The Sound of Pigeons Returning to Roost

When the Referendum was announced, and all through the worst campaign in History we were bombarded by lies and promises from the Brexiteers. A brave new future lay just around the corner. Millions per week for the NHS; controlling our borders (in other words stopping all these pesky foreigners coming in and stealing our jobs and homes, (why they are even given a council house key and money as they arrive at Dover); freeing ourselves from the shackles of Europe; gaining the freedom to trade with the rest of the World….and so on. The amazing thing is that anyone believed a word of it….but they did.

And we even had the likes of Boris and Rees-Mogg declaring that legally we would have to pay the Europeans nothing and that we could simply walk away. We don’t like the way they play football, why they even have their own referee (the ECJ) so we will take our ball away and play teams we can win against – like Saudi Arabia or Jamaica or the USA or Iceland (oops). This seemed to be the euphoric mood 17 months ago.

But now as the negotiations are getting bogged down, and the promised (even better than the Single Market) new trade deal is still not even on the agenda – put your ear to the door of No. 10. What is that we can hear? A faint fluttering sound, a gentle cooing, a few scratching’s at the wood paneling. I do believe that it is the sound of Pigeons coming home to Roost.

A few weeks ago, Mrs May offered a paltry £18 billion as our payment up to 2020. Now in desperation the cabinet, which we must not forget contains the mad trio of Gove, Johnson and Fox, are faced with the reality that unless they increase this, to at least double – and maybe even an open-ended commitment (because the EU is insisting on our contribution to pensions – and who can tell how long those officials will live for?). And problem number two, which we will have to cave in to also is the rights of EU citizens currently living in the U.K. (Oh, so they won’t all be kicked out after all…but you said…) And the intractable Irish border question – it looks to me as if the Irish Border will soon be moved de facto into the Irish Sea, and where will that leave the DUP Tory Alliance?

But the real problem is still to come. Unless the UK agrees that we will still be subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice we won’t get any sort of trade deal at all.

Pretty soon that gentle cooing will be drowned our by the howls of anguish from those Tory M.P.s and Ukip nutters who, accompanied by the Mail and the Telegraph and the Express and the Sun will all be screaming….TRAITORS.

Until then, keep your little ears to the door and hear just how many sweet little pigeons are flying back to the roost.