The Sunday Telegraph Brexiteer rewriting history

Winston Smith’s job in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was to rewrite history, constantly changing newspaper cuttings and files to represent the new reality. A permanent job, because what the party said was reality changed with bewildering speed and without any explanation.

Orwell was writing at a time when the Daily Mail went from “Hurrah for the Black Shirts” to “We are all behind you Winston” with hardly a blush, and the country was instructed to shift from ‘Stalin is the antichrist’ to ‘Uncle Joe is our cuddly best mate’.

If only Orwell was with us now, he might write Twenty Twenty-Five about Brexit, Trump’s America, and how the right wing embraced both… until recently, of course

Because it is apparently nothing but the work of a dull Saturday afternoon – which is when I imagine Sunday Telegraph columnist Janet Daley normally churns out her monotonous pieces – for them to now change tack.

Daley, author of such gems as “Liz Truss is in a far stronger position than you think. The nation will give her the benefit of the doubt”, “Rishi’s speech showed his tactical strengths, Starmer will be deeply worried” and “As the Brexit betrayal reaches its climax, the elite’s disdain for us Leavers is now disgracefully clear” seems to have had a Damascene conversion of the most radical kind. According to her column in this Sunday’s Telegraph, “The US can no longer be trusted. Europe must stand strong and alone”.

To be fair, Janet Daley has long made it clear that she has very little, if any, time for Trump, but then she has had even less time for the EU. She was a fervent Brexit supporter, a Boris Johnson fan, a supporter of a no-deal Brexit. She wrote about our “incompatibility with the European ideology”, despaired at Theresa May’s concessions, said Tory Remainers were guilty of “acts of almost unbelievable treachery against the electorate in general and their own constituents in particular” and loathes Labour and all its work.

Or rather, that was the old Janet. The new one writes: “The British and European way of life is the one most people in the world long for. Europe has learnt from history with its terrible events – and come to terms with it. Its particular mix of old culture and new social attitudes is what draws everyone from the poor of the developing world, to the super-rich oligarchs of Russia and the Hollywood stars of the US to these shores.”

I particularly like “these shores” because Ms Daley seems to think that we are just as much a part of Europe as we have ever been and we are all in this together. She also seems to have noticed, that Europe is an economic superpower in its own right, although it was even more of a superpower when the UK was in the EU.

Which brings us to the one little niggle in this article. Nowhere is there a single mention of the EU or Brexit. The Brexiteers have always told us that it is possible to love Europe and hate the EU, but this is verging on doublethink, the acceptance of two mutually contradictory beliefs as true.

So, let’s hope that it is actually just another step on the road to enlightenment. Next week, maybe the paper’s editor Allister Heath will sign up the Sunday Telegraph to the Rejoin campaign, call for immediate membership of the Single Market and berate Keir Starmer for stupidly sticking to those pesky red lines?

OK, it is unlikely to happen that quickly, but thanks to Trump the tide is turning and that means there are an awful lot of “unfortunately misremembered” opinions out there, that will need correcting.

Winston Smith’s job is safe. He is going to be very busy for a very long time to come.