Monday, 19 June 2017
Brexit madness
Negotiations for Britain's leaving the EU begin today. It is perfectly obvious and cannot be said too often, that any Brexit deal, be it hard, soft or somewhere in-between, cannot possibly be as good for the UK, our economy, our international standing, our independence, our culture or whatever, as the deal we already have if we remain members. Generous European leaders have made it clear that that option is still open to us. If we had any sense at all we should take it.
Not a single one of the claimed advantages of leaving the EU stands up to serious scrutiny, be it £540m a week for the NHS, or a buccaneering Britain notching up trade deals with the rest of the world that somehow or other we are prevented from doing at the moment.
Our political class must be the most inept in history if they persist on this course of self-harm. One is tempted to say they must be "Mad, literally mad" but, given how it was first used a political context, perhaps that phrase is best avoided.
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I understand your frustration and my points below will not touch upon the wisdom or folly for the UK to be leaving the EU. That is something each and everyone must decide for oneself. I will instead focus on the referendum and implementation of the result, which I think is central in this matter.
ReplyDeleteA majority of the British people voted for Brexit and so the Government is implementing what a majority wanted. That is very democratic and very unlike a situation where f.ex. the Government started talks to leave the EU against the will of the British people.
You can argue that the referendum came about due to internal Tory-politics, that it was a small majority and that many perhaps did not have enough knowledge to make such a qualified decison, that some primarily voted tactically against Cameron and the result was not representative etc,but fact is a referendum was held (even if technically advisory it becomes binding in practice) and a majority voted to leave. You can't get around that.
It would be much more dramatic and questionable if the Government had put aside the referendum results and said 'thanks for your opinion, but never mind, we know best'. That would have been very undemocratic and would probably have had great consequences. Now perhaps such a vital decision should not have been put to a referendum in the first place, and perhaps it should have included some info on the type of Brexit in question etc, but I can't see how you can criticize the political class and call them 'inept' or 'mad' just because you (being on the losing side, a remainer) don't like what a majority decided and/or how the Government implement the will of the British people.
From that point of view you are absolutely right, but I stand by my assertion that any form of Brexit will diminish us economically, politically and culturally. For the sake our children and our children's children we should recognise we are in a hole and stop digging.
DeleteI sense that a second referendum when the deal (or "no-deal") is finalised is becoming an increasing possibility, though not yet a probability. Even that means our political class will spend the next two years engaged in how to make things less worse for us, rather than tackling our real and urgent problems - housing, fire safety, terrorism, and racism to name but a few.
A second referendum is essential . Why do the political Brexiteers fear this so much . Is it they think that many people that voted for Brexit did not really know the implications of what they were voting for and now see sense and will change their vote . If they still truly believe their ideology they have nothing to fear . As they do fear a second referendum then it seems they are pursuing mantra and ideology when they know this is now contrary to the wish of most people in the U.K.
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