Promises, promises...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I worked in the oil business. In other words, I regularly came into contact with the Arab world. For all that, like simple people everywhere, they can display a warm generosity of spirit to strangers I was warned to set little store by any promises I might be given. And so it proved to be – a promise made to please at the time it was made could be broken on a simple whim. What they meant yesterday was just a distant memory today, when the promised actions failed to materialise (this is nothing to do with islam, I should add – taqiyya is another thing altogether). We got on with it and simply never banked on fulfilment.

We are living in an age of unprecedented duplicity in public life. A politician’s promise was never a firm foundation for investment but at least in the past lip service appeared to be paid to the notion of personal commitment and intent, even if a pledge could not ultimately be honoured. Now our elected representatives seem to be brazen enough to turn to camera and utter obvious untruths even as they are being expensively inducted onto the committees and company boards who have bought their treachery. How many ‘climate warriors’ have become rich by exploiting the very legislation they helped to enact? How very few of their children have been forced to endure the education they foist on the rest of us?

Staring us in the face is a vote on the biggest heap of nonsensical, dogma-driven, ideological clap-trap yet devised to wrest control from the demos and make democracy history. And Call-me-Dave, who has previously reneged on his cast-iron commitments still manages to keep a straight face as he informs us of the sincerity of his position. A straight in/out referendum, he promised, following a negotiation nobody ever believed he could pull off. The EU is incapable of reform and will stoop as low as it needs to stick its head in the sand and wholly ignore any attempt to force change upon it.

Cameron is an avowed believer in the confidence trick that is the EU and intends to do his utmost to keep us in the infernal disaster zone but he is a politician first and what matters most to him is to court favour as widely as possible. This is why Downing Street is both saying this: “It is not credible to suggest that the majority of the British public could vote to leave and then the UK government would ignore the voters and negotiate to remain.” and simultaneously fanning the billowing smokescreen of UN enforcement of any promises at some future date.

Ali Bongo - taught David Cameron his next trick...

Instead of acknowledging that the EU has no intention of giving any quarter whatsoever, he is now resorting to playing the ‘not enough time for treaty change’ card and offering instead to enshrine any future reformation promises in some UN three card trick. Cynical verbal assurances secured, he and his co-conspirators will perform some simple distraction and sleight of hand to allow him to exit, stage left, at the end of his performance, with the evidence of any covenants miraculously ‘disappeared’ and the hopes and dreams of millions stashed securely out of sight up his capacious, specially tailored conjuror’s sleeve.