I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot.
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Brexit, England, and Saint George!’

Apologies from your diarist for altering Shakespeare’s immortal cheer. Are any willing to call me on it? Certainly not Theresa May. The Prime Minister is no stickler for the literal truth, having twice “postponed” Britain’s March 29 exit from the European Union. It’s a worthy reflection this St. George’s Day. Instead of dragons, however, watch for the foes of Britain’s independence.

Oh, they are legion. The worst such foes of independence are those in Parliament, where they comprise some three-quarters of Westminster. MPs “stooped” and promised to abide by the 2016 EU referendum on whether to remain or leave. A majority of Britons voted to leave. MPs merely bided their time. That’s gratitude for you.

Again, in the 2017 snap election, both Conservative and Labor parties made manifesto commitments to uphold the people’s choice. Subsequent events proved their words hollow. Mrs. May’s passivity in the face of Brussels negotiators, agreeing to their timetable, concessions, and demand for financial compensation, gave the lie to her mantra that “Brexit means Brexit.”

Benjamin Disraeli had the measure of politicians’ mettle. While he showered praise upon Britain’s parliamentary system of government, he entertained no illusions about those who wielded power. “There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable,” Dizzy wrote with characteristic clarity, “for in politics there is no honor.”

With Brexit bravery in short supply in Parliament, who will prove the people’s paladin? St. George is unavailable. And maybe unnecessary. In a spirit that echoes their resilience and defiance during the Blitz, it’s starting to look like Britons themselves are standing up to take down their political betrayers.

Duplicity courtesy of the “Con-Lab” duopoly means that the United Kingdom must engage in elections for the European Parliament beginning May 23 — three years after voting to leave. In protest, Britons are throwing their support behind Nigel Farage’s nascent Brexit party. One recent poll shows the upstart party enjoying 27% support, Labour on 22%, and Tories at a record low of 15%.

Disraeli’s beloved Conservative party is singled out for special opprobrium. Brexiteer Tories in Parliament are unable to topple Mrs. May and unwilling to contemplate a Labor government, if her removal means taking down the entire Conservative administration. Party members are well past such hair-splitting. What use a dissimulating Conservative ministry that governs no better — and conceivably worse — than Labor on core constitutional questions?

Rank-and-file Tories are taking the fight to Westminster. Party chairmen and volunteers across the country are lobbying the organization for a vote of confidence in Theresa May, with 70 chairmen signing a petition to hold an “Extraordinary General Meeting” on her leadership. The initiative demonstrates to party brass the magnitude of disgust with Brexit backpedaling. More importantly, Tory seats from county councils to the Commons are at stake if the work-horses of electioneering effectively go on strike.

Brexiteers have no qualms about cutting off oxygen to their recalcitrant representatives. “The governors have nothing to support them but opinion,” the Scottish sage David Hume wrote. “It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded.” The betrayal of Brexit has shifted opinion against the status quo. Britons are feeling their oats once more.

Honoring St. George’s Day has become part of this resurgence in England. The United Kingdom’s other three constituent regions, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, never hid their pride of place. The English were more low-key, submerging their patriotic zeal within the folds of the Union Jack.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s devolution legislation, setting up assemblies outside London, changed that dynamic. The English took a page from their fellow countrymen, and celebrate their national feast day with equal enthusiasm. “I feel now that it is not prejudice, when I declare that England, with all her imperfections, is worth all the world together,” Disraeli declared.

St. George, moreover, is the ideal patron for the cause of Brexit and British independence. After all, what need one fear from perverse politicians and Brussels bureaucrats if you’ve made a career of fighting dragons? Freeing the UK from the yoke of EU subservience, and returning self-government to the British people, is a noble quest for any knight in shining armor. Once more unto the breach, indeed.

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Image: Drawing by Elliott Banfield, courtesy of the artist.