what Conservatives hold out as their "realism".

But right now, Boris Johnson is waaaaay more of a wishful thinking Jacobin than John McDonnell.

What do you call a Conservative party that's lost the entire Conservative foundation of their claim to "realism"? Have given up their pragmatic respect for the current order?

I call it a waste of space, a waste of time, a waste of resources and a waste of votes. They should indeed just resign and hand the whole thing over to Corbyn.

Sugar is quite right. Even if his reasoning is 100% wrong.