01/01/2021
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly".
As it turns out, it was done neither well nor quickly â for which, no doubt, there will be a price to pay. Certainly, I don't feel much like celebrating a thoroughly botched process, presided over by a congenital liar, the very sight of whom I find offensive.
Predictably, Dover is
eerily quiet with the last ferry out of Dodge long departed. Those who take the next one, and every one thereafter, will face the full panoply of "third country" checks, examples of which were only published by the government
yesterday.
It's ironic that a government publication should make the prime minister out to be a liar, but since we already knew what he was, it comes as no surprise. And many predict that, as his bombast palls in the face of the cold, hard reality of a real-world Brexit, he will soon be leaving us. When that happens, it will be a good day, and it can't happen soon enough.
But, at least it's over. And there is nothing much of significance on the Brexit front predicted for the next few days â with Channel traffic forecast to be light, as shippers get the measure of the new system and judge that it might be safe to make a crossing.
Therefore, in what for me has been the "year of the book", I can finally draw a line under
The Great Deception. I actually finished it a few minutes after the last bong of Big Ben faded away shortly after 11pm last night, but I waited until midnight before having a stiff whiskey with Mrs EUReferendum. I will be e-mailing a copy to my publisher later today, all 270,000 words of it.
With no joy and no particular sense of celebration, however â despite seeing the culmination of a lifetime's work â my only regrets are that Booker didn't make it to see this day, although doubtless he would have shared my disgust at the way Brexit was handled.
Of the too many other stalwarts who didn't make the cut, I would mention Helen Szamuely, my founding co-editor of EUReferendum, and Peter Troy â both of whom worked so hard to make something happen that they were never going to see.
I can do little more, therefore, than to raise another glass to the departed, and yet another to readers past and present, to thank them for their support, their engagement and the very fact that they have sense enough to know where to look for a thoroughly partisan point of view on matters Brexit.
Best wishes to all, and a Happy New Year. The one consolation we all have is that, when it comes to this current year, it could hardly be worse than the last, although I am sure that there are people out there who will be seeking to make that happen.
Also published on
Turbulent Times.
