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BRENDAN O'NEILL

Remoaner MPs’ charge to take No Deal Brexit off the table is a Grieve-ous act to wreck democracy

IF there was a prize for political hypocrisy, Dominic Grieve would win it hands down.

Grieve, the Tory MP for Beaconsfield, is a leading Remoaner.

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The Dominic Grieve amendment to block a No Deal Brexit is wrecking our democracy, Brendan O'Neil writes

And like other Remoaners he has spent much of the past three years whipping up panic about the dreadful impact Brexit will allegedly have on our country.

A No Deal Brexit — or “crashing out of the EU”, as Remoaners dramatically call it — would be especially bad, he says.

For three years the Brexit-bashing set have spread mad fears about how leaving the EU without a deal will turn the UK into a hellhole in which medicine will run out, food will be scarce and there could even be “violent unrest” as the starving masses ­struggle to survive.

Make no mistake, they say, a No Deal Brexit will plunge the UK into chaos.

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So Grieve came up with a plan to ensure No Deal never happens, which until last night could have sent a wrecking ball right through Parliament.

Before Speaker John Bercow decided not to let them be put forward, Grieve and his fellow Demolition Dame, ­Labour’s Margaret Beckett, tabled amendments to the way government spending is authorised in Parliament.

In a nutshell, they would have threatened to plunge the UK into chaos if any future Prime Minister pursues No Deal.

Yes, that’s right: The latest wheeze of the Brexitphobic elite is to prevent the alleged chaos of a No Deal Brexit by bringing about their own kind of chaos instead.

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INFLICT MISERY

The stalled plan — stalled because it can still be re­tabled today or in the next Parliamentary sitting targeting different departments’ spending — gives new meaning to the word hypocrisy.

It proposed to make it impossible for the Government to fund certain public services unless it promises to ditch the idea of No Deal.

Under the amendments, four government departments would have been prevented from spending money if the Government pursues No Deal.

Those were: The Department for Education, the ­Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for International Development.

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These departments are ­central to everyday life.

Imagine if the Government was physically and legally prevented from spending money on schools, or housing, or transport, or on people’s ­pensions.

There would be mayhem.

MAYHEM

Bus routes could grind to a halt. Schools wouldn’t be able to give kids what they need.

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Older people would have problems with their pension payments.

Grieve’s plan would have brought about the very thing that he and other anti-Brexit moaners have been warning about: A national meltdown.

As a spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said of Grieve’s Remoaner plot: “Any attempt to deny vital funding to Whitehall departments would be grossly irresponsible.”

This money is for “crucial areas like schools, housing and welfare”, the spokes­person said. To cut this money off is to play politics with people’s everyday lives. This extreme anti-No Deal plan was clearly aimed at Boris Johnson.

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Johnson has said that if he is elected Tory leader, and therefore becomes the next Prime Minister, he will take the UK out of the EU on October 31 “do or die”.

It would be nice to leave with a deal, he says.

But if Brussels refuses to renegotiate Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement, and keeps trying to foist a bad deal on us, then we will walk away without one, he has promised.

Tory MP Dominic Grieve is leading the Commons charge to smother Brexit by ruling out No DealCredit: Getty - Contributor
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Our anti-Brexit elite aim to hamstring Boris so that he cannot take us out of the EU on October 31 - Deal or No DealCredit: PA:Press Association

The anti-Brexit wing of the establishment hates the idea of us making a clean break with Brussels, even though 17.4million of us voted to leave three years ago.

And so they will do anything to thwart it — including bringing about a government shutdown.

Grieve’s plan would hamper essential government work and potentially inflict misery on huge numbers of people.

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It confirms how ruthless the Remoaner set has become.

There is nothing they will not do to prevent us from walking away from the EU.

We now know that these people are not actually ­worried about the wellbeing of ordinary folk in Brexit Britain.

POLITICAL BLACKMAIL

That is how they have ­justified their Brexitphobic antics over the past three years — as an effort to “save” Brits from the consequences of a No Deal Brexit.

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Yet it is clear now that they are more than willing to make people’s lives more ­difficult if it helps them achieve their political aims.

That is because their ­over-arching, obsessive aim is really just to stop Brexit. It is all they care about. The Grieve wrecking-ball plan shows what those of us who believe in democracy are up against today.

We are up against a political class that will do almost anything to prevent the UK regaining the independence that millions of us voted for in the 2016 referendum.

They will whip up the politics of fear. They will demonise voters as stupid, “low-information” and xenophobic.

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And they will let Boris know that they are prepared to mess up government spending — and by extension everyday life — if he goes for No Deal without Parliamentary approval.

Demolition Dame Margaret Beckett tabled amendments to the way government spending is authorised in ParliamentCredit: EPA

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It is a kind of political blackmail: “Do what we want or we will shut down ­government departments.”

If it does make its way to debate, MPs must reject this cynical, dangerous, anti- democratic plan and stand up for the right of the next Prime Minister to play hardball with the EU.

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The vote for Brexit — the largest democratic vote in UK history — must be upheld, however much it offends Dominic Grieve and other moaning MPs.

Boris Johnson says Britain will still have Mars Bars and clean water in a No Deal Brexit outcome during Bournemouth Tory leadership hustings
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