The boundless incompetence of our politicians has finally made me a Brexit ‘prepper’

Given the way our leaders have been carrying on, do you really think I should bank on an outbreak of common sense?

There is a theory that there are simply too many sensible MPs to allow a no-deal Brexit to happen. Those that support this argument point to the passing of Caroline Spelman’s Brexit amendment on Tuesday as a clear indication that parliament won’t allow it.

So, no need for anyone to engage in stockpiling, then. Preppers eh? They’re crazy.

To those holding that view, I would say this: given the way our leaders have been carrying on, do you really want to bank on an outbreak of common sense, or on the discovery of some backbone from their lobby-fodder MPs?

Earlier this week a group of supermarkets and restaurant chains, wrote to every MP urging them to do everything in their power to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

It was signed by CEOs who would, in more normal times, happily pay up for Lewis Hamilton to speed them away from any engagement in political discourse.

That these people put their heads above the parapet to issue a warning of potential food shortages was highly significant. Food shortages. Just think about that for a minute. We are, after all, supposedly in peacetime.

Those CEOs know what they are talking about. They understand the impact of Brexit far better than most MPs, and most ministers, including our disgraceful excuse for a prime minister.

And so, they broke the habit of a lifetime.

Despite this, despite the very clear warnings we’ve also heard from drug companies, car companies, health bosses, and more, we witnessed this week the failure of a moderate and sensible attempt to allow extra time put forward by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Nick Boles, an avowed supporter of Theresa May’s dismal deal who faces deselection for his loyalty to his boss.

A very much weaker motion merely expressing parliament’s opposition to a no-deal Brexit put up by Spelman, who’s about as far from a fire-breathing people’s vote backer as it’s possible to get, did just about squeak through. But by only eight votes.

While this was going on, a small group of Labour MPs lined up with Jacob Rees-Mogg and the loonies of the Brexit extreme right in what represents perhaps the greatest betrayal of working people that I’ve seen from MPs of the party claiming to represent them.

Some of them were out and about today, pouting and preening themselves over the potential cash their constituencies might get now May’s magic money tree is growing again, ignoring the fact that a promise from her is about as much use as a shiny shilling after we went metric. Perhaps they’re hoping she’ll reintroduce them. So regressive has her party become that she might.

Watching aghast at these events – there was nothing about food and medical shortages on the Leave campaign’s big red bus and Labour Leave didn’t say anything about it either – the Moore family took a vote of its own and decided to step up no-deal preparations.

I’ve already been spending time working out how I might get my drugs if it comes to that. As I’ve written before, I’m a type-1 diabetic. I also suffer from chronic pain and other complications brought on as a result of being run over by a truck. So I require a lot of imported medication.

As such, Brexit is a lot more real for me than probably it is for most of those reading this, and certainly a lot more real than it is for those MPs. It is another truck that’s fast approaching my ribs.

With Barclays shifting £160bn across the Irish Sea – yes, it’s moved that much money out of the UK – we’re going to start diverting our resources too.

We simply can’t afford to join the “it’ll be alright” brigade and nor do we want to run the risk.

There are writers for The Independent whom I admire and respect – people such as John Rentoul and Andrew Grice – who reckon that a no deal is unlikely. But, well, I point to an eight-vote margin for a limp amendment that can be entirely ignored by a prime minister and a government that have ridden roughshod over parliament and democratic conventions, while at the same time acting as lickspittles to extremists.

This is not an endorsement of May’s deal, or a call on MPs to give in to her blackmail. Far from it. It’s a dismal offer that will damage this country. There are other options, namely the democratic one of giving the people a Final Say.

But in the absence of sufficient MPs willing to stand up for them, I’m afraid that tonight the order will go into Amazon for mouse-proof storage containers (they find our garage an attractive place over winter) and we’ll be ordering extra bits and pieces with the shopping every week.

Mock me. Call me a prepper if you will. But first take a close look at the conduct of the utter, utter bastards that are driving us towards the cliff. Read the Boris Beano (The Telegraph) or one of the other no-deal backing organs if you can bear it. Listen to the Today programme on Radio 4, if you can manage to do that without breaking the radio at the surrender of its journalistic integrity.

Then tell me I’m wrong.