The
issue is fundamentally one of trust. If May thought Davis was doing a
bad job she could have sacked him months ago. Instead she waited
until her Blairite civil service appointee Robbins had trotted off to
Brussels to cook up the ‘common rule book’ etc. Then she set up a
meeting where she sidelined the work of the man she’d commissioned
and kept in place for years, in favour of a civil service concocted
scheme. It was all accompanied by a sophisticated operation of spin,
and it seems she had Raab lined up as replacement for Davis. Who
knows the background to that choice? Oh, I know, let’s just take it
on trust. Or rather, let’s listen to the people who’ve been
trying to work alongside May for two years to get the Brexit agenda
accepted, only for her to repeatedly turn to ‘half in’
alternatives. Boris and Davis saw the sleight of hand of May’s
behaviour and put two and two together, however reluctantly. We
should do so with more alacrity.
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