Children at play

If you watch politics at all you can't have missed the unedifying sight of John Mann badgering Ken Livingstone. As it happens I don't give a tinkers damn what Livingstone said. I don't understand why it's news that something coming out of his mouth was cretinous. That happens every time he speaks. Twas ever thus. But the sight of John Mann in a fit of self-righteousness - virtue signalling for the cameras is really a landmark low for Westminster politics.

God forbid we might actually have a serious conversation about real issues rather than whatever is manufactured from a daytime television show. It's pathetic. The entirety of Westminster politics has entered the death spiral of identity politics.

That's because Westminster politics is now displacement activity. They really don't have anything better to do. And that, people, is why we must leave the EU and repatriate policy making. Brexit is as much about shaking up the claustrophobic Westminster bubble and shaking it out of its complacency. We can no longer afford to let politics slide like this.

We need Westminster focussed on the serious business of government rather than preening and styling themselves as saints who pay their taxes on time. If this is what we are prepared to accept for standard fare in Westminster, we might as well go the whole hog - join the Euro and abolish parliament completely. If our system of government is not going to govern then it is an expensive luxury we do not need.

But while that may sound appealing to many, we will live to regret our negligence. If we abdicate government entirely to the EU then we will be passengers with no say at all in how we are governed. The consequences for that are grave. It's time to act. It's time to kick this lot out and it starts with Brexit. This is our chance to remind them that they are supposed work for us.