This is not the day to be talking about the UK signing up to Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement surrender treaty, is it?
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
The first thing I have to mention, is that today is Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day.
This is the day we remember the unconditional surrender of Germany to the allies in 1945 and mark that six years of total war in Europe with millions of lives lost came at an end, which sparked celebrations and street parties across the world.
And now we have Theresa May trying to force the UK to sign up to that Withdrawal Agreement surrender treaty of hers with the EU – you just could not make it up!
And talking of our PM, she was asked to resign during PMQs today, with the request coming from one of her own MPs, the Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns, who said:
"She’s tried her best, nobody could fault or doubt her commitment and sense of duty, but she has failed. The public no longer trust her to run the Brexit negotiations. Isn’t it time to step aside and let someone else lead our country, our party and the Brexit negotiations?
And the PM replied by saying:
"This is not an issue about me and it’s not an issue about her. If it were an issue about me and the way I vote, we would already have left the European Union."
So she's obviously still trying to convince herself that her Withdrawal Agreement is really Brexit.
And regarding the growing calls for her to step down, her spokesman said:
"She is here to deliver Brexit in phase one, and then she will leave and make way for new leadership in phase two. That is the timetable she is working for. She wants to get Brexit done."
But she has already been given an ultimatum by the chair of the Tory 1922 backbench committee, Graham Brady, who gave her until 4pm today to come up with a timetable for her departure.
And the former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said that the party needs a change and went on by saying:
"The Committee has to sit again, now, urgently and decide that either the Prime Minister sets the immediate date for her departure or, I'm afraid, they must do it for her."
And if they don't there's always that National Conservative Association emergency meeting on the 15th of June to fall back on. The Association says that Mrs May is no longer the 'right person' for the job of leading the Brexit negotiations.
Me? I would say she was never the right person for that task.
But would you credit it that in response to another question in PMQs today, Theresa May said that she could recover just like the Liverpool football team that made a stunning second leg come back at Anfield last night to win against Barcelona and go through to the Champions League final for a second successive season.
No chance! She's more likely to fall flat, face down in the mud!
And finally, in continuance of the potential Huawei role in the future UK 5G telecoms system, in a joint press conference with the UK Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has warned that allowing the Chinese tech giant such access to the UK internet could endanger UK/US defence co-operation.
The US Secretary of State also said:
"Ask yourself this: would the Iron Lady have allowed China to control the internet of the future?"
Mr Pompeo also said that he had great confidence that the UK would make the right decision, but the US did have an obligation to operate inside trusted networks.
"And that’s what we will do." He said.
Jeremy Hunt said that no final decision had yet been taken on the issue, but that the preservation of the security relationship the UK has with the US was our number one foreign policy priority.
The trouble for me, is that I'm not sure that Theresa May, nor Jeremy Corbyn for that matter, share that view.
It seems to me that Theresa May is intent on shifting our whole UK defence posture to being one of kneeling at the feet of Brussels, whereas Jeremy Corbyn gives the appearance that he would rather we didn't defend ourselves at all.
How soon we forget the lesson that the best way to defend yourself is to prepare for war – otherwise our heirs will be facing more horrific conflicts. But they may not get to see the future equivalent of VE Day, a day that signalled our continuing freedom!
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48199725
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/08/theresa-may-rebuffs-fresh-calls-to-resign
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-ve-day
