Donald MacLeod: Distracted as Brexit chaos goes on and on and on, MPs must not let Thomas Cook off the hook

The devious plan cooked up by dastardly PM Boris Johnson and his cunning adviser, Dominic Cummings, to run down the Brexit clock by proroguing parliament before the Halloween deadline has been scuppered by the Supreme Court.

But the historic judgement has told the Brexit-weary electorate nothing we didn’t know already.

We knew the real reason for locking the doors of parliament, and we knew he wouldn’t resign over the defeat.

We also knew Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour comrades would remain all over the place.

The judgement changed nothing, as this Groundhog Brexit grinds on and on, and the abuse of our democracy by our fractious elected members continues unabated.

They are so consumed with their own ideologies and self-importance, major issues of the day have been ignored.

And none more so than the collapse of one of the world’s biggest tour operators, Thomas Cook.

No sooner had the story landed on front pages than it was pushed out by another Brexit crisis.

A catastrophic, but avoidable event, not only for their 22,000 staff, who now don’t have jobs, but the 160,000 holidaymakers who must be repatriated in the biggest exercise of its kind since the end of the Second World War, as well as the 800,000 people who have lost forthcoming holidays.

And we should not forget the dire effects the closure of their 500 High Street shops will have, and the devastating knock-on effect it will have on their suppliers and other smaller tour operators.

We can all expect our insurance premiums and also the cost of package holidays to soar.

It must be said that the Government were quick off the mark to organise the repatriation, an unenviable task given the huge complexities of the operation.

But not so quick in addressing the air rage we feel over the demise of Thomas Cook, and there are many questions that need answered. Urgently.

Why was the firm allowed to continue trading without major restructuring, when their overall debt was spiralling out of control to £1.7 billion?

Why were they still selling holidays and taking people’s money after it collapsed?

Was £200 million really the difference between survival and collapse?

Or was that just Thomas Cook spin and the sums involved to protect the company were far, far higher? Just how badly did the executives mismanage this firm, and was the ongoing Brexit debacle really a factor?

Why did the previous chief exec, Harriet Green, once hailed a commercial titan, leave so suddenly in 2014?

And why was her successor, Peter Fankhauser – and his board – allowed to take millions in pay and bonuses as their firm headed over a cliff?

It’s disgusting and as immoral as anything the bailed-out bankers at the Royal Bank Of Scotland were guilty of. These questions must be answered, but they seem to have been parked alongside Thomas Cook’s redundant passenger jets while our politicians plot and prevaricate over Brexit.

After dealing so severely with our PM, our most senior judges should turn their attention to Thomas Cook executives who have been allowed to drive their flash sports cars into the sunset, their pockets full, as the company they once led burns and their customers and staff face the future with fear and dismay.