Chancellor Philip Hammond’s response to the Treasury Committee’s call for more information on the impact of Theresa May’s Brexit deal can be summed up thusly: Thank’s for your interest but you’ll get what you’re given. Now bugger off.
Nicky Morgan & Co made it clear that they didn't believe MPs had received adequate information from the Treasury with which to make an informed choice. Haivng considered its evidence, she he and her colleagues called on the Chancellor to offer a realistic, as opposed to the most optimistic reading of the May deal's consequences for the UK economy, an analysis of the short term effect of various Brexit scenarios, and the inclusion of the vexed issue of the Irish customs backstop in all of them.
Such evidence wouldn't have a prayer of moving the baying mob of extremist Brexiteers, who will vote against it regardless. Ditto the opposition. The same is probably true of hardcore Tory remainers, who have belatedly realised that there’s no more benefit to be had from compromising and trying to work with May than there is with Jacob Rees-Mogg and his chums.
But it would be a misreading of the situation to see this as an academic debate.
As Morgan pointed out, MPs will be voting without being in possession of the necessary facts and analysis, and without being able to properly consider the impact on their constituents' jobs and livelihoods, which is what they ought to be doing even though most won't.
They're faced with a blind vote on a blind brexit.
"This is not a position which MPs, as representatives of constituents across the UK, should be put in by any Government," she said. And she's right.
While it might not make a blind bit of difference, a more constructive response from Hammond would at least have proved somebody in Government was capable of acting in the interests of good governance, and the nation as a whole.
The Chancellor has in the past a given the impression that he is well aware of the disastrous impact of a no deal Brexit. There is little doubt that he is equally well aware that the May deal is a dismal one that will make Britain poorer and leave him, and his successors, struggling to find the funds needed to address Britain’s deep seated problems.
But faced with the choice of being honest about it or indulging in the cynicism that has become such a depressing feature of this administration, he opted for the latter.
Quelle surprise, you might say. But he should still be ashamed of himself. Sadly, it seems there’s no shame to be had in the halls of a government that is bent upon scorching the earth of the country it is supposed to be running.
