Boris keeps pedal to the mettle without even pausing for breath

Getting Brexit done might have been his signature tine, but brace yourself for weekly reminders of Boris Johnson living up to his bombast – because while his Tories might have walloped Labour and the Lib Dems, Boris has still to take his foot off the accelerator.

At this moment, it would have been good for everyone to pause; just dip their toes into the water. Instead Boris has belly-flopped right in with a Bill that will essentially outlaw an extension to Brexit trade negotiations after the end of this year.

There are election promises and there are fantasies. And promising a quick trade deal on Brexit always seemed to fall into the latter category. Getting a good trade deal done in eleven months will only be possible if it’s skeletal and if it parks most of the things that will be important.

It took seven years for Canada and the EU to negotiate a trade deals. Sure, Britain starts from an advanced position but it is still madly ambitious to get it all done in less than a year.

Ah sure, he can always die in a ditch and then resurrect himself after three days as he did with the Brexit deadline.

But by entering a new clause to the Brexit Deal, making it compulsory to forge the new deal on future trading relationship by December 31, has made the possibility of a No Deal live again. So within days of the new parliament, we have learnt that - politically – 2020 will be the year of living dangerously.

The reality is that Johnson can do anything he wants at the moment. The Conservative victory was so big that it does not have to worry about the Democratic Unionist Party, or about the European Reform Group who want a granite-hard Brexit, or about anybody else.

The funny thing is that the Tories are strong now in places where Labour was traditionally, in the west Midlands, in the North East, and in the North West. Labour has effectively been reduced to a party that is strong in London and in university towns.

The support of that party straddled middle class liberals and the working class. Now most of one of those constituencies is gone with no hope of the party recovering it in the short term.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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