Could Brexit Party Join With Tories To Save Britain?

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Have UK Conservatives lost their noggins along with their wills? That Theresa May continues as the head of her party (it is fatuous to say she “leads” it) with Brexit hanging perilously in the balance, is singular proof that Tories lack for will-power.

To remain on this path to destruction — of their country, possibly; of their party, certainly — suggests they have lost contact with reason, too.

Perhaps all is not lost. Tory MP Crispin Blunt, for one, admits the inexorable: “We are going to have to come to an accommodation with the Brexit Party.”

Mr. Blunt gives voice to the blatantly obvious, but is no less brave for stating, to his colleagues, unpalatable truth. “The Conservatives as a Brexit party, being very clear about their objectives are almost certainly going to have to go into some kind of electoral arrangement with the Brexit Party.”

To wit: “Otherwise Brexit doesn’t happen.”

In a recent wire, your diarist broached the likelihood of union of the Conservative and Brexit parties. It would be no mean feat to accomplish. Britons flocking to Nigel Farage’s upstart party condemn the Conservatives for their blatant Brexit betrayal, while the establishment Tory party dismisses the former U.K. Independence party leader and his “Middle England” agenda.

As for the Brexit party itself, Mr. Farage has asserted that his only agenda is fulfilling the 2016 referendum, to leave the European Union and restore Britain’s independence. Noble enough sentiments, indeed.

No one enters politics, though, without a touch of ego — Mr. Farage is rumored to be no slouch on this score — and it is hard to see the logic of the Brexit party acquiescing to being treated as a “junior” partner in any collaboration with Conservatives, pace their 200-year history.

Who and what organization was it that kept European Union misdeeds and United Kingdom independence at the forefront of political debate for so many years, anyway?

More daunting a hurdle to joint action are the three-quarters of the Conservative party caucus that does not want an independent Britain. These Tory Europhiles have little forbearance for their own Brexit champions, like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg; they will doubtless be virulently hostile to Nigel Farage and his band of Brexiteers. Talk of Mr. Farage at No. 10 will only exacerbate tensions.

The Brexit party’s polling success in advance of May 23 European parliamentary elections fuels such talk. Surging support — 100,000 members in less than 5 weeks — and lack of a Brexit presence at Westminster encourages Mr. Farage to challenge MPs come the 2022 general election.

The writs just may be dropped sooner than expected. Theresa May did so in 2017 in expectation of increasing her parliamentary majority and strengthening her negotiating position with Brussels. She miscalculated but, Bourbon-like, seems to have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

The Prime Minister may try a repeat. Ostensibly to clear away the political fog and present Parliament with a fresh Brexit mandate, but with the “intended” consequence of wrong-footing Mr. Farage and his Brexit party before they can prepare a slate of candidates to contest seats. Call it “dishing Nigel,” if you will.

Such tactics would triply wound Conservatives: For their dithering over Brexit, for calling a questionably needed election, and for “sticking it” to the Brexit party. Britain would constitute a fourth casualty, if a precipitate election thrust Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist Labour party into power.

Regardless, such conflicts must be resolved if British independence is to be restored. Both sides will need to embody Benjamin Disraeli’s dictum, to be “conservative to preserve all that is good” and “radical to remove all that is bad.”

The vote to exit the EU was only the beginning of radical actions. Britain’s political parties may undergo a transformation not seen since the days of Margaret Thatcher. Brexit’s impact promises to be even more transformative.

If Brexiteers need added support round which to rally, look no further than Edmund Burke. Public office was a trust and a duty, Burke wrote, “that right should not only be made known, but made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected, but defeated.”


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