Chris Grayling: An open mouth and an empty head [Image: Darren Staples/Reuters].

We can tell from a report on the effects of Grayling’s thoughtless cuts to Legal Aid, inflicted while he was Justice Secretary, that there is substance to the argument.

And those of us who can remember his apprenticeship as a DWP minister will recall other idiocies.

Perhaps his problem is that he began his ministerial career working for Iain Duncan Smith, whose blunders are now the stuff of legend.

The Gentleman Ranker (as This Blog tends to describe Smith) has opted not to join any organised campaign, choosing to be a “single loud voice” (or some such nonsense). This in itself is very amusing for those of us who remember when he was described as the “quiet man” of British politics.

The original article does have a few howlers of its own – Crace makes a wild claim that Labour hasn’t had many Commons victories recently, when the opposite is more accurate; and his opinion of shadow leader of the House Chris Bryant seems very low. This is not a ‘pro-Labour’ piece by any means.

It’s more ‘anti-politics’.

“Will the leader of the out campaign give us the business for next week?” inquired Chris Bryant, shadow leader of the house.

Chris Grayling rather sheepishly rose to his feet. Just as you might expect from a sheep in sheep’s clothing. On Thursday morning the leader of the house had tried to position himself as the frontman for the “Out of Europe” campaign with an unthought think-piece in the Daily Telegraph, and throughout Westminster the “Remain in Europe” campaign had cracked open the champagne.

The prime minister’s EU renegotiations won’t need to be successful if Grayling is the voice of Brexit. The leader of the house has yet to discover an argument he has consciously been on the right side of and he only has to open his mouth to send possible supporters rushing into the arms of his opponents.

Source: The voice of Brexit speaks and the pro-EU camp cracks open the champagne | Politics | The Guardian

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