Florida governor Ron de Santis has promised Disney they better “buckle up” because a “new sheriff” is in town and he’s sending a posse of five republicans to mosey down Disney World’s main drag to hold the House of Mouse to account. Typically for an alt-right Republican like de Santis, the issue relates to LGBTQ rights, in that Disney, galvanised by its outraged staff, publicly stated it deplored and would rebuff new state laws prohibiting the teaching of anything LGBTQ in schools.
Interestingly, Disney World is a corporate enclave that for decades has had the right to operate extraneously to many state laws, but this state of sovereignty has become too woke for de Santis, hence his elected reps going in to menace the enclave’s right to free speech. Intertwining issues besides, it’s his language, “buckle up”, “new sheriff”, this cartoon fantasyland so-woke views being targeted by bluff machismo of old Hollywood hardmen.
This side of the ocean
This side of the ocean it’s the Brexit “hard man” Steve Baker who’s gone soft in his “emotional” backing for Rishi Sunak’s newly agreed deal with the EU for Northern Ireland, proving how much more productive it is to talk with people instead of posturing at them. And if it improves the lot of NI’s economy, British science, preserves the peace – and all while underscoring how if this is so good for NI then how bad is Brexit for the UK as a whole – then great.
And the “Stormont brake” is clever, enshrining democracy and sovereignty by giving Stormont the ability to vote down new EU ordnance, and by a granular approach instead of an Article-50-type mine to detonate the entire rig, but more so requires Stormont to be in session, i.e. if the DUP gives up its “noo surrundurrr” position and accepts the deal, it has to get aboard with reopening Stormont and delivering everything else within the assembly’s democratic remit. Will they get aboard? Well, if an ERG apparatchik like Baker is aboard, who’s backing them?
A salutary lesson of Brexit is to know your history and family better. ironically for all the value placed by Brexiters on the sea for keeping the UK secure and exceptional, the Irish Sea for years helped keep mainland Brits happily oblivious to their nuttier unionist cousins in NI. I’d say we’re now apprised of how deep insanity can run in a family, but such a view has eugenicist origins and could end up in the far-right territory of the Patriotic Alternative, Blukips, and other Culture Warriors behind Brexit now directed towards hating all things LBGTQ and people exercising their own personal sovereignty as to who they are.
Sovereignty that’s so special to that other great ERG doyen, its chair Mark Francois, likened by many to the comedy secret-agent Penfold (what is it with the far-right and the secret services?), incompetent underling to the far cleverer cartoon rodent, Dangermouse. So many ties and ironies.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the Bylines Network
