“no deal” brexit is the only brexit worth having – because it’s the only brexit for which people actually voted.  how stupid do you have to be not to realise this?  sure, for months and months we’ve been deluged with remainer propaganda in the largely pro-remain media claiming there’ll be chaos and economic disaster if britain “crashes out” of the european union on world trade organisation wto terms.  but most of us know that this is just project fear 2.0 spin designed to obscure the fact the most of the world trades with the eu on wto terms. do singapore, india, hong kong and the u.s. really look like they are suffering as a result?  so what on earth provoked one of the uk media’s staunchest brexiteers rod liddle to write this abject surrender monkey drivel in today’s sun?  sure, i’m no fan of theresa’s pedigree chum plan — a dog’s dinner if ever there was one. truth be told, i’d rather we crashed out with no deal at all. but that would be more dangerous — for the british economy and even for brexit. and waiting in the wings if the prime minister fails to get her plan through is jeremy corbyn’s labour party. frankly, i would rather stay in the eu than have jezza as prime minister. as tom harris, a labour brexiteer, put it, may’s deal gives us leavers slightly more than half of what we voted for. and given the result of the referendum two years ago, that seems about right to me. none of us get exactly what we want. but we do leave the eu and we retain control of our borders. and soon we’ll be free to strike our own, independent, trade deals. reach out to the rest of the world. that seems to me a decent compromise. the problem lies in convincing the arch-brexiteer conservative mps that now is the time to give up the fight. i understand their many reservations. but the reality is the deal may puts before the house of commons is about the only solution that stands a chance of winning a majority. and we are in this position largely because the tory brexiteers never managed to sort themselves out. at every stage, they were divided among themselves and too often concerned about their political careers. so if this isn’t the deal we all wanted, they have themselves to blame.  this is so wrong, so disingenuous, so factually inaccurate from britain’s best-paid journalist whose stock in trade is – usually – his fearless honesty.  among the many appalled twitter comments my favourite comes from mark millar:  i actually had to reread that to process it properly. it reads like one of those statements captured pilots give to camera while an interrogator holds a machine-gun off-camera. — mark millar @mrmarkmillar january 3, 2019  i wonder who in theresa may’s dark arts department has persuaded rod of the virtues of this betrayal of the brexit cause. it doesn’t augur well, does it? if they can get to rod, then no one is safe.  oh, and by the way, did i ever mention how wonderful theresa may’s “deal” is and how ingeniously it delivers on the brexit vote while making sure that disruption will be kept to a minimum and that all the remainers will be happy because nothing will actually change, which is all anyone really wanted? we should support this brave, principled woman.  yours, lord delingpole
delingpole: arch-brexiteer rod liddle surrenders to remain