Brexit

This article is a bit of a diatribe and I will almost certainly alienate some people but, on the day the latest Brexit Minister has resigned over a deal he himself negotiated, to be honest, I've had enough. It's time to say it like it is. Triggering Article 50 was wrong and a huge mistake.

29th March 2019 is, as I write, slightly under 5 months away and this is, of course, important because it's the date that the UK will formally exit the EU. However, it doesn't appear that anyone, whether it be the folks supposedly at the wheel or just Joe Public waiting in impatient anticipation of something to go well, has the remotest notion of what will actually happen on that day.

We now run a very real risk of having to walk away without a deal with the EU in place, not to mention possible general elections, potential economic collapse, alt-right demos and other unpalatable knock-on effects but yet the supposed "will of the people" that was apparently set in stone with a non-legally-binding referendum back in 2016, is still blindly being adhered to. Many critics in the UK are even now complaining it's "their fault not ours" that this is all such a shitshow, as if "they" were the ones that created the problem in the first place.

So, I believe the time has now come for the UK government to show some genuine leadership. It is now obvious to everyone that the Leave campaign was, at best, based on lies, exaggeration and hubris, and, at worst, illegal. Theresa May must now accept the fact that the tide of public opinion has completely changed, acknowledge that we have made a grave error, act in the best interests of this country and over-rule, for want of a better word, the Brexit vote. We must step back from the brink and spend the next few years restoring trust and respect with our most valued partners and friends in Europe.

This infamous phrase, "the will of the people", is a meaningless notion borne out of myopia, racism and ignorance. Just like anything else in those categories, our leaders should concentrate on educating us, not pandering to an uninformed group, even if it is a large one in this case. We are talking about the long-term future of an entire nation here and it really is very conceivable that a vast majority of the 17.4 million people in the UK who voted Leave were never properly challenged on the rationale behind their beliefs and that most of them were actually just plain wrong. You only have to listen to the people James O'Brien interviews on LBC radio at 10am most mornings to have that confirmed.

I know not everyone was uninformed, many had some fair points, but, let's face it, if the population was allowed to vote on whether we should have 3-day weekends, I’m pretty sure how that would go too. However it would not be in the best interests of our country, despite perhaps some fair points about life-work balance.

The EU construct may be imperfect but these nations are our closest partners and I believe the upside far outweighs the down in this increasingly unstable world. Britain is a nation in self-inflicted, desperate decline and anyone who believes different is in self-inflicted, desperate denial. The reality is we will need the EU much more than they need us and we will become even more irrelevant without it than we already are, because our relevance to the world was predominantly as an English speaking conduit to the largest single trading market in the world, little more.

Earlier this month, Channel 4 broadcast a program entitled "Brexit: What the Nation Really Thinks", in which 20,000 people from all areas of the UK were polled on a range of Brexit related topics.

(Incidentally, I have read some complaints saying a straw poll of 20,000 people is not big enough to reflect a national opinion; after all, "35 million voted in the ACTUAL referendum". Well, TV viewing statistics and ratings are based on about 12,000 people and that's good enough for an entire advertising industry, so I'll take it for now. According to one newspaper, most polls don't top 2,000 people.)

Anyway, you can view the results here but the main news is that the majority (54%) of the UK, knowing what they now know, would vote to Remain in the EU, in line with similar recent statistics from YouGov, another major polling company. Thankfully it would appear common sense is finally beginning to prevail but I fear it will be too little, too late.

I know this is an incendiary topic and I have friends and colleagues who voted to Leave and still would. I respect them and their views, but, in all the news and opinion about Brexit that I read and listen to (and I try not to live in an echo chamber), I honestly hear nothing substantially positive, outside of vacuous rants around "taking back control" etc. What exactly is going to make up this dreamy nirvana that a Britain outside of the EU can look forward to?

Nothing is what makes up this dreamy nirvana because it is exactly that: made up.

It genuinely defies belief that we are still deliberately walking into what is now almost certain to be a catastrophic brick wall, for the sake of supposed independence from "a load of un-elected bureaucrats in Brussels" (the make-up, decision making power and relevance of which is eerily similar to our very own House of Lords by the way...).

Even on a very superficial level, can we not at least see that the main proponents of the various Leave campaigns are, to be as kind as I can be, possibly not the most exemplary models of integrity, honesty and trustworthiness? Why are so many Leavers happy to be represented by people like Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Arron Banks and Katie Hopkins but yet continue to cry foul about supposed institutional corruption and unfair treatment within the EU?

Hopefully it's not too late. Perhaps we can yet avoid this unnecessary leap into an uncertain oblivion. We can't get agreement on what we want so let's just forget it. If we are going to change something so deeply baked into our society, the onus is on those who want to leave to prove there is a genuine upside. No-one has been able to do that. Because there isn't.