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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/brexit-great-why-boris-johnson-jacob-rees-mogg-peter-bone-sad
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| If Brexit is so great, why do Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Bone look so sad? | If Brexit is so great, why do Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Bone look so sad? |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| To the growing iconography of Brexit, we can add a new image. First place in the collection will forever belong to that shot of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, both ashen-faced the morning after their unexpected – and perhaps unwanted – victory in the referendum. Close behind comes the photograph of Michel Barnier meeting David Davis for their first round of exit talks in Brussels: Barnier and his aides equipped with bulging, cross-tabbed files of briefing notes while the then Brexit secretary and his team sit cheerfully paperless and empty-handed, almost as if they are utterly unprepared for the task ahead. | To the growing iconography of Brexit, we can add a new image. First place in the collection will forever belong to that shot of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, both ashen-faced the morning after their unexpected – and perhaps unwanted – victory in the referendum. Close behind comes the photograph of Michel Barnier meeting David Davis for their first round of exit talks in Brussels: Barnier and his aides equipped with bulging, cross-tabbed files of briefing notes while the then Brexit secretary and his team sit cheerfully paperless and empty-handed, almost as if they are utterly unprepared for the task ahead. |
| Boris, Rees-Mogg and Bone are the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Brexit: all that’s missing is the Fantastic Dr Fox | Boris, Rees-Mogg and Bone are the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Brexit: all that’s missing is the Fantastic Dr Fox |
| Now comes the picture, featured on the Guardian’s front page, of Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and veteran Eurosceptic MP Peter Bone – best known for his excruciating Commons references to “Mrs Bone” – at a Brexit event on Tuesday. Each man seems to have his head in his hands, as if despairing of the cause all three have made their own. Boris, Rees-Mogg and Bone are the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Brexit, apparently as defeated in their cunning scheme as the characters in the Roald Dahl tale: all that’s missing is the Fantastic Dr Fox. | Now comes the picture, featured on the Guardian’s front page, of Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and veteran Eurosceptic MP Peter Bone – best known for his excruciating Commons references to “Mrs Bone” – at a Brexit event on Tuesday. Each man seems to have his head in his hands, as if despairing of the cause all three have made their own. Boris, Rees-Mogg and Bone are the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Brexit, apparently as defeated in their cunning scheme as the characters in the Roald Dahl tale: all that’s missing is the Fantastic Dr Fox. |
| Are their miseries individual or collective? Johnson seems pensive, perhaps reflecting on a bruising few days in which the break-up of his marriage has been announced, the papers have feasted on speculative details of his complex private life, and his attempt to divert attention by suggesting Theresa May had wrapped a “suicide vest around the constitution” brought only a few hours’ respite. | Are their miseries individual or collective? Johnson seems pensive, perhaps reflecting on a bruising few days in which the break-up of his marriage has been announced, the papers have feasted on speculative details of his complex private life, and his attempt to divert attention by suggesting Theresa May had wrapped a “suicide vest around the constitution” brought only a few hours’ respite. |
| Rees-Mogg has his hand to his brow, in a gesture of mild panic, as if he has just seen on the screen before him that the document whose launch the three men were attending predicts a £1.1 trillion boost to the British economy if there is no deal – a prediction so wild that it rather dents the credibility of the Economists for Free Trade organisation hosting the event, and indeed everyone present. | Rees-Mogg has his hand to his brow, in a gesture of mild panic, as if he has just seen on the screen before him that the document whose launch the three men were attending predicts a £1.1 trillion boost to the British economy if there is no deal – a prediction so wild that it rather dents the credibility of the Economists for Free Trade organisation hosting the event, and indeed everyone present. |
| As for Bone, his hair more tousled even than Johnson’s, he looks like a man who, in a final bid to clear his gambling debts, bet the family home on the nailed-on favourite in the 2.30pm at Aintree – only to hear that the horse limped home in last place. He is a broken Bone. | As for Bone, his hair more tousled even than Johnson’s, he looks like a man who, in a final bid to clear his gambling debts, bet the family home on the nailed-on favourite in the 2.30pm at Aintree – only to hear that the horse limped home in last place. He is a broken Bone. |
| For all their individual woes, the trio’s pain is shared and might have originated from any number of sources. They might have got word that the boss of Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, had just warned that “bluntly, we will not be able to build cars” if the no-deal worse comes to the worst and the roads to Dover are gridlocked in traffic. The Brexiteers surely know that the most punishing blows to their cause come not from politicians, but from employers issuing warnings that tens of thousands of jobs could go if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Airbus and BMW have done that, and so now has Jaguar. Voters who tune out the Westminster noise tend to hear the signal of massive job losses. | For all their individual woes, the trio’s pain is shared and might have originated from any number of sources. They might have got word that the boss of Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, had just warned that “bluntly, we will not be able to build cars” if the no-deal worse comes to the worst and the roads to Dover are gridlocked in traffic. The Brexiteers surely know that the most punishing blows to their cause come not from politicians, but from employers issuing warnings that tens of thousands of jobs could go if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Airbus and BMW have done that, and so now has Jaguar. Voters who tune out the Westminster noise tend to hear the signal of massive job losses. |
| It’s possible that the three disconsolate Brexiteers were contemplating the gathering evidence that their camp is split. While some remain irreconcilable and committed to vote down almost any agreement May might secure with Brussels, a substantial number of leave-supporting Tories are preparing to follow the lead reiterated by Michael Gove on the radio on Tuesday morning and swallow the Chequers plan, even if they don’t like it. The dismay of the no-deal ultras will have been deepened by recent hints from Barnier that a deal is indeed possible (though they might be in better spirits, now that Jean-Claude Juncker has apparently rejected the Chequers notion of Britain remaining in the single market for goods but not services). | It’s possible that the three disconsolate Brexiteers were contemplating the gathering evidence that their camp is split. While some remain irreconcilable and committed to vote down almost any agreement May might secure with Brussels, a substantial number of leave-supporting Tories are preparing to follow the lead reiterated by Michael Gove on the radio on Tuesday morning and swallow the Chequers plan, even if they don’t like it. The dismay of the no-deal ultras will have been deepened by recent hints from Barnier that a deal is indeed possible (though they might be in better spirits, now that Jean-Claude Juncker has apparently rejected the Chequers notion of Britain remaining in the single market for goods but not services). |
| Barnier confronts Raab over discovery of Brexit no-deal letters to EU27 | Barnier confronts Raab over discovery of Brexit no-deal letters to EU27 |
| True, Rees-Mogg, Johnson and Bone were probably heartened by the prospect that the hard Brexit-supporting European Research Group was due to meet later that evening, where some 50-odd Tory MPs would explicitly plot a coup against the prime minister. But they would surely have known that all such talk is so much fantasy. For, under Tory rules, even if the anti-May faction reaches the crucial number of 48 letters sent to the backbench 1922 Committee demanding a no-confidence vote, victory remains distant. They might get such a ballot, but they would be a long way from the 158 votes they’d need to win it: until Brexit is done, Tory MPs will vote to keep May in place. Such a vote would, in fact, strengthen her position by renewing her mandate as party leader. Perhaps it was this thought that prompted Johnson to connect his face to his palm. | True, Rees-Mogg, Johnson and Bone were probably heartened by the prospect that the hard Brexit-supporting European Research Group was due to meet later that evening, where some 50-odd Tory MPs would explicitly plot a coup against the prime minister. But they would surely have known that all such talk is so much fantasy. For, under Tory rules, even if the anti-May faction reaches the crucial number of 48 letters sent to the backbench 1922 Committee demanding a no-confidence vote, victory remains distant. They might get such a ballot, but they would be a long way from the 158 votes they’d need to win it: until Brexit is done, Tory MPs will vote to keep May in place. Such a vote would, in fact, strengthen her position by renewing her mandate as party leader. Perhaps it was this thought that prompted Johnson to connect his face to his palm. |
| Alternatively, the angst might have been deeper. Johnson at least surely knows that many of the arguments championed by his fellow leavers are absurd – typified by the demands for a Star Wars nuclear missile shield and an expeditionary force for the Falklands in this week’s ERG manifesto – and that the collision with reality is increasingly exposing them as such. As Brexit day gets nearer, that hard truth is becoming ever more exposed. | Alternatively, the angst might have been deeper. Johnson at least surely knows that many of the arguments championed by his fellow leavers are absurd – typified by the demands for a Star Wars nuclear missile shield and an expeditionary force for the Falklands in this week’s ERG manifesto – and that the collision with reality is increasingly exposing them as such. As Brexit day gets nearer, that hard truth is becoming ever more exposed. |
| This photograph tells that story, too. For there, in the bottom right of the image, attached to an unknown wrist, is a watch. Time ticking on; time running out. | This photograph tells that story, too. For there, in the bottom right of the image, attached to an unknown wrist, is a watch. Time ticking on; time running out. |
| • Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist | • Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist |
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