BBC Radio 3 presenter Georgia Mann
We should all swap Brexit for Bach, the shitstorm for Shostakovich, or whatever. Only one digit separates three and four, but there’s a world of difference. On my hour-long commute yesterday, I switched to BBC Radio 3. This is a temper-improving way to escape the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. Three is now while this blog is being bashed out on the laptop.
Ah, that’s better.
The Breakfast programme with Georgia on BBC Radio 3 is a soothing alternative to listening to Tory ministers lie and talk blatant bollocks on the Today programme, aided and abetted by presenters who seem unable to nail the fibs and watch the minister wriggle.
It doesn’t matter which minister, they’re interchangeable, all chosen not for their abilities but merely for their fealty to Boris Johnson and his determination to “Get Brexit Done”.
You should always prod a political slogan with a sharp stick – this one more than most. This isn’t about getting Brexit done, because Brexit can’t and won’t be done by the end of the month. Brexit will take years, decades even, to settle and sort, to untangle agreements and tie up new ones with whatever granny-knot fastening the government can manage.
No, this slogan is all about Boris Johnson; it’s all part of his plan. Getting Brexit done is all about Johnson being able to wing a general election by saying “I got Brexit done”. Anything that’s all about Boris Johnson should be regarded with extreme suspicion. The only person who should be happy about anything that’s all about Boris Johnson is Boris Johnson; the rest of us should scarper into the undergrowth.
The prime minister’s latest dodge is to attempt to get the WAB through parliament in three days flat. Apologies, I have been infected by the Brexit acronym bug, that’s the withdrawal agreement bill (115 pages, with an extra 126 pages of explanatory fibs, sorry, notes).
Three days is no time to discuss the biggest constitutional change this country has seen in decades – a change that will shape us long into the future, for good or bad (I’m choosing ‘bad’, but that shouldn’t be a surprise).
Those interchangeable ministers always say the same thing and isn’t that spooky? It’s almost as if they’ve been taken to the Downing Street basement and brainwashed by Dominic Cummings, the special adviser who pulls Johnson’s strings.
No sensible country would attempt to agree to something so complicated, and with such big questions hanging over protecting workers’ right and the environment, in only three days. But then no sensible country would opt for Brexit in the first place.
Back to Georgia Mann, who is burbling delightfully about Mozart.
Ah, that’s better.